Yes, You Can Actually Make Ice Cream In Your Dryer. But Should You?

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There are endless entertaining food-making trends on social media, some of which are everyday recipes, while others might have you raising your eyebrows. Case in point: making ice cream in your clothes dryer. The process involves tossing the usual ice cream ingredients — cream, milk, sugar, rock salt, and ice — into multiple silicone pouches, then putting them in the dryer on a low setting for around 20 minutes. The method works by churning the ingredients to create creamy, fluffy ice cream without a traditional machine, but the important question is whether it's safe for your dryer. In theory, churning ice cream in the dryer is perfectly safe when done right.

Chowhound consulted with Scott Flint, an appliance repair expert and creator of Scott the Fix-It Guy. Although he hasn't tried the hack himself, he recommends using a low temperature setting. "I think it would work as long as you remember to set your dryer to 'Air Dry.' Otherwise, the heat will kick in, and it wouldn't work," says Flint. "As long as there's not too much weight from the ice, it should work and not damage the dryer." With that said, it's best to make one small batch at a time and consider adding wool dryer balls to the dryer to reduce the banging from the ice.

While there are plenty of electric (and expensive) ice cream makers on the market, it's not hard to make homemade ice cream without a machine. People have long been making homemade ice cream in bags by adding ingredients to plastic bags and shaking them vigorously for several minutes. Presumably, someone felt their arms needed a break and decided to try using the clothes dryer to do the shaking for them.

To give this ice cream-making strategy a try without making a mess, make sure to have the proper bags. You need at least two food-safe silicone bags and one zippered canvas bag to make ice cream in the dryer. The first silicone bag is filled with the main ingredients for your ice cream, then it's sealed and placed inside a larger silicone bag. The second, larger bag is filled with ice and rock salt and sealed — the rock salt will essentially transfer the coldness of the ice to the ice cream mixture. These nested bags are then placed inside a canvas bag, zippered closed, and placed in the dryer on the air-dry setting.

Make it easy by buying an ice cream dryer kit, such as the Tummbl Ultra Simple Ice Cream Maker, or a set of leak-proof, Winrock food-safe silicone bags that secure tightly. The zipping canvas bag isn't exactly necessary for making the ice cream itself, but it is crucial as a backup in case the silicone bags open, and it helps protect the silicone from being scratched by the dryer.