KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Customer Review: Great Ice Cream Maker
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Update December 2009
A couple of the recent comments have asked whether the inside of the bowl is aluminum or non-stick. It *appears* to be metallic, but with plastics these days, it's anybody's guess. It is light gray so could be aluminum, but I'd wager that it is some sort of alloy. It is definitely NOT the type of non-stick found in Teflon-type frying pans.
BTW - I've had this for nearly four years and am still loving it. Long term durability seems to be good.
Customer Review: KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment v. Special Purpose Ice Cream Maker
Summary: 5 Stars
I own both the KitchenAid ice cream attachment and the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, two devices that work on the same principle of using a liquid filled freezer bowl and a machine-operated paddle to make homemade ice cream. I decided to compare the two using the same recipe for French vanilla ice cream (from the KitchenAid cookbook) to see which performed better.
The KitchenAid: The bowl has a greater capacity (about 5 cups of mix) than the Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker, White. Although it also takes up more room in the freezer, I liked this aspect. After all, if I'm going to make homemade ice cream, I want enough to make the effort worthwhile. The KitchenAid attachment added more air, which created a slightly grainier, more commercial texture but faster flavor delivery. Perhaps because it froze more mix, the KitchenAid was also slower to finish, taking eight minutes longer than the Cuisinart. Removing the frozen cream was easy except from the complex shape of the dasher. Although both machines were noisy, the KitchenAid was by far the quietest. Because you have to pour the mix into the bowl while the paddle is running and because the thick walls of the freezer bowl make it difficult to access, I recommend resting the pouring shield on the edge of the bowl -- it doesn't fit completely, but it's good enough to minimize spillage. Also, if you expect to add nuts, chips, cookies, or other harder items near the end of the cycle, decrease the mix by the same amount. Five cups of batter plus a cup of nuts will overflow the bowl.
The Cuisinart: The ice cream was definitely denser and silkier, although in more limited quantity. The machine takes about 3 cups of mix, and, unlike the KitchenAid, some of it was wasted when it froze solid to the walls of the bowl. The KitchenAid, on the other hand, had little or no waste.
My husband preferred the ice cream from the KitchenAid attachment; he claimed that it tasted much better. I preferred the denser texture from the Cuisinart, although the ice cream was much more difficult to scoop after a day or so of ripening in the freezer. Both tasted much better than anything I can buy in the supermarket.
Despite my preference for the Cuisinart texture, I'm giving this attachment five stars because it still yields great tasting ice cream with minimal work. You do have to plan ahead, however: the bowl must be frozen for at least 15 hours, and the mix must be chilled a full day in advance. Since many ice cream recipes call for a cooked custard (with egg yolks), this means cooking a day or more before you want to make it. If you have the room in your freezer, you might want to store the bowl there. I recommend wrapping it in a plastic bag to keep ice crystals and freezer-taste out.
The decision to choose between this attachment and a special purpose machine depends in part on how many people you want to feed and whether you have the freezer space for a bowl that measures 7 " high x 12" wide x 9" deep (it's not symmetrical because of the outside pieces that allow attachment to the lift mixer). The Cuisinart bowl is only 5.5" tall, with a 7" diameter. Another point to consider is longevity. I expect a KitchenAid mixer motor to far outlive anything on a special purpose machine.
This makes a great gift for people who already own a KitchenAid since most of us are also attachment junkies. I highly recommend this ice cream bowl, although I strongly suggest some comparison shopping to make sure this is right for you.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann
Customer Review: Excellent attachment for my kitchenaid mixer
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had this attachment for over two years now and am quite pleased. I recieved my kitchenaid mixer as a gift 4 years ago and it fits the mixer perfectly. Overall I have had great experiences with this mixer and have enjoyed making homemade ice cream. It is worth noting, however, that regardless of what ice cream maker you use it is a process that requires time (although most of it is NOT active) and can be more costly than simply buying a quart of ice cream, especially when using vanilla beans. This is certainly not an experience that is unique to this mixer attachment, but is still worth noting.
PROS:
- As a woman with a small kitchen and far too many appliances, this attachment is a dream. When I'm not using it it lives 24/7 in my freezer so I'm always ready at a moment's notice to make ice cream and I don't waste any counterspace.
-The size is perfect for every batch I have made. When I first got it I worried if it would be too big or too small, but it has proven just right. It works equally well when I am making a small batch of ice cream as well as when I am making a larger one. Either way I find it doesn't effect the performance.
-It yields ice cream with a great creamy texture. Overall I've been able to get luscious, creamy ice cream that is close to anything I have bought in the store. However, I have found that I get the best results when making full fat ice cream. Understandably, when I make low fat ice creams the ice cream maker is really not equipped to give them a texture like Edy's Slow Churned. The texture comes out much more like a Weight Watchers Sundae Cup. However, I'm not convinced that another ice cream machine, save a professional grade one, could do a better job.
-It's durable. As I mentioned above, I'm going on almost 2 years with this product and haven't had any issues with it leaking or enduring any other issues. I simply wash it by hand as the instructions say and have had a great experience.
CONS:
-I really love this product so the only con I've seen is that it can be quite sensitive to room temperature. I find that if the temperature in my home is any higher than about 72 degrees I get a thinner product than I do when it's 72 or below with the same amount of churning. If you've had the product going for 25 minutes or more and it's still not up to a soft serve consistency there is a good chance that either the room or the ice cream base itself is too warm and you're better off pouring out the base and refrigerating it while you freeze the base and try again. However, if you make sure to keep your home at a reasonable temperature and chill the base well before churning you won't have any issues.
I know past reviewers have also mentioned that the recipe booklet was lame. I've found this with almost kitchen gadget I've ever purchased so I wasn't really expecting to find great recipes there. However, I have had great luck with Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments. It has an awesome mix of both unusual flavors and more traditional combinations. A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts is also good but I find that many of the recipes are for garnishes and accompaniments and not necessarily the ice cream itself.
This product may not be perfect. However, for someone who doesn't have a lot of space and still wants to turn out great homemade tasting ice cream it does a pretty good job.
Customer Review: Glad I bought it. Better than store-bought ice cream!
Summary: 5 Stars
I researched a LOT before I bought this, specifically whether to buy the KA attachment or just get a separate ice cream machine - the final determination was my desire to NOT bring another appliance into the house, since I already have a Kitchenaid mixer. I have a chest freezer, so freezer space is not a concern for me, but honestly, the bowl is about the same size as a half-gallon of store-bought 'scream.
I made my first batch of vanilla bean ice cream today and it's awesome! Silky texture, amazing vanilla flavor (I bought 2lbs of vanilla beans very reasonably on another Internet site)
Some things I learned, and advice I offer:
1. Find out when your mixer was made - I got my mixer in 1989. The box reads "fits all KA stand mixers" BUT the KA website tells you it won't work on 1989 or earlier models (which message, btw, you can only see if you click "buy" on the KA website). When I called KA to find out if my mixer was made before 1989, I was told they could not determine what part of 1989 my mixer was manufactured and it may not fit, so she suggested I buy the attachment, try it, and return it if it didn't work. I got lucky and it fits! But I bought it from a local store, so I could return without paying shipping.
2. I expected the drive mechanism of the attachment (the part that goes onto the spinning part of the mixer head) to fit securely onto the mixer, but it falls off unless it's engaged with the dasher. At first I thought it wasn't going to fit the mixer, but it works.
3. I put the bowl in the chest freezer for 15 hours (just couldn't wait any longer!) I also chilled the batter overnight. This is all in the instructions, and I wonder if the people who don't get good results don't chill the batter and/or don't have the freezer set cold enough to fully freeze the bowl?
4. Pouring the batter into the bowl with the dasher moving around in it is tricky, but I have a nice mixing/measuring cup with a big pour spout on it. I have the old two-piece plastic pouring shield and it is a little too big to fit perfectly around the ice cream bowl, but it works well enough to make it easier to pour the batter into the bowl. I suppose pouring the batter could be messy without these two items.
5. The FIRST time you hear the mixer make a sound like the tilt-head is trying to come up, STOP the ice cream making process - this is the mixer telling you it's done making ice cream: the batter freezes on the sides of the bowl and the dasher can't rotate any more. If you continue (like I just did) the dasher disengages and it's hard to unlock the tilt-head.
I am excited about making flavors of ice cream you can't find in the stores and I am very glad I bought this
attachment.
1/2/2010 Update - more things I figured out:
The mixture for the ice cream freezes best when it is at 41 or 42 degrees Fahrenheit - I use a digital probe thermometer. I know this sounds trivial, but I have experimented and if it's any colder than this, the dasher stops too soon, not enough air gets mixed in, ice cream is too hard, too dense, and has too many crystals in it.
Don't lock the mixer head when using the ice cream attachment - when the dasher disengages from the motor, it gets jammed up under it and it is REALLY difficult to unlock the head.
My favorite recipes are from a book called The Perfect Scoop. I've checked out MANY ice cream books from the library and this one is my personal favorite
Now that I know these things, I love this attachment even more - but they really should sell it with an AED device and a library of workout DVDs!!!
Customer Review: if you already have a kitchenaid, i don't know why you *wouldn't* have this
Summary: 5 Stars
c'mon, fresh ice cream.
if you already have a kitchenaid stand mixer (models 20 years and younger, apparently) and don't have this attachment, i don't know what you're waiting for.
"i don't eat much ice cream because i'm on a diet"? -- bah. make your own low-fat and/or low-calorie concoctions-- there are a million ice milk, frozen yogurt, sorbet & sherbet recipes online and in books that you can tailor to your dietary restrictions (i *got* this thing so that i could return some gustatory pleasure to my father, who was recently told he had to cut his cholesterol and fat dramatically. i made a mint chocolate chip ice cream that was so fresh and delicious, but less than half the fat and cholesterol of his favorite store brand).
"i don't eat much ice cream because i hear there are uncooked eggs in it and that skeeves me out!" --bah. that's only some custard-base ice creams, and there's no reason you should feel you HAVE to start with an eggy base. again, there are a million different recipes out there, and you can always come up with your own.
"i don't eat much ice cream because i'm lactose intolerant and it kills my stomach!" --bah. sorbets and ice creams can be made dairy-free, or with lactose-reduced or lactose-eliminated dairy products. seriously-- where else are you going to find such a frozen dessert? you pretty much HAVE to make it yourself, or pay an arm & a leg to buy such a specialty product.
"i don't eat much ice cream because i'd want to make it myself but it's SO MUCH WORK" --bah. it's not. with this, there are 4 simple things to do:
1. stick the bowl in the freezer for a day.
2. make your base according to your recipe of choice and then chill it for an hour.
3. pour the base (YES pour from something with a spout. the other reviewers aren't kidding on this point, i assure you) into the bowl with the paddle stirring and let the mixer do the rest for you.
4. transfer the soft-serve consistency ice cream to new freezer-safe containers and let it "set up"/ripen for a couple of hours, and you're set.
easy peasey. no rock salt, no coming back to the bowl every 3 minutes to hand-crank it again. the only thing that could possibly make ice-cream-makery easier would be a machine that contains its own freezer/compressor, but those machines a) are much more expensive, b) are really frikking heavy and c) take up a whole heckuva lot more space.
i dunno if i'd suggest the attachment to anyone who *doesn't* already have a kitchenaid (b/c for the price of a new stand mixer PLUS the ice cream attachment, you could probably find a self-contained compressor ice cream maker...), but if you've got one, go all the way. get the dang attachment and treat yourself to lots of easy, healthy, fresh, preservative-free ice cream experiments. and uh, fresh, healthy preservative-free margaritas or whatever, too.