As someone lucky enough to have their own ice cream maker, summer is a magical time. After a few weeks making vanilla and chocolate though, I’m usually ready to break out and try something new.

I’m choosing to make an ice cream flavored with Mountain Dew Baja Blast today, before it becomes impossible to find bottles of the delicious drink in stores.

To make this recipe, I’m using the Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker, which is available on Amazon for about $50.

1. A full 24 hours before making your ice cream, store the machine’s freezer bowl in the freezer. This bowl contains the cooling liquid that creates the actual frozen texture of your ice cream. The bowl must be completely frozen through before you begin to make your ice cream. You’ll know your bowl is frozen through if when you shake it, you don’t hear any liquid sloshing.

2. In a bowl, mix together your milk, sugar, salt, heavy cream and vanilla extract. For my recipe, I used a cup of almond milk instead of the whole milk suggested in the recipe. You can switch out the type of milk you use, but be wary of using skim or 1 percent milk. These will have a harder time solidifying into ice cream.

Ingredients for Baja Blast flavored ice cream. Photos by Eden Creamer

3. Once your base ingredients are mixed together, refrigerate for one to four hours. I allow my base to chill overnight, but that isn’t a necessity.

Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker.

4. Assemble your machine. Right before you are ready to begin making your ice cream, take the freezer bowl out of your freezer and attach to the machine’s base. Insert your mixing paddle, and lock on the lid.

5. Begin freezing the ice cream. Power on the machine, and pour in your ice cream base. Immediately after pouring in the base, pour in however much of your chosen soda you want to get the desired flavor. Some ice creams may require food coloring if you wish to have the color of the product visible.

6. Let the machine work its magic for 15-20 minutes, or until the ice cream is solidified in the bowl.

7. Transfer your ice cream to a freezer safe bowl and let chill for 20 minutes in the freezer. This step is optional, but definitely makes a difference in the texture of your ice cream.

8. Enjoy!

Baja Blast flavored ice cream has a very mild color and a very light flavor.

Final verdict on flavor? For my ice cream, I probably could have added a little bit of food coloring. Since Baja Blast is such a pretty, light color, the actual color of the ice cream was never affected, even after I added over 20 ounces of soda. Because the flavor of Baja Blast is also relatively light, the flavor of the ice cream was also very mellow. It was still tasty, but seemed more like a carbonated vanilla than a Baja Blast flavor. Still pretty good though! This would probably be a really yummy recipe with Vanilla Coke, or maybe Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.

If you try it, Instagram or tweet us pictures of your ice cream! Make sure to tag @niner_times!