Homemade ice cream is the best! It’s just impossible to beat that rich, creamy flavor of something you made yourself rather than buying from the frozen food section of your local grocery store. Most people think that they need a bulky machine to make their own ice cream, but guess what? You can make your own ice cream without a machine!

The trick to making ice cream is stirring or agitating it, which is where the machine usually comes in. If you don’t stir and instead just take your ice cream mix and freeze it, you’ll end up with a block of frozen dairy instead of creamy, scoopable ice cream. So how do you do this without a machine? Here are 7 steps to ice cream heaven:

Step 1: Make your ice cream mix (usually a mix of eggs, cream, sugar, and a flavoring like vanilla).

Step 2: Fill a large bowl halfway with ice and add rock salt.

Step 3: Nestle a smaller bowl inside the ice and fill it halfway with your ice cream mix.

Step 4: With a hand mixer, beat the mix for 10 minutes.

Step 5: Cover with a towel and place the two nested bowls in the freezer for about an hour.

Step 6: With the hand mixer, beat the mix again for 5 minutes; it should now be the texture of soft-serve ice cream.

Step 7: Remove the small bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, touching the surface of the ice cream. Freeze it again for at least 2 more hours.

That’s it! No machine, no mess, and you’ve got delicious homemade ice cream. Give it a try this July for National Ice Cream Month!