How to Make Ice Cream in a Coffee Can

Making your own ice cream is so much fun for kids! Last year we made ice cream in a bag and it was a huge hit.

This year we tried something new and made ice cream in a coffee can!

Ice Cream in a Coffee Can:

1 small clean coffee can
1 large clean coffee can (ours held 3x the amount of the small one)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of half and half
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3- 1 1/2 cups of ice cream salt
crushed ice
duct tape

Combine the milk, half and half, sugar and vanilla in the smaller coffee can.

Put the top on and secure with duct tape.

Stick the smaller can inside the larger can and fill around it with crushed ice.

Add 2/3-3/4 cup of rock salt depending on how much ice you can fit in there–3/4 cup if it’s totally full, less if you have trouble getting the ice in.

Put the lid on the larger coffee can and tape it shut with duct tape. Then roll the coffee can back and forth for 10 minutes.

Open up the top and drain out the water and ice. Wipe off the top of the smaller coffee can to make sure none of the salty water gets in, rock salt is not safe to eat.

Wash your hands and then use a spoon to scrap the insides of the coffee can where the ice cream has started to solidify. Put the top back on and add more ice and salt. Roll again for another 5-10 minutes.

Open everything up again (making sure no salt water gets inside) and you’ll see the ice cream!

It has more of an icy-soft consistency than other types of ice cream and melts quickly in the sun. If you aren’t going to eat it right away stick it in the freezer until you are ready.

You can see it already started to turn into more of a milkshake than ice cream while I was trying to get a photo.

Don’t let the appearance fool you though–homemade ice cream in a coffee can tastes delicious and is lots of fun to make. We’ve already made it twice this week!

Also try making ice cream in a bag! It is one of our “Old School” Summer bucket list activities.