Yahoo Lifestyle My Cuisinart ice cream maker is currently only £80 for Black Friday
Ice cream is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved desserts in the world, and I'm no exception - I love the frozen treat almost any time of the year. While many people consider ice cream a store-bought indulgence, in recent years, there has been a massive surge in brands creating at-home ice cream makers, allowing you to create delicious homemade treats like soft serve, gelato, sorbet, and milkshakes at the touch of a button.
However, ice cream makers are usually not cheap. Probably the most well-known appliance is the Ninja Creami Ice Cream & Frozen Dessert Maker - however, at £199.99, it's definitely an investment. I wanted to find a more budget-friendly option, especially considering that there may be some months in the winter when the ice cream maker takes a backseat.
So, I got my hands on the much more affordable Cuisinart Deluxe Ice Cream Maker, which retails for a much more reasonable £100 and right now is on sale for just £80.
🛍️ Product reviewed: Cuisinart Deluxe Ice Cream Maker
⏰ Tested for: One month
⭐ Rating: 5/5
💸 Reasons to buy: Makes smooth, creamy ice cream, is easy to assemble and has clear instructions
✋ Reasons to avoid: Requires preparation and you need quite a lot of room in your freezer
💰 Best deal we’ve found: Right now you can get £20 off the gadget at Amazon, John Lewis and Argos
Cuisinart
This gadget can make frozen desserts like ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt in just 25 minutes.
- Easy to assemble
- Clear and concise instructions
- It's way more affordable than other ice cream makers
- Produces smooth, creamy ice cream
- Takes time to prepare the freezer bowl
- Freezer bowl takes up space in freezer
- The machine doesn't have a built-in timer
💸 Reasons to buy
The Cuisinart Deluxe Ice Cream Maker is a simple machine, comprising of a freezer bowl, a paddle, the machine itself, and a lid. While there are a few steps involved in creating your sweet treat, it's straightforward and easy to understand, so you'll soon get the hang of it.
Before you start, it's important to pre-freeze the freezer bowl for at least 12 hours before making your ice cream. To do this, it's best to wrap it in a plastic bag to prevent freezer burn. To check if the bowl is fully frozen, shake it. If you don't hear liquid moving, the cooling liquid is frozen.
For my first endeavour in ice cream-making, I decided to follow the recipe in the Cuisinart manual. I chose the simplest (but, in my opinion, the best) flavour option: vanilla.
It was a fairly simple recipe that required mixing double cream, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and a vanilla pod together. It's important to make sure this mixture is cold before you start churning, so you then have to pop it in the fridge and wait for two hours.
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Once it was ready to go, I took the bowl out the freezer, placed it into the base of the machine, and put the paddle inside. This can be confusing because the paddle doesn't lock into place. However, the manual clarifies that it isn't meant to fit tightly and is simply meant to rest in the centre of the bowl.
The machine has just two settings on its dial: ON or OFF. I turned it ON and poured the mixture into the freezer bowl, which immediately starts turning. The only thing left to do was pop the lid on and leave it for 25 minutes to churn.
I anxiously checked the contents of the bowl every five minutes, wondering how my mixture was coming along. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but after the 10-minute mark, I noticed the texture starting to change. By the end of the time specified in the manual, my ice cream had reached a lovely soft-serve consistency.
It can be eaten straight away at this stage, but I found that it melted too quickly for my liking. I transferred the ice cream into a container and put it back in the freezer. After a few hours, it had transformed into a smooth, creamy texture that scooped easily and had no large ice crystals affecting its consistency.
I made a second version using the same vanilla ice cream recipe, but added brownie chunks as an experiment. However, adding them too early in the churning process broke the chunks into bits, which wasn't quite what I was going for - though it was still perfectly delicious.
✋ Reasons to avoid
What I didn't realise until I started reading the manual for the Cuisinart Deluxe Ice Cream Maker is that it requires a fair amount of preparation before you can start churning anything.
The first thing you need to do is to put the freezer bowl in the freezer and you will need a decent amount of freezer space. I recommend measuring your freezer drawers before purchasing to make sure you have the space.
You should also keep in mind there is no timer on the machine, so you will have to set a timer elsewhere once you've added your mixture into the freezer bowl to churn.
All in all, I really enjoyed the process of making my own ice cream, even though it took more time than I initially expected. The result was definitely worth the wait. It made me feel like a professional chef in my own kitchen, and I'll definitely be testing out other recipes and ice cream varieties, such as sorbet, gelato, and even frozen yogurt.
💰 Best deal we’ve found
Right now you can get £20 off the gadget at Amazon, John Lewis and Argos, taking the £100 ice cream maker down to just £80, which is hugely more cost-effective than most ice cream makers on the market.
Shop now: Cuisinart Deluxe Ice Cream Maker | £80 (Was £100) from Amazon
Other top-rated ice cream makers
Whip up gelato, sorbet, frozen yoghurt, slushies, milkshakes and more with this epic dessert maker from Ninja.
Bag the original model for even less and enjoy seven preset programs: Ice Cream, Gelato, Sorbet, Smoothie Bowl, Light Ice Cream, Milkshake and Mix-Ins.
If you're after some a little more affordable this £34.99 maker is ideal.
