Cuisinart Ice-45 Mix-It-In Soft-Serve 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker
by Cuisinart
|
List Price: Our Price: $89.99 You Save: $145.01 (62%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $79.00 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
|---|
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart Ice-45 Mix-It-In Soft-Serve 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker
Customer Review: Too Icy to be soft serve!
Summary: 2 Stars
the pics on the box show a very creamy soft serve (I know, you shouldn't believe what a box or ad shows anyway since it's usually photoshopped and styled). The end product is extremely icy in texture like a sorbet, not at all what soft serve is. Mine didn't even dispense because the bottom of the freezer bowl was too cold and froze the cream almost immediately on contact, so the dispenser hole was clogged. The dispenser hole is way too small to dispense easily it seems.
I did use the receipe for a low fat ice cream included in the booklet. It used 2% milk and half&half instead of whole milk and heavy cream. I also substituted Splenda for sugar. So I dunno if this altered the freezing ability too much (too much water in low fat milk perhaps). I'll be trying the full fat version to compare. I guess if we cared about the fat content we wouldn't be eating ice cream in the first place right?
Also if you use a fruit puree with seeds, make sure you strain it since that can also clog the dispenser. I recommend just using juice and not puree in the machine, it sinks to the bottom of the mixer bowl and clogs it.
Customer Review: Cuisnart Ice Cream Maker Freezer Bowl
Summary: 5 Stars
A must-have if you own the Ice Cream Maker - otherwise it takes too long to clean and freeze the bowl that comes with it.Customer Review: Works great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a little hesitant to buy this since the reviews are basically split, but it works great for us. I have a regular freezer above my fridge and I turned it to its coldest setting. I keep the freezer bowl in the back (and center) of the freezer, directly in front of the cold air. The bowl gets so cold that I usually can't wash it within a few hours after making ice cream since water freezes on it immediately and paper towels break off and stick to it... Even regular towels leave fibers frozen to the side of the bowl.
The first time we made ice cream, we didn't get really good results. I think the reasons are that the bowl wasn't cold enough, and we used the lower-fat vanilla recipe which lacked heavy cream to make it the right consistancy. The second time we got it right. That tells you that even if you get bad results the first time, maybe you're doing something wrong and just try again!
Although the ice cream is good, I must say that it's NOT exactly the same as you'd buy at an ice cream stand. It's a little lighter & fluffier and not as solid. Actually we like it better when it's too cold to dispense, because it's colder & closer to the kind you'd buy. The mix-it-ins don't work very well for us, but we just sprinkle the toppings on afterwards if we want them. So far we've tried the simple vanilla, chocolate, mint, strawberry-banana frozen yogurt and orange creamsicle sherbert. We did not like the chocolate at all, but the others were pretty good (You should use half mint and half vanilla extract for the mint ice cream because it tastes too much like double-mint gum if you don't). I always reduce the amount of sugar by half, and it's still very sweet. Also it usually takes 20-25 minutes to make, unless you're making less than half the recipe. Eventually I'll have all the recipes modified to our taste after trial and error.
As to the clean-up, other than the freezer bowl which I find has to defrost before washing & re-freezing, cleaning everything is pretty easy. I take all the pieces apart and let them sit in hot soapy water for a few minutes.
I ended up buying another bowl so we can make two kinds at once. Overall we're really happy. We haven't had any store-bought ice cream since we got this, although I have spent about $70 in ingredients! I think I went a little overboard though, at least now I'll only have to re-stock the milk and cream.
Check out the pictures I uploaded; I think our results look better than the pictures on the box!
Customer Review: Easy to make
Summary: 4 Stars
I received this as a Christmas present and have made ice cream at least a dozen times since. The only time it didn't turn out was when I only froze the bowl for 7 hours instead of all day or overnight. We just have a normal freezer and it freezes just fine in there.
We usually make the simple vanilla or simple chocolate recipes which are as the name says, simple. Takes about 5 minutes to make the batter and then about 16 minutes to freeze. We only make a 1/2 batch, so I don't know if it would take longer with a larger batch.
One trick we learned with the mix-ins is to chill them first. We put the sprinkles and mini chocolate chips in the freezer while the ice cream was being made. They dispensed easily, nothing got stuck, and cleanup of the dispensers was easy. Many parts are dishwasher safe, but cleanup is more involved than our traditional ice cream maker.
Customer Review: yummy icecream
Summary: 5 Stars
This ice
cream maker is easy to use and easy to clean!