Photo courtesy of Lizard10979
This Christmas, my husband and I treated ourselves to an ice cream maker. I’d wanted one for years as a keen cook: my husband’s attitude was more along the lines of “Ooh, ice cream!” After reading a number of reviews online he concluded that the Cuisinart model was the best – and as luck would have it, we managed to nab it on sale a few weeks later for NZ$129.
How the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Works
The mechanics of the ice cream maker are deceptively simple. The most important part of the machine is a double-insulated bowl, which is kept in the freezer until the liquid inside is completely frozen. The frozen bowl is then placed on the base, a paddle for stirring is popped inside and locked in place with the lid, and the ingredients are poured in. Turning the machine on simply turns the bowl while the paddle remains stationary, aerating the ice cream and forcing it into constant contact with the bowl’s frozen sides. The machine takes between twenty and thirty minutes to whip up a batch of frozen yoghurt, ice cream, slushy or sorbet.
Making Homemade Frozen Desserts
I’m embarrassed to admit that the machine has been in almost constant use since we bought it a week ago! Our first attempt was a lemon sorbet, using the recipe from the instruction booklet. The sorbet wasn’t a great success – we used lemonades instead of lemons, which produced a sickeningly sweet sorbet. I also got a little impatient and turned off the machine too early, resulting in sorbet that melted the second it was spooned into bowls.
Nothing daunted, we tried again the following day and produced some successful frozen Coke. (Directions: pour in Coke, turn machine on. Not too scary!) After that I used the recipe booklet again to produce a delicious custardless vanilla ice cream, and then branched out and invented my own butterscotch maple ice cream. The crowning glory was a strawberry sorbet, cobbled together from a few different recipes online. Creamy, sweet and smooth-textured, it would have passed muster at any ice cream store.
Tips for Using the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker
As fun as it is to watch the ice cream slowly thicken, I’ve found it’s better to make the desserts ahead of time for parties and guests. The ice cream tends to stay at soft serve consistency – delcious, but sloppy! – and is improved by “ripening” the mixture in the freezer for a few hours before serving. I’m happy to report that both ice cream and sorbet do not go rock-hard after several days in the freezer, but remain aerated and scoopably soft.
The most frustrating aspect of the ice cream maker is the need to refreeze the freezing bowl between batches. By the end of a 25-minute ice cream-making cycle, the bowl has defrosted enough to slosh when shaken: it takes a good four or five hours to refreeze completely from this stage (and according to the booklet, between 6 and 22 hours to freeze when completely defrosted). Keeping the bowl permanently in the freezer cuts down on waiting time, if you have the room; I’ve heard other people have purchased a second freezing bowl in order to serve both sorbet and slushies at a party.
Somewhat related to this issue is the question of size. For our family of three, the 1 1/2-quart size is plenty big enough. For bigger families, it may be limiting. I notice that Cuisinart also has a brushed stainless steel model with a larger bowl size (the ICE-30BC 2-Quart model).
Is the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Worth It?
So far, the simplicity of the design has prompted at least three male friends to say “You know, you could probably make that yourself”. You probably could… but let’s face it, you probably won’t. Even though it’s nothing more fancy than a rotating frozen bowl, it’s convenient, reasonably economical and small enough to stash away easily when not in use.
As far as the finished product goes, there’s no comparison. I’ve made ice cream several times using the laborious beat-while-partly-frozen method, and the result was always rock-hard. Using the ice cream maker made me realize that the most important ingredient in ice cream is air – by being whipped until frozen the ice cream stayed soft and light, with a texture quite similar to bought ice cream. (It still melts faster – commercial ice cream contains gums and gelatines.) And to my surprise, even the basic ice creams made without the custard base – one recipe was made simply by pouring sugar, cream, milk and vanilla essence into the bowl – tasted like “real” ice cream.
Photo courtesy of tsearcher2011
For me, the bottom line is that I can choose my own ingredients – free range eggs, raw cream and milk, real vanilla pods and garden-fresh strawberries – to make gourmet ice cream. A batch is considerably still cheaper than a tub of Häagen-Dazs, and infinitely tastier than the budget brands. With a little thinking ahead, I may never buy ice cream again!
