Recreation / Outdoor Equipment / MEGA Play and Freeze Ice Cream Ball

I love ice cream, but I always have such a hard time trying to find a good flavor combo to buy at the store.  I didn't really want to buy an ice cream machine because my apartment is tiny and has very little counter space.  Then I saw the ice cream ball on HGTV and thought "that'd be so great!".  I looked up the balls online and All Things Ice Cream had the lowest price on the MEGA ball at $32.45 plus shipping. Excellent.  It makes a whole quart!

When it arrived (very quickly, I might add) I was super excited to try it out.  I quickly pulled out ingredients from my cupboard and fridge: sugar, half and half and pure orange extract (I was in an orangey mood).

Loading the ball was very easy to do and took very little time.  It took about 4 trays of ice cubes and 8tbsp of sea salt (I didn't have rock salt).  Once the ball was set, I started shaking it around! Such fun.  It was a little noisy, but my cat was sooo curious about the whole thing, she watched my every move.  About 15 mins into shaking it, I stopped to scrape down the sides of the cylinder like the instructions indicated.  Then it was back to shaking and rolling the ball.  Fifteen more minutes passed by and I was hankering for some ice cream already.  Using the tool provided with the ball, I opened the canister and scooped out my fresh, orangey ice cream!  Delicious!

Also on the website where I got the ball they had these paperboard containers to store your ice cream in.  I bought a box (3) and promptly filled one up with my creation to store in the freezer!

I can't wait to try this when we're camping this summer.  It's going to be so much fun to have ice cream while camping without having to worry about storing it in the cooler from the store. 

And of course, the ball will be so much more fun with more people to shake it!