threefootcooks: E is for Eight Maids-a-milking

Updated 27/12/2014.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - 8 Maids-a-milking.

We have joined with 11 other bloggers to celebrate the festive season by creating crafts and activities based on the 12 Days of Christmas. This blog hop full of Christmassy goodness is hosted by Silly Sparkles. Make sure you head over to the other blogs and have a look at the other 'Days of Christmas' too. Links are at the end of this post.

We chose 8 Maids-a-milking and I couldn't decide on whether to make Christmas milkshakes or Christmas ice cream.

With the really hot weather we are experiencing at the moment (hot even for Queensland in December) ice cream was the winner.

To make it a real hands on sensory experience for Bear and Bee I knew we had to try making Ice Cream in a bag. If you haven't made ice cream this way before you definitely need to give it a go. It's a great activity that is lots of fun to do and as a bonus uses up a little of the excess energy kids seem to have around holiday time.

Here's how we made our Christmas Ice Cream in a Bag.

Christmas Ice Cream in a Bag
Ingredients
300ml cream
2 tablespoons caster (or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 or 4 candy canes
2 trays of ice cubes
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 large ziploc bag
3 small ziploc bags

Directions

1. Place the candy canes inside one of the small ziploc bags and then hit with a rolling pin until the canes are crushed into small pieces.
2. Pour the cream into one of the remaining small ziploc bags. Place the bag into a coffee mug or small bowl to help it stand up and not spill over.
3. Add the sugar and vanilla to the cream and seal the bag well.
4. Place the bag of cream mixture inside another small ziploc bag to protect it well from the salt.
5. Put the ice and salt in the large ziploc bag and add the bag of cream mixture. Make sure the bag is sealed really well.

6. Now for the fun part. Wrap a tea towel around the whole lot and start shaking and massaging the bags.

7. Gloves are handy to protect little ones hands from the cold or you could put the whole lot (minus the tea towel) inside a large coffee can or baby formula tin and start rolling it around.
8. Keep shaking or rolling for 5-10 minutes or until the cream mixture has thickened. It will be like soft serve ice cream. Ours took 10 minutes.
9. Remove the small bag of ice cream from the other bags. Wipe carefully with a clean cloth to remove any traces of salt.

10. Use scissors to snip off the corner of the bag and squeeze the ice cream into cones or bowls.

11. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes and enjoy.

A very happy Bee with her Ice Cream

If your kids like candy canes, add the crushed canes to the cream mixture in step 3. Bear doesn't like candy canes and Bee does so I just added them at the end.