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works great, just takes some practice
We had one for years, gave it to a friend and bought a new one here. Still love the homemade ice cream, but do have to admit you get best results if you use it often enough to remember what works well. I think that's the problem the people are having who are complaining. For example, you do have to pour in the base quickly and start stirring quickly, or it may freeze in place. If you haven't used it for awhile, you forget about that and then you make a little hassle for yourself. And some recipes seem to become too cold for the full flavor to develop properly in the mouth. We haven't discovered the solution to that yet.
[Tuesday, October 14, 2008]
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quick, easy, ice cream
The product works great. I ended up buying one for my brother and uncle as well. There are a few secrets to its use.
1. It needs to be in the freezer longer than it says, I put mine in the freezer in May and don't take it out until October.
2. Don't use any of the recipes that come with it.
3. The cooler the ingredients the quicker it freezes up.
4. Basically I googled ice cream recipes and wen with the easiest.
Here's an easy way. Frozen fruit, vanilla yogurt (yogurt makes things freeze up quick for some reason), sugar, milk (evaporated, condensed or regular), put it in a blender then add to machine.
[Tuesday, September 02, 2008]
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Great and versatile! Read below for a few tips...
I purchased this ice cream maker because my aunt had told me it was a great tool to have. She was right :-) So far I have made chocolate and espresso gelato and vanilla ice cream. I haven't tried sorbet, frozen yogurt or sherbert, but intend to soon. My aunt just mixes up some frozen fruit and juice in a blender and adds it to the ice cream maker until it's sorbet consistency.
A FEW TIPS:
1) The directions say wait 2-3 minutes between stirs. I wait 2-3 minutes before the first stir, then 4 minutes before the second, then 5 minutes before the third, etc. etc. etc. It is best if you wait longer than 15-20 minutes total, though, but I normally just play it by ear--just keep looking at the ice cream and checking the consistency visually. you can tell when it's done becuase it won't be liquidy any more. Between stirs, you don't need to set a timer or anything, just estimate and if you try stiring and it's easy to stir, wait longer. It should be relativley tough to stir--that means you're scraping the frozen ice cream off the sides of the container so the rest can freeze.
2) The recipes in the booklet all make 1 qt. of ice cream/sorbet, etc. I found that you can fit a 1-1/2 batch in the ice cream maker just fine. 1 batch makes enough for 2-3 people, but when you're feeding a family of 5 dessert, it's not enough :-)
3) I was dissapointed when I saw that some of the ice cream recipes say 'refrigerat overnight.' I thought I could just decide on a whim 'I want ice cream' and make it right away. It does take time, but you can find recipes that you don't have to refrigerate overnight. Just look online or in a cookbook. Most say 'cool thorougly.' You just have to make sure it's cold enough that it won't warm up the ice cream maker. A few hours should be enough in most cases. Just test the temperature with your finger.
Overall, it's a great machine. I adapted the directions a little bit, and found it works better my way :-) but it's definatley worth the 50 bucks. Although milk and cream are pretty pricy, you can make sorbet and sherbert for much less.
[Friday, August 29, 2008]
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