Ice Cream Makers

[lady-janine]

do any of you have one and would you recommend getting one?

I thought of getting one but not sure where to start.

[janbee]

I used to have one a million years ago. It was awful but I'm sure that todays' model's are 100% better and make lovely ice cream. Good luck Lady J. Can't beat a yumsy ice cream in the summer. Well, an ice cream and a LARGE Pimms. !

[lady-janine]

i'd settle for just a large pimms but OH would prefer to have ice cream.

[paulllambert]

Yep, and it makes delicious ice cream. It's made by Cuisinart. Don't know the model, but it cost about eighty quid, three years ago. Worth every penny.

[lady-janine]

thanks for that paul. I don't need a large one as i'm not intending to make gallons. there are only two of us most of the time.

[paulllambert]

You can make as much (up to 2 ltrs I think) or as little as you need. Experimenting with the different flavours is fun. Just googled it, and it's £69.99 free delivery.

[lady-janine]

thanks. googled it myself. looks good.

[janbee]

Lady J, I'll offer to be the taster for all your concoctions. I LOVE ice cream

[bhg481]

We have a Kenwood, cost about £30. Works perfectly. The only caveat is that the ice-cream isn't "soft" if you make it and put it in the freezer for another day; in other words, you have to "make it and eat it" for best results. Alternatively, get it out of the freezer an hour before you are going to eat it. I don't see that any other make would be any different.
Lots on recipes on the interweb.

[lady-janine]

thanks for that bhg. will now have to google that.

janb. will probably only use home grown fruit to flavour - blackcurrants, raspberries, etc. don't forget the pimms.

[bhg481]

Just to give you a idea of how they work Lady J. The ice-cream maker consists of a motor-driven paddle and a double-skinned bowl with a cold-retaining chemical inside the double skin. You put this bowl in the freezer for a day to get it nice and cold.
Make up your ice-cream recipe.
Get the bowl out of the freezer and assemble the ice-cream maker ie, put the paddles in the bowl.
You then start the paddles and pour the mixture in and let it work away for 20 mins or so.
When making ice-cream in "the olden days" you had to stir the mixture every so-often as you froze it to stop it separating-out and becoming icy. The ice-cream maker saves you this bother as the double-skinned bowl retains its coldness long enough to freeze the mixture and the paddles stop it separating-out.

[Gromit]

Bought mine from Aldi for £20 and it works great. Though the novelty wears off, so I wouldn't pay a fortune for one.

[Ratty2E]

I had a kenwood 'freeze the bowl' type for a few years, they are good but you have to have room in the freezer to keep it. If you can't keep it permanently in the freezer you need to be organised to put it in a day in advance that you will want ice cream. As has been said it comes out like Mr Whippy initially but will go hard if you want to store it in the freezer. I now have one with an integral freezer unit which I prefer as no forward planning is needed and you can make various batches one after the other should you wish to. This type is a lot more expensive (mine was a gift so I don't know exactly how much) and about twice the size but if like A lot of ice cream it could be the better option. Home made is so much better than shop bought.

[Marshwarble]

It strikes me as one of those objects which are never used, such as yogurt maker, teasmade or tape recorder.

[woofgang]

I have got the kind that has a freezer built in. If you want icecream, you switch it on and pour in the mix, 30 minutes later, you are tucking into icecream. Its a wonderful luxury. As with any premium icecream, if you have stored it on the freezer, it will need to soften before you serve it. Pro's are that its delicious, that you know what's going into the ice cream/sorbet/frozen yoghurt, that you can make flavours that you can't buy. Cons are that the machine is expensive, that you can't just get it out when you need it as the freezer part has liquid in it that needs to settle after you move it (like a fridge)
I have got this one
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

if you go for one, I would recommend that you get one where the paddle motor churns from underneath. In the Magimix Gelato Chef model, the motor is attached to the lid and the lid fastens to the body with very weak plastic lugs, the strain from the motor broke the lugs off after a year and it wasn't repairable. Some models also have no separate inner bowl, the bowl is fixed inside the machine which makes cleanup very difficult.

[lady-janine]

thank you everyone for your help.

not sure I can justify spending that amount on an iceream maker woof, but it does seem good.