Jennifer Garner Made Homemade Ice Cream—and You Can Too with Her Cute Old-School Tool
Getty Images / Gotham / Anna Shvets
Have you stepped outside lately? In many parts of the country, it's either super-steamy or straight-up scorching.
But beyond hiding out in the A/C all day, every day, we've rediscovered two childhood favorites this summer that have helped us beat the heat. First, this almost-too-cute watermelon sprinkler, which we position right next to our vegetable garden to flip on as we tend to our plants. Multitasking at its best; both the veggies and we get to take a refreshing shower!
Second, making ice cream from scratch. Little feels more refreshing than snagging a scoop to chill out as the mercury rises. After making an investment in an electric ice cream maker (we are obsessed with this Cuisinart Electric Ice Cream Maker Ice 70; buy it: $149.95, Williams Sonoma), we've been working our way through these 17 Recipes Made with an Ice Cream Maker.
But after spotting Jennifer Garner on Instagram gleefully churning her own in a nostalgic hand crank ice cream maker, we're feeling inspired to turn back time and try it her way.
Set to the catchy 2020 tune from Selena Gomez and BLACKPINK aptly named "Ice Cream," @jennifer.garner sits in a chair outside on the family farm that inspired her Once Upon a Farm brand. While laughing and chatting with loved ones, she spins the handle on a vintage-style ice cream maker to churn a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream.
"One of my earliest business startups was C & J Ice Cream with my best friend Cary," Garner writes in the caption. "We paid for all of the ingredients except sugar, donated by our patient moms. I don't think our margins were very impressive, I'm pretty sure we were not disruptors. But there is something to be said for getting back to basics, for selling your favorite food from the front of your driveway, for the good ole hand crank. Of course no pictures exist from our pre-iPhone childhood, so I cranked some up for you on my last visit to the farm."
This set off a flurry of heartwarming comments from followers who said the scene offered a blast from the past: "Best memories of my childhood involve making ice cream on hot summer evenings. We'd cut up fresh peaches and put'em in! Thank you for bringing up this wonderful memory," one said.
Another one chimed in to add, "When I was a child, back in the '70s, my dad bought an artifact like that one to make ice cream. I think he only tried once to make it for us. I don't know if we children were impatient or if he didn't like to put all that effort into the experiment. I just remember that at the end the ice cream didn't look like the one from the ice cream parlor, and the next time we wanted ice cream he took us to buy it. 😂😂😂"
Speaking of that "artifact," we found the five-star-rated tool for sale on Amazon so you can follow Garners lead, if you like…
Available at Amazon
Admittedly, it's pricey. But if you plan to skip store-bought pints for a while, you'll make up your money fairly quickly—if you eat ice cream as much as we do, that is! (We did the math...estimate a pint of ice cream costs about $6, and each batch of this 6-quart machine would yield 12 pints. Even factoring the ingredients, you'd make up your money after about seven or eight full batches using the Immergood!)
If that's a little too hefty of an investment, we found a few slightly more budget-friendly buys that offer a similar experience:
Nostalgia 2-Quart Aqua and Stainless Steel Ice Cream Maker with Candy Crusher (Buy it: $44.99, Home Depot)
6-Quart LIFETIME Hand Crank Ice Cream Maker (Buy it: $340, Amazon)
Elite Gourmet Old-Fashioned 6-Quart Vintage Appalachian Wood Bucket Electric Maker Machine (Buy it: $137.99, Amazon)
If you'd rather go the DIY route without the time and effort it takes to churn, turn to our Mint Chocolate Chip Nice Cream, Giada de Laurentiis' 4-Ingredient Simple Sorbetto, No-Churn Ice Cream with Cardamom and Saffron and 2-Ingredient Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream.
Any or all of the ways, you're sure to swoon (and smile about childhood summers past) from the first spoon!
