Ice cream maker that Rivals none!!

I bought it, I use it, I love it, it makes great ice cream - no hassle.

*******Before I get into the body of the review, let me clarify that this machine is not supposed to make firm ice-cream - professional ones don't even do that. It is intended to beat air into the ice cream mixture as it freezes into a soft ice-cream/very thick milk-shake, which can then be stored in the freezer for an hour or more to firm up.***********

I really love ice cream - and so do my kids. I don't care for the store bought stuff that contains so many chemicals and additives that I can't even pronounce, so I thought I'd have a bash at making ice cream myself with natural ingredients (and lower fat). A friend has a similar unit from a competing brand, and I was very impressed with the results.

I looked at e-bay for a 1.5 qt ice cream maker that required no ice or salt, but couldn't find one at a price I wanted to pay...less than $30 with shipping. I finally bought one at Nebraska Furniture Mart here in Omaha. It cost $29.99 and included the ready-to-freeze, insulated, non-stick, 1.5 qt bucket, paddle, motor, see-thru cover and instruction manual with recipes. The assembled unit is compact, fairly attractive, white bucket with clear cover. The power cord is quite short, about 36 inches long.

I took it home, read the instructions, rinsed all the parts, put the bucket in the freezer, and waited for the recommended 24 hours until it was frozen. I followed the recipe for the strawberry sorbet, substituting Splenda for sugar. I easily assembled the paddle, motor and see thru lid as instructed, and secured it onto the frozen bucket - the twist on lid is easy to remove and place, and holds the paddle assembly firmly in place on the bucket. I turned on the motor with the rocker switch on top of the machine and slowly poured my strawberry puree mixture into the bucket, through the handy, large, ingredients opening in the top. Then I waited as the paddle began to churn the liquid mixture, slowly incorporating air as the liquid froze.

The motor is a little noisy, but not too bad. It would be annoying if I stayed in the same room for any length of time. It has an auto shut-off at 40 minutes to prevent the motor from overheating, which is a nice safety feature. If it does shut-off, it can be switched on again once the motor cools down sufficiently. Unplugging the machine, and then plugging it in again immediately will not override the auto shut-off feature. At about 20-25 minutes, the ice cream should be ready, if not, the ingredients may have been too warm, or the bowl not cold enough, or too much ingredients. I have only had this happen once - I was in a hurry to use it, and didn't freeze the bowl long enough. I had to turn out the half-frozen ice cream into a bowl, allow it to melt while I froze the bowl again, then restarted the process the next day. A bit of a pain, but my fault for not freezing the bowl long enough. When the ice cream is ready, and nice and thick, the beater will reverse, and then reverse again, and again, changing the sound of the motor, letting you know that the ice cream is ready. Not a great way to alert you that the stuff is ready, but it gets your attention.

The non-stick interior of the bowl can be scratched by metal kitchen utensils, I use a silicone spatula to scrape out the ice cream and I can either serve it soft, or place the bowl in the freezer for an hour or so to harden, as the instruction manual recommends. I don't freeze my ice cream in the freezer bowl, but instead in a Tupperware container. The bowl can then simply be rinsed with cool water, dried thoroughly as instructed, and replaced in the freezer ready for use again in 24 hours. The see-thru cover and beater can be washed in the dishwasher (top shelf) and the motor unit wiped with a damp cloth.

The resulting sorbet or ice cream is delicious. The instruction manual/recipe book gives hints for lower fat substitutions - but warns that the texture will be different. This is true, lower fat and lower sugar result in a harder, more granular product that does not have a lot of air incorporated into it, and does not scoop easily when completely frozen. I found a nice happy medium using skim evaporated milk, fat free condensed milk, Splenda and half & half or whole milk. This results in a creamy, light, soft serve ice cream with low fat and low sugar....which is waaaayyy too good to stop eating!! so be warned!!

I am so happy with this ice cream maker - and I have made many gallons of ice cream (1.5 quarts at a time) in it so far - that I went looking for another unit so I can make two different kinds of ice cream or sorbet at a time. I found one, the Rival Soft Serve ice cream maker, at my local thrift store and am making ice cream in it as I write. I'll review that one seperately.

1.5 quarts is enough for our family or four for dessert with a some left over. Do not be tempted to add more liquids than recommended - the ice cream will not freeze properly and you will not be happy with the results. Also, make sure your liquids are cold before you add them to the bucket.

Warning - do not put the freezer bucket in the dishwasher, it will warp the interior of the bucket, and render it useless - I know of someone who did this.

Recommended additions to "easy vanilla ice cream" recipe:

chocolate & cinnamon
pumpkin & spice
coffee & vanilla
mint chocolate chip (add Starlight mint candies)

wild strawberry & apple mint sorbet (particularly good!)
fresh apricot & honey sorbet
mint sorbet