THRIVE Homemade Ice Cream

I saw this recipe on the THRIVE website from a fellow THRIVE consultant and was very excited to try it. Let's just say it did NOT disappoint!

What you'll need:

Ice Cream Maker (I borrowed a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker that requires no rock salt)
8 cups (2 quarts) THRIVE Instant Milk, prepared
1 1/2 cups THRIVE Butter Powder
1/2 c + 1/8 c water
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla

1. If using an ice cream maker like this one which requires no salt, the key is to having everything very cold. Put the Ice cream bowl in a plastic bag (helps form frost) and stick it in the freezer overnight.

2. It also helps if you prepare the milk ahead of time and chill it. 8 cups water + 1 1/2 c Instant Milk Powder = 2 quarts milk. It's important to know that this will NOT work with the powdered milk. It MUST be the Instant Milk. I had chilled my water in the fridge over night, then I added my milk powder this morning and stuck the pitcher back in the fridge while I prepared the butter.

3. Put the butter powder into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in a 1/2 cup water. Then whisk in the 1/8 cup water slowly until the butter is a pancake consistency. Whisk in the sugar and vanilla.

4. Pour in the 8 cups (2 quarts) of prepared, chilled, instant milk.

5. Put the frosted ice cream bowl into the machine, and pour in about half of the ice cream mix. (I filled mine up a little too full the first time and it started over flowing and spilling. Even filling it all the way up, I still had 2 cups of mix left over for a second batch.) So I would recommend pouring in half for the first batch, and keeping the other half chilling in the fridge until you're ready for it. Or cutting the recipe back a third (I'll do the math for you at the end)

6. The Cuisinart Machine has an open hole at the top so you can see how its thickening up as it goes along. I put the first batch in and after 17 minutes, it had already started thickening up to the point it was over flowing again, so I had to take it out.



The frothy goodness when I first poured it in.



After 17 minutes! Look how thick and yummy!


7. It was thick and creamy, about the consistency of a Wendy's frosty. I decided to dump the whole batch into a Tupperware and stick it in the freezer to further harden while I put the second batch into the machine. The bowl wasn't as cold anymore, and there wasn't a risk of it overflowing, so I left the machine on for 30 minutes. Here's how thick the second batch turned out to be. Frosty consistency again.

8.I added it to the first batch in the freezer (which still wasn't hard enough to maintain a scoop). After about 2 and a half hours, it loosely maintained a scoop shape. So I left it in for a few more hours.

9. After 6 hours, it had crystallized a bit more, and here's what the scoops looked like in my bowl. 

So that's how I made it, but how did I enjoy it? Tremendously!!! I had a small bowl with caramel sauce, another small both with chocolate chips, another small bowl with strawberry freezer jam mixed into it... you get the point. My husband said its one of the best THRIVE items I've made and rated it a 9 as an everyday and 10 as an emergency. He said it isn't as creamy as store bought ice cream (which is to be expected since its made with fat free Instant milk, not Heavy whipping cream) but that the flavor was very rich, and overall, he called it excellent. I was impressed with how creamy it was given that I made it with ingredients from my pantry! Dustin agreed this would be PERFECT on top of pie, cobbler, brownies, etc.

The next day I had some, it had hardened even more from being in the freezer over night. At that consistency, it was more like shaving ice than scooping ice cream. But it was really yummy vanilla shaved ice, and if I got some chunks out and let them soften and mixed it all up with my spoon, it was creamy ice cream like the night before.  So we love this recipe and I'm thinking I might buy an ice cream maker just to keep making this with my food storage items.

For those who want a reduced quantity recipe to make only one batch, here you go:

5 and 1/3 cups (1.5 quarts) THRIVE Instant Milk, prepared
1 cup THRIVE Butter Powder
6 and 1/2 T water
1 and 1/3 cups sugar
5 tsp Vanilla

*Side note* I pureed some strawberries from my freezer and tried adding those to another batch, but after an hour, it never thickened up. I think the weight of the berries kept the butter/milk mixture from whipping up into the cream. I think I should have waited for the mixture to thicken up first, and then added the strawberries. Still not sure if would have worked even then, but for sure, if you're attempting variations of the recipe, wait until the mixture is almost done before adding anything else.