Ice Cream in a Bag for kids | Kidstir (2024)

Ice Cream in a Bag for kids | Kidstir (1)

If you don't have an ice cream maker, try mixing up your own frozen treat in a bag! All you need is a little cream, sugar, vanilla, and ice. Shake away!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup light cream or half and half
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Ice cubes
  • 1/2 cup salt (Kosher or rock salt)

Kids kitchen skills:

  • measuring
  • making ice cream

Tools:

  • 1 quart-size sealable plastic bag
  • 1 gallon-size sealable plastic bag
  • measuring cups & spoons

Step-by-step

Grown-up steps

  1. Measure the cream, sugar, and vanilla extract into the quart-size bag. Zip it up tightly.
  2. Fill the gallon-size bag with ice. Add the salt. Put the sealed smaller bag inside. Now zip up the larger bag.
  3. Shake and shake the bags to make ice cream! It will take about 5 minutes until the cream hardens.
  4. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one. Eat the ice cream right out of the bag!
Ice Cream in a Bag for kids | Kidstir (2024)

FAQs

What is the science behind ice cream in a bag for kids? ›

Add salt and the freezing point drops by a few degrees. When you add salt to the ice in the outer bag, the ice (at 0°C) is now above its freezing point – so it begins to melt. Melting requires energy, and in this case that energy comes from the flavoured milk mixture in the inner bag.

How to make an ice cream activity for kids? ›

Step-by-step
  1. Measure the cream, sugar, and vanilla extract into the quart-size bag. Zip it up tightly.
  2. Fill the gallon-size bag with ice. Add the salt. ...
  3. Shake and shake the bags to make ice cream! It will take about 5 minutes until the cream hardens.
  4. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one.

Does ice cream in a bag work? ›

The two-bag method works because of the combination of salt and ice. Salt causes the ice in the bag to melt at a lower temperature than usual (if you've sprinkled salt on an icy sidewalk, you know the drill), keeping everything much colder for longer.

Is ice cream in a bag a chemical reaction? ›

The ice pulls the heat away from the ice cream to melt which allows the ice cream to freeze. This is an example of an exothermic reaction . An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that releases light or heat, otherwise known as energy .

How do you keep ice cream from melting in a bag? ›

Rock salt helps slow the melting rate of ice. In fact, rock salt was used for making old-fashioned ice cream! Scatter a handful or two of rock salt directly on top of the ice. Put the ice cream in freezer bags inside the cooler for added insulation.

How to make homemade ice cream in a plastic bag science experiment? ›

Instructions
  1. Combine the ice cream ingredients. Pour the half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla extract into one of the quart-sized bags. ...
  2. Seal the bag. ...
  3. Put the smaller bags in the larger one.
  4. Add ice. ...
  5. Add salt. ...
  6. Shake the bag. ...
  7. Check your ice cream. ...
  8. Eat.
May 1, 2020

Can I use regular salt to make ice cream in a bag? ›

Salt: Rock salt, which is also sometimes labeled as "ice cream salt", works best for lowering the temperature of the ice to freeze the ice cream quickly. But coarse kosher salt or even regular table salt will work in a pinch if that's what you have on hand.

Does putting ice cream in a plastic bag keep it soft? ›

A suggested way to prevent ice cream from getting too cold and hard to scoop is to place the whole container in a freezer bag and press out the air before sealing it and placing it in the freezer.

Why does putting ice cream in a bag keep it soft? ›

Similar to how a winter coat can help buffer against cold air, a plastic bag acts as an insulator in the freezer. The cold must penetrate the bag, the air within it, and then the carton itself before finally affecting the ice cream. The plastic bag layer helps keep the ice cream soft and easily scoopable.

What is the science behind ice cream? ›

Ice cream is an emulsion—a combination of two liquids that don't normally mix together. Instead, one of the liquids is dispersed throughout the other. In ice cream, liquid particles of fat—called fat globules—are spread throughout a mixture of water, sugar, and ice, along with air bubbles (Fig.

Why put ice cream in a freezer bag? ›

A suggested way to prevent ice cream from getting too cold and hard to scoop is to place the whole container in a freezer bag and press out the air before sealing it and placing it in the freezer. Supposedly the bag keeps the air around the ice cream from getting too cold, resulting in easily scoopable ice cream.

What is the instant ice experiment for kids? ›

Instant Ice Science Explained

When ice freezes, the water forms small crystals that gradually spread. If you catch the cold water before the crystals have time to form, you can still pour out the water and it will freeze as you pour. Pouring it over an ice cube triggers crystals to form faster than they normally would.

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