Cuisinart ICE-45 Mix It In Soft Serve 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker, White
|
List Price: Our Price: Calculated in a shopping cart Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $58.75 (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, White
Customer Review: Don't go shopping with the kids! But this works like it's supposed to.
Summary: 4 Stars
I went to the store to buy a Cuisinart 2 QT ice cream maker - I made the mistake of taking the kids with me AND of course they immediately spotted this model. And okay I'm a softy, and they were so excited, and I remembered being that excited when I was young, and well, I caved, and brought this home. Ran to Amazon to read the reviews, and lo and behold, felt like I had made a mistake. But it did seem to work for some people, so I thought we'd give it a try. I read ALL of the reviews to get some tips, made sure the bowl was in the back of the deep freeze, made sure that all ingredients were cold, and you know what - it actually worked exactly the way it was supposed to. The ice cream was soft and was easy to dispense - it tasted disgusting - overly sweet (like others reported from Cuisinart recipes), and I don't like PB, but the kids loved it, and the mix-ins were very exciting for them. We just need to tweak the recipes a bit.
A few tips of my own if you're considering:
It's a pain to clean! And make sure the mix-in containers are super dry before you try to use them.
Otherwise, enjoy!
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: Very Pleased!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Read most of the reviews on this and other ice cream makers before I purchased this as a gift for my husband. He is a DQ freak and it comes very very close to their ice cream. We did not have a problem with the ice cream not freezing - I agree that you have to make sure your freezer is set a 0 degrees. We have a chest freezer and that is where I put it. I checked the temp and is at minus 5 degrees. I took suggestions from others and made the recipe ahead of time and put it in the refrig for about 2 hrs before making as well as the blade that turns the ice cream so they were very cold. It took about 20 minutes. The second time we used it I didn't chill the milk/cream/sugar recipe ahead of time nor the blade and it came out fine, actually was ready in about 15 minutes. We will get lots of use out of this!!! Going to try the Orange Dreamsicle Sherbert recipe next. Just need to purchase another freezer bowl to have on hand in case I want to make more than one batch for more people or two different recipes at a time. (You have to wait at least 12 hours for a bowl to freeze.)I would recommend highly!!!Customer Review: Works Great!
Summary: 5 Stars
This does exactly what I wanted it for, and thats to give me soft serve ice cream, even if it's store-bought ice cream converted to soft serve. I tried some of the recipes in the booklet but wasn't wild about the ones I tried, that's not the machines' fault though, it made the ice cream perfect, I just didn't care for the taste. I found a recipe online using vanilla pudding which my husband really liked, but I love my store bought or Shwanns low-fat yogurt, so I scoop a bunch of it along with some milk in the blender until its milkshake consistency, then pour it in the canister, and 15 minutes later I have delicious soft serve. No problems with the canister not getting cold enough. It gets so freezing cold that a couple of times the motor has stopped running because I waited a little too long to open the spout, & its frozen the ice cream hard as a brick to the point that it quit turning, so I had to eat it out of the canister. Anyway, I love it, like I said it works great for what I wanted it for. I don't use the sprinkles so I don't bother to attach the spout for it.Customer Review: Worth the Money, Just for the Fun!
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased the Mix It In on 9/8/06 and used it the next day. I never got soft serve. I froze the bowl again, this time in my upright freezer, and made the mix the day before and refrigerated it for 15 hours.
Today, I made soft serve!!!!!! It isn't perfect but I'm well on my way. I have been making the low fat version but I think the regualar version will be excellent. To make this machine work for you here are some pointers:
1. If you don't have an upright or chest freezer, put the bowl in the back of your regular freezer.
2. Freeze the bowl for as long as possible beyond the suggested 12 hours.
3. You can forget the 12-15 minute check described in the manual. You will not have a chance of having soft serv before a minimum of 25 minutes. I mixed as long as 40 minutes.
4. SAVE YOUR RECEIPT. Since the ice cream takes twice as long to mix as is suggested in the manual, you are using the motor 2x as much. Therefore, you might have to use the 3 year warranty.