Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker

[Saleen836]

As title,
Thinking of getting myself one of these....
https://www.johnlewis.com/cuisinart-ice48u-soft-se...

Anyone have one or similar?
Is it one of those gadgets that gets used initially but is now sat in the cuboard as it is a faff to use and clean everytime?

[RobbieTheTruth]

Saleen836 said:

As title,
Thinking of getting myself one of these....
https://www.johnlewis.com/cuisinart-ice48u-soft-se...

Anyone have one or similar?
Is it one of those gadgets that gets used initially but is now sat in the cuboard as it is a faff to use and clean everytime?

Looks a lot of bells and whistles for something that isn't actually 'doing' anything.

If it had a built in cooler, and you could pour a liquid mix in and it would freeze while churning, and dispatch at a perfect consistency it would be a nice piece if kit.

Instead, you just pre-freeze the bowl for 24 hours - so it's essentially just a paddle mixing liquid on a frozen bowl.

It has absolutely no freezer on board the machine.

[48k]

Saleen836 said:

As title,
Thinking of getting myself one of these....
https://www.johnlewis.com/cuisinart-ice48u-soft-se...

Anyone have one or similar?
Is it one of those gadgets that gets used initially but is now sat in the cuboard as it is a faff to use and clean everytime?

Being heavily advertised on TV at the moment, as we go in to Christmas. Surprise surprise.

Utter waste of money. You need to pre-freeze the bowl overnight then it takes 20 minutes to make 6 servings. Then you need to clean it down, freeze the bowl overnight and repeat again.

So you could do the same thing yourself with a frozen bowl over an ice bath and a spatula, if you wanted to stand there stirring for 20 minutes.

Or you could just have a tub of soft scoop ice cream in the freezer.

It's one of those Christmas gadgets that by January it will be in the back of a cupboard never to be seen again.

[Mobile Chicane]

You don't need an ice cream machine to make ice cream.

Beat together 500ml of double cream and a 400ml can of sweetened condensed milk, add whatever flavourings you like and freeze.

That's it.

Have a Google for 'no churn ice cream' if you don't believe me.

[bigdom]

True, but takes time, and pre planning. We used to have a basic one, moved to one with onboard freezing.

20 minutes and you have ice cream or sorbet, and let your imagination run wild trying out flavours.

[QJumper]

I've had that exact same machine for some years, after seeing it in the US a long time ago.

If you don''t mind the faff of freezing the bowl, and cleaning it afterwards, then it does an ok job.

A warning though, make sure that you put it all together properly before pouring your ice cream mix in, otherwise you end up with ice cream mix all over your kitchen. That's no fun to clean up. Also, make sure the bowl is well frozen, or it will be too soft.

If you just want quick ice cream though, try one can of condensed milk, one and half pots of Elmlea singe, and vanilla essence. Mix in a blender and pour into 8oz paper cofffee cups with lids and freeze. Takes 5 minutes to make, and a couple of hours to freeze. Same mix can be used in the machine.

[AndyTR]

For £ 20% more you can get a professional machine, search for Buffalo CM289 2 Ltr Countertop Ice Cream Maker

[Saleen836]

As suspected a lot of money for a faff, will look into a better machine which does the freezing as well

[Audis5b9]

If youre looking for a lighter 'whipped' consistency ice cream (like soft serve) then take a look at the Ninja Creami.

Its a budget friendly version of the Pacojet.

[QJumper]

Audis5b9 said:

If youre looking for a lighter 'whipped' consistency ice cream (like soft serve) then take a look at the Ninja Creami.

Its a budget friendly version of the Pacojet.

I assume I must be missing something, or I just stupidly skim read it, but isn't that just the same as taking your ice cream mix, freezing it, and putting it in a blender to get the consistency you want?

[Audis5b9]

QJumper said:

I assume I must be missing something, or I just stupidly skim read it, but isn't that just the same as taking your ice cream mix, freezing it, and putting it in a blender to get the consistency you want?

Kind of, but it shaves the ice cream rather than blends it, achieving a much creamier texture as the ice crystals are smaller.