Our Favorite {No Cook, Raw} Vanilla Ice Cream ~ 4 Variations

"Let's make ice-cream!" Royal shouted.

Eliza Jane loved ice-cream.

She hesitated, and said, "Well..."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Our family loves ice cream! Because of this, I feel more comfortable serving our homemade versions since they lack all the fake ingredients sold in many ice creams today. If you knew some of the things (read #3 in this list and forgive me in advance for showing you) they use to substitute "real" flavor with in your sweets, you would cringe and attempt to make your own too! It is so easy. We are sharing four variations for a no-cook vanilla ice cream that should please every family in some way... 

"Almanzo ran after Royal to the ice-house. They dug a block of ice out of the sawdust and put it in a grain sack. They laid the sack on the back porch and pounded it with hatches till the ice was crushed."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

This is a basic and beautifully tasty vanilla ice cream recipe. We try and use organic, less processed sugar as well as raw milk and farm fresh eggs. The result is perfect!

Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream

• 2 large eggs (make sure they are fresh)
• ¾ cup of sugar (we used organic)
• 2 cups of heavy cream (or whipping cream)
• 1 cup of milk (we prefer raw)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, add in the sugar, a little at a time until completely blended in. Whisk another minute and add in your cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk everything together until completely blended in. Transfer mixture to your ice cream maker and prepare according to manufacturers directions. This recipe makes approximately 1 quart of ice cream.

"Alice came out to watch them while she whipped egg-whites on a platter."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Vanilla Honey Ice Cream

• Replace the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey in the "old-fashioned" recipe shared above.

"Eliza Jane measured milk and cream,

and dipped up sugar from the barrel in the pantry."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Vanilla Ice Cream Made with Pure Goat Milk

When the girls are lactating, I sometimes make ice cream with their fresh, pure, raw milk (and zero cow cream). Goat's milk is naturally homogenized so you really can't separate the cream from it with great results but it does offer some creamy content for making ice cream (and is gentler for many people than cow's milk). However, it is more of an icier, soft-serve style textured ice cream.

• To make this version, simply substitute goat's milk for all the cream and milk shared in the "old-fashioned" recipe above (for example, you would need 3 cups of goat milk to make 1 quart of ice cream).

"She made a big milk-pail full of yellow custard."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Golden Vanilla Ice Cream

This is our favorite ice cream to serve with cobblers and fruit pies. I do hope you try this buttery and brown-sugary version of vanilla ice cream!

• Replace the sugar with 2/3 cup of coconut sugar in the "old-fashioned" recipe shared above.

"They set the pail in the tub and packed the snowy crushed ice around it, with salt, and they covered it all with a blanket. Every few minutes they took off the blanket and uncovered the pail, and stirred the freezing ice-cream."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Variations: You may include 1/2 cup of add-ins per quart of ice cream to the last five minutes of ice-cream making. Some ideas are mini chocolate chips, nuts, shredded coconut, chopped up chocolate bars, etc.

"When it was frozen, Alice brought saucers and spoons..."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

Yield: All these recipes make approx. 1 quart of ice cream. You can safely double the recipes if you are using a 2 quart ice cream maker. In fact, I recommend it :)

"They could eat all the ice-cream and cake they wanted to..."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

The Inside Scoop: The first recipe we shared was adapted from the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book which we love. The remaining variations were tweaked by yours truly to create different dessert experiences.

Ice Cream ~ The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons is a fun non-fiction picture book for children which you might want to check out. You can even do a mini unit study out of making ice cream! Don't forget to read the Farmer Boy excerpts on pages 205-206. You can try making it the old fashioned way like the book describes.

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.