KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Customer Review: Makes great ice cream if used correctly.
Summary: 5 Stars
I agree with the earlier positive reviews about the quality of the ice cream maker attachment and the quality of the ice cream it produces. It makes the best ice cream my family has had, is sturdy, quiet, and solidly made. I also like the fact that it doesn't take up additional counter space the way a stand-alone appliance would. If you store the bowl in the back of the freezer, you can put the dasher and drive assembly in a drawer, and avoid additional clutter. In terms of simplicity and ease of use, it is miles ahead of a traditional ice and salt crank freezer.
Having said that, it is necessary to follow the instructions carefully to end up with good results. It's essential that the bowl be completely frozen (the manual recommends at least 15 hours), and the batter be completely chilled (I try to chill it overnight). You should then end up with ice cream the consistency of soft-serve or frozen custard, which is delicious and edible, but, like with any ice cream maker, has to be frozen for a couple of hours to ripen to the consistency of store-bought ice cream. This means that for the best results, you should start preparing the day before you want the ice cream, and actually make it a few hours before you plan to serve it to allow it to ripen. If you're impatient, don't keep everything cold enough, turn the mixer speed up, etc. the result will probably be edible, but it may not be the best ice cream.
As far as adding the batter to the bowl, I have found that the clear Kitchenaid pouring shield works fine on the freezer bowl (I have the 300 watt, 4 1/2 quart mixer) and it helps prevent spills.
One disadvantage that comes from the time it takes the bowl to freeze, is that you can make only one batch a day. So if you have a big group coming, and you need more than 2 quarts or you want more than one flavor, you need to start a couple of days early. The guide also does not come with many ice cream recipes, but I also bought the Ultimate Ice Cream Book by Bruce Weinstein (ISBN: 0688161499), and it gives you more recipes than it would ever be healthy for one family to make.
Bottom line: great product and highly recommended, but follow the instructions carefully and plan ahead.
Customer Review: I scream, u scream, we all scream for ice cream
Summary: 5 Stars
I love the ice cream this gadget makes. The price may be a bit high, but then you have to consider how inferior their competition is. I am really tired of going to a department store (Wal-Mart, of course) and seeing CHEAP UGLY PLASTIC JUNK for sale that is destined to break down in about two or three years (with luck). I like manufacturers that take a little pride in their product and make it graceful and elegant, instead of trying to save a few dollars by replacing metal with plastic.
If another manufacturer could actually compete with Kitchen-Aid in the realm of mixers, then maybe Kitchen-Aid would be forced to lower their prices. I have tried other brands many a time, and my final memories of their products is of them sitting in the garbage can looking up at me.
My only gripe, and it really is a major gripe that makes me wonder about KA, would be, why isn't there a larger bowl for the six quart mixer, instead of this smaller "one size fits all" which is really fitted for the 4 1/2 quart mixer.
I would like the ability to make larger quantities for friends as well as just personal consumption.
I have made the following flavors:
coffee (grind your own beans)
chocolate (Scarfen-berger & Calibaut--the best chocolate that money can buy)
ginger (candied ginger is ok for this, but be careful about making it too sweet)
green tea (use MATCHA green tea powder... it should cost no more than $50 per kilogram... beware of scalpers, esp. Japanese)
pistachio (use unsalted, dry roasted pistachios--Trader Joe's sells the very best)
mango/pineapple (use the real stuff, raw produce, uncanned, fully ripe)
and the list goes on...
Nothing in the store can compare with what you can make, if you take the trouble. Too many bean-counting fools among the ice cream makers have chiseled away at quality. Which is why you are looking to purchase an ice cream maker.
BTW, this is pretty easy to use if you have any cooking sense. If not, then you should ask yourself why you bothered with homemade ice cream in the first place. Just continue buying ice cream from the grocery store.
Customer Review: Three batches and still not right
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this for my K5SS lift bowl KitchenAid stand mixer. I read the reviews and since there were more positive than negative, I bought it. I did call KitchenAid to make sure it would fit my older model. First, the directions about how to attach (I use the word loosely) the drive assembly to the mixer were vague and the pictures didn't help any. After reading the reviews I knew it was important to get it right. I did a dry run and thought I was OK. The drive assembly does not have a tight fit and there are two hole options. The directions didn't say if it made a difference which hole to use. It did. My first batch began making a funny clicking noise right from the beginning. In about ten minutes it sounded really bad. I stopped the mixer, and tried to snug up the piece. No luck. I took it out and realized that the drive assembly had started to grind into the plastic around the hole. I refit it using the other hole and got some pretty fair ice cream. It never did get to the custard stage, but I put it in the freezer and thought it was OK. My second attempt was on a warmer day...about 83 in my kitchen. That was a disaster. The bowl warmed up too soon and the ice cream never started to get hard. Yes, I had everything very cold and the bowl had been in the zero degrees freezer for several days. The third try was today. This time I have on the air conditioning, I slightly froze my mix and I surrounded the bowl with some foam insulation. About 10 minutes into the process the ice cream on outside of the bowl began freezing up too soon. In about 15 minutes I tried adding Oreo cookie crumbs and the whole device began slipping. Trying to reattach the drive assembly and paddle to the mixer did not work, it just kept slipping off. So the outside of the ice cream bowl had nice firm ice cream but the inside was still almost liquid. I don't know what I am doing wrong...but it shouldn't be this hard and KitchenAid should send different attachment pieces for different mixers, or make the one they send snug up firmly on the shaft.
I'm disappointed, but I'll keep trying. Maybe it's my older mixer, but they shouldn't say it would work if it doesn't.
Customer Review: LOVE IT! Works GREAT, and saves me space!
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE my Kitchenaid stand mixer Ice Cream Maker attachment! I keep the bowl stored in my freezer, but I have the interior of it lined with plastic wrap, and have stashed different items inside of it that don't put out any odor, so that I can maximize my freezer space. I also keep the beater and connection attachment stashed in my Kitchenaid's mixer bowl, so that I don't have to hunt for it when I'm ready to use it.
Prior to buying this attachment for my Kitchenaid, I had a Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker, White, which, don't get me wrong, worked perfectly well, but it just didn't make sense to me to have to find the space to store a separate, smaller-capacity ice cream maker, when one became available for my Kitchenaid stand mixer.
When I'd originally purchased my Kitchenaid stand mixer, it came with a set of three nesting stainless steel bowls with plastic lids. It just happened that the plastic lid on the medium-sized nesting stainless bowl fit the inside opening of the ice cream maker bowl perfectly, so, in an effort to preserve as much of the cold as possible from the bowl, and to keep the ice cream batter inside the bowl as much as possible, I cut a circle out of the center of the plastic lid. Every time that I use my ice cream maker attachment, after I've put the beater inside of the ice cream bowl, I fit the plastic lid over top of it, pour in the ice cream batter, and start it up. It seems to help keep the bowl colder, and freeze the ice cream faster.
I've made quite a few different kinds of ice cream with this attachment, and have never been displeased with the results. It's also a definite plus that this ice cream maker attachment takes up less space than my old Cuisinart ice cream maker. So, if you've got a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and are a fan of homemade ice cream, I see it as a foregone conclusion that this is an attachment to pick up. I've got other attachments for my Kitchenaid, but this is the one that I use the most. And it's worth every penny to me! Give it a try - I doubt that you'll regret it!
Customer Review: It really works - instructions need some help
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this hoping that all the reviews I had read were true and I wasn't disappointed. The ice cream and sorbets turned out by this attachment taste great and the device really does work smoothly. The one thing that I found could have used some help was the instruction book. While the instructions are simple, it would have been better if some better pictures were included and some detailed wording. I have the "lifting" bowl, not the attached base bowl. Because of that you have to attach the dasher best in the order of 1) first putting the bowl in, 2) placing the dasher into the bowl and holding the mixer attachment in place (it doesn't snap in), 3) lifting the bowl and 4) pushing the dasher and mixer attachment loosely together to engage the dasher to the mixer arm. The instructions DO NOT TELL YOU that the pieces are not snap together and that they are supposed to be a little loose. This would have helped since I expected the parts to "snap together" tightly.
Second, one of the reviewers suggested placing a towel over the mixer and bowl when you are running the dasher - I definitely recommend this too. It keeps your batter cooler and helps it stay cold while it is firming up. Also, you MUST put your batter into the refrigerator before you use it. I actually put it into the freezer for about 1/2 hour before pouring it in while it is still in liquid form. The colder the batter before mixing, the sooner it will firm up. For the ice creams, this helps to make it a little more ice cream cone ready when you are through mixing versus having to put the mix into the freezer for an hour or two. If you have small kids "waiting for the first scoop" from the mixer, this helps them get a scoop vs. making them wait again while you put it into the freezer.
I really like it a lot and it's actually pretty easy to operate. If you're an ice cream maniac, you'll want to keep batter in the refrig so you can whip up a quick batch when you want it.
Thanks KitchenAid for making home ice cream so easy. Can't wait to start making my own concoctions and recipes now.