KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Customer Review: I screamed for ice cream!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far one of the best kitchen gadgets out there. I did some searching for a good ice cream maker and first thought of purchasing one of those plastic kinds; but it calls for salt and ice. Since I recently bought my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I looked into the ice cream attachment. For the way Kitchen Aid is built durable, and I found out that you don't need the salt and ice, I bought it. It makes the best ice cream ever! I made a batch of coffee ice cream (from the William Sonoma online recipe site), and it is the bomb! Its better than the Starbucks' kind you buy in the stores. Take it though, I am a bit of an organic freak and do use the best quality ingredients. I think it does help to use the best you can find, especially using all organic ingredients. The ice cream turns out to be shake-like at first, but if you freeze it overnight in the coldest part of the freezer, it turns out exactly like store bought. I have kids and it really is a learning experience for them to see me make the ice cream. It is also a fun event to see what the ice cream will taste like. My kids will now say we don't need to buy store bought ice cream anymore. I'm hoping ice cream making during the summer will be our family tradition to look back on. If you are looking into a fun experience and want to show off your best, purchase this attachment. You will not be disappointed. And really, about the price, it is not that much considering all the ice cream you can make for a lifetime. You can even make batches, and have a whole freezer of flavors on hand (for those who have kids, its a plus). I am thinking this x-mas I am going to make a batch for each family I know, making it all organic, and packing it with an all-organic ingredient list. Really, where can you purchase organic ice cream for cheap? What could be nicer than to have home-made ice cream as a gift? If you do want to look into what is needed to make the ice cream, I suggest going onto the William Sonoma website and search for their wonderful ice cream recipes. You'll see that it doesn't take many ingredients or isn't hard to make at all. It does take some time to actually get the ice cream with all the freezing time. You do have to freeze the bowl for 15 hours. What I do is keep the bowl in the freezer and so I can have it on hand. I make the batter in the evening if it calls to make it on the stove, put it in the freezer to cool for a bit, and then I let the mixer churn the ice cream. Thereafter, I put the made ice cream in a freezer container and freeze it overnight. When I wake the next morning, the ice cream is fully done -- texture is exactly like store bought! Have fun!Customer Review: Makes great ice cream
Summary: 5 Stars
This simple attachment does a great job of making ice cream. I bought two of these bowls as well as a case of 500 one-pint ice cream containers. What can I say, I'm hooked! It's amazing how easy it is to make frozen desserts that are far superior to anything you can buy in the store.
When I first bought the units, I had an old 1986 KitchenAid manufactured by Hobart. The attachment was not optimal with that machine. The connecter did not attach firmly to the mixer head, causing the dasher to sometimes slip while the ice cream was still quite soft. I have since purchased a new 6-Qt bowl lift model which resolved all of the dasher connection problems.
I agree with reviewers who say that the design makes it difficult to pour ingredients into the bowl. After much experimentation, I now pour my chilled ice cream mix into a silicone bowl, which is flexibile enough to form a spout for pouring into the freezer bowl. I have also found that it is much easier to mix the add-ins (nuts, fruit, chocolate, etc.) by hand after the ice cream has been frozen than to try to put them in the freezer bowl while it's churning.
The large bowl handles a quart of ice cream with ease. Larger batches, or ones with lots of alcohol (e.g., wine sorbet), won't freeze as well. This usually is not an issue, as it will firm up in the freezer. A couple kitchen towels draped over the unit while it is churning will help keep everything chilled in the bowl.
That said, here's my advice for making great frozen desserts with this attachment:
- Chill your freezer bowl well. Keep it in the coldest spot in your freezer. I turned my chest freezer down to its lowest setting, and keep my bowls in the very bottom of the freezer where it is coldest.
- Chill your mix well. You can even put it in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes before making the ice cream.
- Make no more than 3 pints at a time (3 will be a VERY full bowl)
- Work quickly once you get going, and get your completed ice cream back in the freezer as quickly as possible to prevent it getting icy.
- Use the best ingredients you can find.
- For a nice consistency, consider adding up to 1 Tbs alcohol per pint. It lowers the freezing temperature resulting in a softer product. I try to compliment the flavors -- Kirsch for fruit flavors, vodka for a neutral taste, cognac for chocolate.
- Buy David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments. It's great.
Customer Review: If I could give it less stars I would
Summary: 1 Stars
I own a Cuisinart ice cream maker. So, let me just say that I am not a novice to homemade ice cream. Recently, my husband bought me a new Kitchenaid stand mixer and all of the attachments he could find for it for a special gift for me for Valentines Day. I figured, "hey, great -- everything will work together. no need for extra appliances around, right?"
Let's start with the instructions. The instructions clearly indicate to use the adapter ring. Not all mixers require the adapter to hold the bowl. A misprint, which we see all the time, but it should have been corrected by now.
Next, they don't give you many recipes to start with. My Cuisinart came with a lot more recipes in a booklet. If this is your first ice cream maker, you'll need to plan to look up some basic ideas or purchase a cookbook inorder to make full use out of this. Not that anything was wrong with the 3 recipes given, but variety is the spice of life...
The freeze bowl does not have a lid. I suspect the folks at Kitchenaid thought the consumer didn't need one because you aren't supposed to store ice cream in that container -- but what about storing the empty freeze bowl in the freezer? I personally, like many of you, will simply store the bowl in my freezer so it is ready whenever I want it (rather than having to prepare 15 hours in advance) I don't want it just sitting in my freezer without some protection as food will be touching those surfaces.
The freeze bowl is hard to handle... it needs handles or a lip or something.
And then there's the whole design. There's no easy way to not get your hands messy when you are done making the ice cream. Ok, you could probably manage this if you went with a half batch of ice cream base -- but then what is the point of having the largest bowl capacity on the market? I have made 3 batches so far, and there just doesn't seem to be an easy way to get the attachment away from the unit without getting your fingers into a bit of ice cream. I wouldn't want someone's fingers in my ice cream.
And on that note, the mixing attachment, while probably a key to it's effectiveness, it really hard to empty off. I have a skinny scraper and even that couldn't get all the extra ice cream off of it. I don't need to wipe it clean, but leaving more than a cup on there seems wasteful.
I will likely not use this again and just go back to my simple Cuisinart.
Customer Review: Read Most Helpful Reviews Before Buying
Summary: 5 Stars
Save yourself some time and trouble. Read the Most Helpful reviews first. And, don't buy it unless you know your KitchenAid stand mixer was manufactured in the United States, after 1990. It doesn't work on my 1988 KSM90 300 watt Ultra tilt-head, white with red band.
I had to hold the drive assembly in place while lowering the head onto the dasher because it kept slipping off. I tried two different recipes. One a precooked custard base, the other no cook. My freezer is 0 degrees, fridge 35 degrees. I froze the bowl for 24 hours, and refrigerated the mix for 12 hours.
After reading some say the bowl wasn't cold enough, I decided to cover it while churning. I have a bowl cover that I cut the hole wider to accommodate the dasher, and put that on before lowering the mixer head onto the dasher. After only 5 minutes or so it started to thicken and the dasher assembly came apart with a horrible racket. I stopped it immediately. I figured my freezer is so cold, that I shouldn't have covered it.
The second time, I used my pouring shield. The front half fit the ice cream bowl perfectly all by itself and worked great for pouring in the mix. I didn't cover it this time. Again it started to freeze up very quickly and did the same thing. I had to stop it before it would ruin the bowl or mixer or both.
I called KitchenAid. They said my mixer was manufactured in 1988, and the drive assembly won't stay on the shallower planetary part on older mixers. The drive assembly wobbles, and as soon as there's resistance, it comes off. She said they used to have a replacement drive assembly without rubber grips, but they no longer offer that.
My advice after trying it, if your machine is made after 1990 and your fridge/freezer are cold, you will love it. I would treat the bowl gently to avoid future leaking and cracking, being especially careful of banging the lift mixer tabs, and avoiding quick temperature extremes. I'd let it thaw before washing in warm water, and dry it well before freezing. Putting it upside down in the freezer might not be good for the top seam. The plastic base adapter that comes with it makes a nice coaster for the frozen bowl when you're done.
Because it's a terrific product, I give it the 5 stars I would have if it had worked with my mixer. I just wish they had made it for "all KitchenAid stand mixers" like it says on the box.
Customer Review: if you want to ENJOY your ice cream guilt free....
Summary: 5 Stars
What's healthy these days, you ask? I am siding with Weston Price foundation guidelines these days. I bought this because my husband is lactose intolerant. In addition, I'd like to have ice cream made with organic ingredients without high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors and colorings.
I use honey, maple syrup, and rapadura instead of sugar, coconut milk instead of cow's milk/cream when using tropical fruit in my ice cream, and of course, raw milk and raw cream for old fashioned ice cream.
The key to getting the ice cream to taste excellent is to use fresh, ripe, preferably farmer's market organic fruit, real vanilla bean not vanilla extract, and top quality chocolate. If you use fruit that is in season, and therefore cheaper than other fruit, this will lower the cost of your ice cream and make up for using other high-end ingredients.
To reduce the time involved in making the ice cream:
1. use a food processor to mix everything - puree the fruit, mix in extracts, honey, milk etc.
2. Pass the custard through a mesh sieve before cooling it for finer, smoother consistency. Good chocolate is usually ground much finer than cheap chocolate - this helps with the consistency as well.
3. chill the batter in the fridge overnight - don't skip this important step.
4. For sorbets, frozen berries work great and you don't have to chill the custard first.
If anything comes in a box and has nutritional info in the package, I get suspicious these days. I spend too much time at the store reading labels to avoid junk (even health food stores carry ice cream loaded with stuff like GMO soy, soy lecithin, nonfat dehydrated milk etc.). So the time used to make my own with quality ingredients is not that bad considering....
But enough about the ice cream - the kitchenaid ice cream maker has never let me down (i have even made basil ice cream, avocado ice cream, and many other adventurous recipes). It's super easy to use and helps me feel good about the $$$ spent on the kitchenaid mixer. The paddle is a bit of a messy proposition, as others have mentioned, but i plop it on a plate and the ice cream stuck on it becomes my treat of soft serve before anyone else gets a taste.....