I Had a Ball Making Ice Cream with the Play and Freeze!

As a child, one of the best parts of my birthday was that my grandpa would make me delicious home-made ice cream in an ancient ice cream freezer. I remember that it seemed to take forever for that noisy machine to produce this tasty treat. As a vegan adult, I had been missing out on this tradition until recently. While at the store the other day I stumbled upon the ice cream maker of the new millennium. It's fun, it's fast, it's a mess, but it's worth it. This new age product is the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker.

The Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker is different from your average ice cream maker. This ice cream maker is in the shape of a ball. It reminds me of those hamster balls that you can buy for your pet to roll around your house in. However, please do not put your small, furry friend in one of these air tight balls. They have two sizes to choose between. The original size will make almost a pint and their Mega size will produce about a quart. You can buy them in almost any color: blue, green, purple, orange, pink, and red. There is no crank to turn and it does not require electricity or batteries. How does this ice cream maker work you ask? You roll, shake, or pass this ball around to make your ice cream!

You don't need a lot of ingredients to make your ice cream. You will need ice, rock salt, cream sugar, and vanilla extract. Since I'm a vegan, I had hopes that I could make non-dairy ice cream out of this product. However, I thought that ice cream made out of soy milk might not turn out well in this ball. I enlisted a friend to help me test this product. I used chocolate soy milk and she used heavy whipping cream. First you'll need to fill the ice end with as much ice as you can fit. Then, slowly pour the salt in. You will then mix your ingredient together and when they are thoroughly mixed, add them to the end with the metal cylinder. Next have fun, roll it around and shake it (do not kick or throw). Do this for about ten minutes and then scrap the sides with a plastic spoon. Do not use metal because it will scratch up the ball. Roll it around for about ten minutes more and you have ice cream!

My soy ice cream turned out better than I expected. It tasted a lot like the home-made ice cream from my childhood. My friend was also pleased with her dairy based ice cream. One thing we noticed was that her ice cream set up faster than my non-dairy batch. The only thing that bothered me about the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker was that it was very messy. The small cylinder makes it hard to scoop out ice cream from the bottom, so you have to put your hand in the ball a little ways. This results in a ice cream covered hand. We had a great time making it though. This product would be great for a small group of children outside, preventing a mess in the house. I would recommend buying the Mega ball for more servings (we used the Original). I got my Play and Freeze at Walmart, but you can also order it from Amazon.com.