Ice Cream in a Bag Lab

We made ice cream in a bag as our last lab of the year in Chemistry. My students were pretty skeptical that the process would actually result in ice cream, and they were pleasantly surprised as a result. One student brought in M&M’s and Heath bits as topping. Super yummy!

Here’s our recipe if you’re interested:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1/2-1 teaspoon vanilla

Squish together in a ziploc bag. Put bag in larger bag (or in our case a plastic tub) with ice and salt. Shake 10-15 minutes until ice cream hardens.

During the shaking/waiting process, we had a discussion about freezing point depression and the chemistry of ice cream making since we didn’t actually get to that chapter this year.

My algebra classes were super jealous that they didn’t get to make ice cream as well!