The following is a guest post from my good friend, Mitzi. Mitzi has proven both her canning and cooking ability time and again. Not only did she teach me how to make the best peach jam I’ve ever put in my mouth, she brought utterly delicious, homemade dinners to our family each time we brought a new baby home (if you’re keeping track, we have three kids). So, when she offered to provide her recipe for Mason jar ice cream, I basically said “yes” before she could even finish asking. Without further ado, here’s Mitzi (who, as an aside, is also a highly skilled seamstress and owns an upholstery shop in Denver along with her talented husband, Danny. Check it out here.):

If you love homemade ice cream as much as I do, this recipe may be dangerous because it comes together in about ten minutes, it mixes right in a quart-size Mason jar, and there is no cooking required. Xanthan gum is used to thicken the mixture to simulate the custard-y mouthfeel of an egg-based ice cream. Of course if you want to do an egg-based ice cream, a Mason jar is the perfect vessel for chilling the ice cream base prior to churning.

Here’s the basic recipe for the no-cook ice cream:
1 pint heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup crushed fruit (peaches, berries, whatever)
1/4-1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
whole milk (more on this later)

Mix the crushed fruit and a couple of tablespoons of the sugar in a small bowl and set aside. While this mixture sits the sugar will draw liquid from the fruit to form a syrup (yum!). In a quart-size Mason jar, add the remaining sugar, the cream, and the xanthan gum. Shake well to combine and keep shaking occasionally until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the fruit and syrup to the jar and shake again. You should already see some thickening of the mixture as the xanthan gum does its work. Add the vanilla, and then fill the remaining space in the jar (up to the glass rim on the outside) with whole milk. Shake again and refrigerate (20 minutes minimum, but it can sit in the fridge a day or two if needed prior to churning.)
This recipe will perfectly fill a 1.5 quart ice cream maker with some truly amazing homemade ice cream, while mixing it in a quart-size Mason jar automatically limits the volume of your ice cream base, allowing room for the ice cream to expand as it aerates. Churn ice cream according to your machine’s directions. The finished product will have a soft-serve consistency; freeze for 2 hours for a scoopable texture. The lucky people with whom you share this will not believe how easy it is (if you decide to tell them, that is…)