244 Reviews

924 out of 927 people found this review helpful:
Great Ice Cream Maker

I bought this after reading a lot of reviews. My choice was based on a number of factors. I have owned a hand-crank, ice-and-salt ice cream maker in the past - it made great ice cream but was messy; I didn't want yet another appliance that I had to find where to store; and I have owned and liked my KitchenAid stand mixer for a number of years.

This is basically a double-walled, sealed mixing bowl, with the space inside the walls filled with some liquid (presumably like the refreezable ice packs). It comes with plastic paddle. The basic steps are:
1 Freeze the bowl (I keep mine in the freezer)
2 Make and cool an ice cream custard, or a fruit mix for sorbet
3 Assemble the frozen bowl and the plastic paddle on the stand mixer
4 Switch the mixer on lowest speed, add the custard
5 Let the mixer stir the mix until it freezes (to a "soft serve" consistency)
6 Transfer the ice cream to a bowl with a lid, and freeze until firm

Here are my comments:

First, take a black marker and obliterate all the nutritional information about the recipes in the instruction book. We know that ice cream is full of fat and sugar -- that's why we like it! We don't need reminding.

* Try a dry run to assemble the bowl and paddle. This is designed to fit many models of KitchenAid mixers, and it's not obvious. You don't want to be figuring this out when you are ready to make your first batch.
* Freeze the bowl for longer than the suggested 18 hours
* MAKE HALF QUANTITIES: the two-quart recipes fill the bowl, and I had a couple of overflows as the ice cream expands as it cools.
* Also, filling the bowl means that the ice cream takes longer to freeze. The first time I tried this, it didn't freeze as the bowl had not been frozen long enough to handle the two quarts.
* Get a good recipe to use up the egg whites. I make meringue from the New York Times Cook Book. I guess an omelet would be good too.
* There's mistake in the instruction book. In one place it suggests adding the fruit, nuts etc half way through the freezing process, and in another place it suggests adding these ingredients at the end of the mixing cycle.
* Use enough mix (custard or fruit puree) to at least fill half of the bowl -- this way the paddle will mix the entire batch.
* Remember that freezing enhances the sweet taste -- so do not over sweeten the mix before you freeze, otherwise the ice cream or sorbet will be too sweet.
* If you're making a fruit puree for sorbet, a blender makes a *MUCH* smoother puree than a food processor. I think this makes a difference in the texture of the final sorbet.
* After preparation, you need to cool the custard or puree in the fridge for a few hours. Use a jug that has a decent pouring lip: this will make it much easier to pour into the freezer bowl than if you just use a regular mixing bowl.
* There is very little space between the edge of the bowl and the paddle -- this can mean a mess when you fill the bowl. It **really** needs a pouring spout designed to fit
* Getting the semi-frozen desert out of the bowl can be messy - there is no handle on the bowl and it has smooth, slippery sides.
* Use a container for the final freezing that has a little air space after you fill with the semi-frozen ice cream -- this allows for additional expansion of the desert, and prevents the need to squash the final product into the bowl.
* I've used recipes from The New York Times Cookbook and Fine Cooking magazine -- all delicious, better than store bought, and slightly different than the regular recipes for vanilla, cookies and cream, etc.
* Use the freshest eggs you can find -- not the ones that have been sitting in the fridge door for a month

Update February 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks very much to all the kind comments that folks have left. For those of you who haven't read the comments on this review: it's worthwhile taking a few minutes to do so as some of the commenters have additional suggestions and ideas.

229 out of 238 people found this review helpful:
Makes great ice cream

My friend bought this and told me about it. I have made 4 batches so far and all have tasted great. Granted it does not make the ice cream hard in the half hour but to a soft serve consistency. I usually put it in the freezer for a half hour before serving. I only cool the ingredients for an hour- but I also do not use the recipe that requires cooking. I use 2 cups heavy cream, 2 cups half and half and 1 cup whole milk with 3/4 cup sugar and 3 tsp vanilla with a half cup of cocoa. As far as having to freeze the container for 15 hours I just keep it in the freezer so it is always ready so I don't have to plan ahead. Both my friend and I are very pleased. The icecream does not get ice crystals like a previous cheap maker I had.

108 out of 117 people found this review helpful:
No more ice and rock salt!!

I loved this product, it is so much easier than messing with the bulky old fashioned ice cream maker. It's important that if you want hard ice cream, you allow it to ripen. The instructions state that you must transfer the ice cream from the freezer bowl to a freezer safe container before you put it in the freezer to ripen. It was so easy to use too!

85 out of 105 people found this review helpful:
So So Product

This product comes with the essentials to make ice cream, a dasher and a freeze bowl. The bowl is a generous size, 2 quarts, but when attached to the mixer you will notice that it barely extends beyond the width of the arm on the mixer. This, to me, is a major negative because it makes it more difficult than needed to properly add ingredients. Also, with the fact that the dasher rotates (by nature of the mixer), rather than the bowl as in other ice cream machines such as the Cuisinart, it's extremely easy to make a huge mess by the time your done.

You may think that this can be easily overcome by lifting the arm of the mixer to add the ingredients, but this is not feasible. If you do, even for a few moments, the dasher stops doing its job and the ice cream freezes, then your ice cream is done whether you like it or not. The dasher needs to be rotating constantly while slowly adding ingredients for best results.

These issues, along with the hefty price tag, make this a ice cream maker for only those who absolutely do not have the room for a dedicated ice cream maker. The space saving aspect is the main reason I gave into the outrageous price tag, but after using it, I sacrificed the space for a much more enjoyable to use ice cream machine. I'd recommend to those considering purchasing this product also try out a dedicated ice cream machine to see the difference in ease of use.

72 out of 72 people found this review helpful:
My wife tried to murder me with this!

I think my wife is trying to murder me with this KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment! She bought this for me for Christmas along with the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Recipe book knowing full well that I would become obsessed with trying all of the recipes. I'm on the third batch (Cherry Garcia, Coffee Chip, Chocolate Chocolate Chip) and I can already feel my heart slowing down. I can hardly make it to the mailbox without becoming winded. Luckily I realized her dastardly plot before having an ice cream overdose induced myocardial infarction. She almost got away with it as nobody would have suspected her. The paramedics would have just thought I was another fat pig who overdosed on ice cream.

This is so easy to use you may also find yourself overstocked with fresh quarts of the best ice cream you ever tasted. Follow the recipes in Ben and Jerry's book and carefully follow the directions that come with the churn and you'll make great ice cream every time. As the other reviewers have mentioned, it is essential to allow the ice cream to "ripen" before serving. This is not a requirement that is unique to this churn by the way. This is necessary with other churns as well. So be patient, plan ahead, get creative, and enjoy.