Michigan summers and frozen desserts are pretty much made for each other. I like making ice cream at home, and I’ve been doing it for a long time. It wasn’t always vegan years ago, but nowadays, it is, and it’s great fun to create your own favorite flavors.

Not that you can’t find endless varieties of nondairy ice creams in the grocery store freezers these days. You can. But many of those can be pretty disappointing.

Maybe it’s because the ingredient list can include things like, as did one vanilla soy ice cream label I read recently, soybean oil, guar gum, carrageenan, and locust bean gum. That just doesn’t sound good.

Instead, you can make a batch of homemade vegan ice cream, with the best ingredients from your own kitchen, in just about 30 minutes. That’s close to what it might take to gather your group, drive somewhere, and wait in line for vegan ice cream – that is, if you were able to find one you really liked.

If you don’t already own an automatic ice cream maker you can find them nowadays at every price point. You might even spot one at a garage sale, if you’re lucky. I suspect all ice cream machines do a pretty great job of freezing ingredients. Even the least fancy among the bunch can last for ages. I’ve had mine for over 10 years.

Last weekend I got so inspired that I made three separate batches of ice cream. Here I share one of my all-time favorites – Chocolate Chip Gelato. It knocked everyone’s socks off, and could not be easier, with just four ingredients.