One of the best things about summer, especially if you’ve got kids or grandkids, is all the ice cream you get to eat to cool off, no excuses necessary. And it’s relatively easy to make, even if you don’t have an ice cream maker, if you go with a no-churn recipe in which whipped cream is gently folded into a sweetened condensed milk enriched with vanilla and other flavorings, like fresh fruit or spices.
My 2-year-old granddaughter Greta’s current favorite is “pink” ice cream, both colored by and studded with chunks of strawberry. She also recently discovered ice cream sandwiches, and is such a fan that, on a recent visit, I watched her try to eat the paper wrapping on one after polishing off the cookie in an attempt to get every single drop of flavor possible into her mouth.
It made me decide we should try our hands at making them at home, stirring the chocolate cookie batter together in a big bowl on the kitchen counter after mixing the ingredients for the ice cream and pouring it into a loaf pan to freeze overnight.
It was a fun way to spend some one-on-one time together, and the sheer joy she expressed when we unwrapped “her” finished sandwiches the next day at her baby brother Sean’s baptism party was priceless. My adult children loved them, too, as a late-night munchie.