Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yogurt
All of the frozen desserts churned in roughly the same amount of time as it took to spin the equivalent amount of American-style ice cream. There were significant differences in the frozen texture of these bases, however. In general, all cuisinart pots and pans set the frozen bases tasted creamier just after churning than they did after ripening in the freezer overnight. Without as much fat, they had a lower percentage of overrun, resulting in something denser, harder, and icier than ice cream.
We decided not to test one of Cook’s Illustrated’s top picks, the Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker, because it’s an older model than the Cuisinart compressor unit we tested. Nutrition Facts are for ice cream cuisinart pots and pans set made with 2% milk. This ice cream has a long freezer life, so feel free to make it ahead. Any type of dairy milk will work in this recipe – skim, 1%, 2%, whole milk – so just use whatever you have on hand.
If you opt for this style, you’ll need to have plenty of ice and salt on hand. Keep in mind that if these ice cream makers are overfilled with ice, the cold, salty water can seep into the ice cream mixture and ruin it. Many salt and ice-style ice cream makers are available with larger capacities than other styles designed for home use. While you can theoretically make endless batches cuisinart soup maker of ice cream with some ice cream makers, churning hard ice cream can stress and overheat the motor of less-robust models. If you routinely want to make many batches of ice cream for large parties and events, a low-end commercial model may be a better buy than one that’s made for lighter-duty home use. It can make up to four quarts of ice cream per batch, in 20 to 40 minutes.
A well-designed paddle is key to smoothly textured ice crystals, small globules of fat, and incorporating a sufficient amount of air. We’re looking for paddles that successfully scrape off the frozen base and evenly incorporate it, along with air, into the still-unfrozen base. If the paddle doesn’t encourage sufficiently fluid movement of the base in the canister, the resulting ice cream may have an inconsistent texture. The Whynter ICM-201SB is an absolute rockstar, the Cadillac of ice cream machines.
It’s basically a small freezer bowl that holds just 5 ounces, which is ideal for single servings. The churning paddle on the KitchenAid stand mixer ice cream maker attachment is square, reaching the very top of the bowl while not fully scraping the bottom. This design led to spillage when adding the base as well as the mix-ins; additions would bounce or pour off the paddle itself. Also, once the base thickened, the paddle appeared to be pushing the ice cream around the bowl, with little scraping or folding motion, rather than the more cyclical, churning motion of other paddles. This resulted in portions of ice cream that appeared both over-churned and greasy, and some that appeared under-churned and icy, at the same time. We didn’t have as obvious of a consistency issue churning lower-fat bases, such as frozen yogurt and sorbet.