Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker
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List Price: Our Price: $73.95 You Save: $71.05 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $59.95 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker
Customer Review: Skeptical at first, but love it now!
Summary: 5 Stars
The first batch I made turned out a bit crystalized and not as creamy of a consistency. But subsequent batches I just followed the product recipe book and got perfect, cream texture. Don't know what happened that first batch... Now I fully agree with all the other 5 stars, and I never buy ice cream at the store anymore.
Some additional notes, echoing other reviews:
- Don't plan to save much money per batch; the ingredients come out about as much as store-bought ice cream price
- The results at the end of the 25 minute process is not hard, more like gelato. I have to freeze overnight to get the solid scoops. But 2 quarts of ice cream shouldn't get polished off in one night.
- Ice cream frozen over several nights never turns too hard; always easy to scoop and same creamy texture.
- Because ice cream is still very soft while in machine, I tend to add any ingredients by hand, rather than directly into the machine in the last 5 minutes, as instructed in the recipe book.
- The frozen yogurt recipe is not like frozen yogurt at the store, more like the tarty fro-yo that's really popular now.
- LOVE adding almond extract or peppermint extract to vanilla or chocolate!
Best part: your friends and neighbors will love this purchase.
Customer Review: Easy, Simple but is loud
Summary: 4 Stars
We make ice cream constantly with this machine, so much so, that I am on here to buy another bowl so we never have to wait to wash and refreeze the bowl. Here are some things you might want to know beforehand.
One, it is loud. Quite loud actually, so not something you want running with guests over.
Two, You can't make one batch and then try to make a second batch immediately afterward after transferring first batch out because it loses enough "freeze power" to not do well the second time. (Hence, why we need a second bowl!)
Three, It seems better to stick the bowl in our deep freeze. It's colder than our fridge freezer and doesn't get opened as much. In the fridge freezer, it seems to be more runny than when we use the deep freeze, so you may want to turn up your fridge freezer for better consistency. Definitely need to leave the bowl in for 24 hours if you aren't in a cold cold freezer.
Four, To refreeze if you wash it, you have to wait a long time for it to unfreeze so you can wash it (try to wash it too soon and your water/sponge freezes. But you can skip a few washings and just scrape out the ice cream, refreeze for just a few hours instead of all day if you intend to make the same flavor next b/c you can't get it all out.
Customer Review: You gotta have it
Summary: 5 Stars
If you make ice cream using the old electric or hand crank method with ice and salt, throw all that junk away (or give it away to the less wealthy). This sucker works well with a few slight problems. First, you have to freeze the round unit that fits in the machine overnight, you need some room in your freezer (it's like almost 10 inches across and at least 6 to 8 inches high). After that, it's easy. Look at the instruction book and pick a simple recipe like simple vanilla ice cream. Use the quality ingredients like cream, sugar, vanilla in a mixer and then just pour it in the frozen bowl. Put the bowl in the machine, look at the configuration and put the plastic piece on top (as shown in directions), put the clear plastic square top piece on, turn the puppy on for 25 minutes or so. When time is up, the ice cream will be fairly soft, so you put it in couple of containers and freeze it for a few hours. Then you have really great ice cream. You can actually make a couple of batches in one sitting as the frozen bowl will go through another round. It only makes 1.5 quarts or less. Some people buy a second freezer bowl (they aren't cheap) and keep two bowls in their freezer, but that is overkill when one bowl can be used twice if you have all your ducks in a row.Customer Review: Forget the other ice cream makers you've owned!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the fourth or fifth ice cream maker I have purchased in the past decade. I always love the idea of homemade ice cream and all of the fun, creativity and freshness it entails- but every ice cream maker I've bought has been a hassle, a mess, a disaster or all of the above!
I was fortunate enough to find this item for a very good price (on sale) and decided to cave in and buy it. I was reluctant because of my previously negative experiences with ice cream makers.
I am so glad I took the chance because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this machine. It is nice looking, well-made and really does a fantastic job at making ice cream! It's a tiny bit noisy, but the result is so worth it- I may never buy store-bought ice cream again. In fact, the only reason I don't make fresh ice cream several times a week is the cost of heavy cream! If I had a dairy cow, I'd be a one-woman Ben and Jerry's!
You will impress your friends, your kids, your spouse, anyone you serve the fruits of this product to- and a great bonus is that the recipe book it comes with actually has really fantastic recipes that make unbelievably good ice cream.
If you are buying an ice cream maker, you cannot go wrong with this one- trust me! It's ice cream perfection!
Customer Review: buy this one without hesitation!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned one of these for a few months now, and have made a number of different recipes in it. This machine works very well every time. I have used at least four other ice cream makers, and this one is far and away the best.
I make ice cream myself with particular concern for creating unusual flavors and reducing the fat content. I love ice cream, but I often find myself disappointed with the flavors available in grocery store brands. I have found that a quart of fat-free half and half makes a great base for ice cream with this machine because the vegetable gum ingredient in it adds creaminess in the absence of fat.
For me the freezing time had been very short - only about half an hour - and this was having the side effect of making the end result a bit too stiff with icy chunks. I mostly put this down to the low fat-content that I was working with. Yesterday I tried letting the freezing bowl sit out on the counter for 10 - 15 minutes before filling it with liquid and running the machine. This increased the freezing time to about 45 minutes and yielded a much creamier-textured product from a recipe consisting of the fat free half and half plus about 1/2 cup each of ginger preserves and brown sugar (like I said, I like unusual flavors).