The Best Ice Cream Makers
We put 10 top ice cream makers through rounds of rigorous testing to help you determine which one is right for you. Enjoy straight out of the machine for soft-serve; or transfer to a freezer-safe container; cover; and freeze for at least two hours , for hard-scoop. I don’t like that I can’t just turn the ice cream maker on and let it work its magic until its done. You need to check it occasionally to see if it’s close to being done.
This unit also has a maximum capacity of one and a half quarts, but, once again, for high-overrun bases, it’s best to churn no more than a quart at a time. Because of those differences, the effects of paddle design and aeration are more apparent in frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice milk. Differently shaped paddles create different churning motions. We found that asymmetrical paddles were better at churning the bases in an even swirling motion, incorporating more air, which resulted in slightly higher overrun and softer texture.
This insulates the rest of the mixture from the bowl walls and slows down the freezing process. And this is why the Cuisinart machines are so superior. The other machines can struggle to rotate the flimsy dasher from above as the mixture thickens.
Alternatively, you can cover and refrigerate for several hours. Probably best known for its innovative ice pop freezers, Zoku also makes a single-serve freezer bowl that simply requires stirring to make a fresh bowl of ice cream. Like cuisinart griddler elite other freezer bowl ice cream makers, the bowl needs to be stored in the freezer before churning. The bowl is small, so it won’t take much space, but you’ll need more than one if everyone in the family wants ice cream for dessert.
I recently made Summer’s strawberry ice cream in this machine, and it came out amazingly rich and creamy. And don’t forget my co-editors have all had their machines for almost 10 years, or more! So you know you’ve got a good thing when this little machine is still making great ice cream cuisinart pots and pans set years later. The ICE-30BC model averages around $80, a little more or less depending on the time of year and where you buy it. (It was $79.95 when we published this post.) Considering how many batches of ice cream it will make if you have it for a decade or more , that’s a total steal.