A few days ago, I wrote about Play and Freeze Ice Cream Balls. I think these are SO neat, a great summertime activity for the kids.

After doing a bit more research, I stumbled upon the following information which I found quite helpful.

If you have smaller children who will be using the ice cream ball, you might want to go with the pint sized version. Why? The small ball weighs 7 pounds, when full. The mega (quart) size ball can weigh up to 10 pounds, when full.

It’s very important to remember that you need to leave at least an inch of ‘free space’ in the ball to allow for expansion.

You can use almost any type of cream in this ice cream ball. Lighter varieties, such as half and half, will take a few minutes longer to freeze and will produce a lighter ice cream.

For those of you who have never purchased rock salt, it is inexpensive and easy to find. I buy mine at grocery store. It is usually located in the spice and seasonings aisle.

The basic vanilla ice cream recipe, for the pint sized ice cream ball, is as follows:

• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 ½ t. vanilla
• 1/3 cup plus 2 T. sugar

That’s all there is to it. What could be easier? You can, of course, add in whatever extras you’d like.

Photo by: Francis Bourgouin