KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Customer Review: Poorly designed product
Summary: 2 Stars
I am going to be rather harsh on my review of this product. I have used it 4 times, and each time I shake my head in frustration. First, the design is very poor for a Kitchenaid product. I have a 20 year old mixer, and I simply can not get the drive assembly to fit properly to my mixer.
It wobbles, slips, slides, and finally just falls off, usually during operation. This causes the whole unit to collapse with a horrible screaming noise and then come to a dead hault. I am sure I am going to break the plastic pieces any time soon.
The "cog" style fitting that operates the paddle is my biggest complaint. Why didn't the designers just make a paddle that fits into the shaft, and operates smoothly like the others beaters? Trying to get the paddle to stay in that itty-bitty indentation they call a "hole" at the bottom of the bowl is also a problem.
Lastly, why didn't the designers make a plastic top for this unit, one that fits over the bowl but keeps all the cold air "inside" the bowl, freezing the ice cream faster. I find that I have to let the mixer go at least 25 minutes or more to get it to just begin to thicken up. Then, once it starts to thicken, the attachments fall apart due to the resistance.
I usually have to stop mixing before the mixture is thick enough due to all the above mentioned problems. I then try and mix it by hand in the cold bowl as long as I can to thicken it up, then transfer it to the freezer to harden. The whole process takes up to 2 days, before we can even eat the ice cream.
I keep commenting to my husband "I must be doing something wrong", but have now come to the conclusion, no, it is the product that was poorly designed. For the price of this product, I expected a better design. Good Luck to all who own this item.
Customer Review: I scream! You scream! Home-made Ice Cream!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have wanted to make some home-made ice cream for awhile. It was something my Grandparents used to do in the summertime, and I always really loved it. After recently buying the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, getting this attachment was a no-brainer.
It took me awhile to get the hang of this. First off, the attachment doesn't "click on" like the bread hook, but is held in place by the pressure between the mixer and the bowl. The instructions didn't make this clear, and there are some parts that come with this attachment I didn't end up using. It depends on what kind of stand mixer you have. However, once that was figured out making the ice cream was a breeze.
It is definitely not "instant ice cream", or something that can be made on the spot. The bowl has to be frozen for about several hours before using. If you have the space, then you can just leave the bowl in the freezer by my refrigerator is too small for that. Once you have the bowl cold enough, you mix the ingredients together and then pour them into the bowl with the mixer running, which takes about 20 minutes.
The ice cream you are going to get will be "soft serve" consistency. You can put the finished product into the fridge to firm it up a bit, but it will crystallize and become more like sherbet. I haven't managed to get really thick creamy ice cream yet, but I will keep trying.
This attachment comes with a simple recipe book to get you started, but I recommend picking up the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book as a supplement.
Customer Review: Chintzy quality and poor design
Summary: 1 Stars
So I'm basically dissapointed with this product and seeing the number of bad reviews I really hope kitchenaid takes this product back to the drawing board. So as the product is currently offered you pay $80 for:
1. Chintzy - The parts are made of plastic. I have a hard time understanding why kitchen aid decided to use plastic.
2. Poor Design - The piece that attaches to the mixing head doesn't lock into place. Being that the mixing head allows for locking mixing attachments into place why doesn't this piece. This is the fatal flaw because if you decide to make more than 2 cups of ice cream you'll never get past the soft serve phase because the piece that attaches to the mixer jumps and disengages from the ice cream churner. This is a real pain to get back in place and you get ice cream all over everything and after you do it just jumps off again.
3. Messy - You need to start the mixer before you pour the contents in but because the bowl is so small it is a nightmare to try and get the custard into the churner resulting in a big mess.
4 No durability - I have a feeling one of these parts is going to break before I get to my 100th batch.
When you use less than 2 cups of liquid this product makes fantastic ice cream and the churner is not disengaged. But it's crazy to go through all the work to make the custard for only 2 cups and most recipes call for 4 cups of cream/milk.
I'll be really excited when Kitchenaid redesigns this product to eliminate the design flaws. Make the parts out of durable metal, design the attachment to lock into the mixer head. Make the bowl a little bigger or provide a spout to better pour the custard into the bowl when set-up.
Customer Review: Great, easy to use ice cream maker
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used a variety of different ice cream makers over the years. They ranged from the crushed ice/salt hand crank variety to different electric units. All had various shortcomings, often serious enough to compromise the quality of the product or the experience of making the ice cream. This Kitchenaid unit is easy to use and produces an excellent product in about 30 minutes.
You start the process by putting the Kitchenaid bowl in the freezer overnight. It is basically a double walled bowl that contains some liquid between the two walls. When left in the freezer overnight, the liquid freezes to whatever your freezer temperature is set to. This allows the ice cream making process to proceed without the hassle of the crushed ice, salt, hand cranking, etc.
The hardest part of the process is finding a good ice cream recipe. I bought the Ben & Jerry's book. A great source of general ice cream making info as well as recipes. You can also find recipes on the internet and many other ice cream recipe books. One important thing to remember when producing your chosen recipe is that even though this Kitchenaid ice cream maker states it can accomodate 2 quarts, because the ice cream mix expands as it freezes, your probably best to use no more that 1.5 quarts of mix. If you were to put 2 quarts of mix into the Kitchenaid bowl, it would overflow as the mix froze. The instructions that come with this unit are a little cryptic, so it's best to set up the unit on your mixer before you actually intand to make ice cream.
Overall, this unit is easy to use, easy to clean, appears pretty durable, and produces great ice cream. This is, by far, the best ice cream maker I have ever used. Highly recommended.
Customer Review: A Must Have Attachment!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was very excited and couldn't wait to receive the maker, and finally it arrived a couple of days ago. I have already made 2 batches of ice cream.
I think the instructions were pretty clear, however I did have a little trouble fitting the piece that attaches to the top of mixer into place. It is the piece that holds the dasher into the bowl. I have the Epicurean 6 qt model and according to the pictures I was to insert the piece one way, but it only fit the other. Oh Well it seems to work just fine! If you have trouble with yours fitting, you might want to try turning it over also.
It is really very easy to use, and my 1st batch came out great, and I even goofed up the recipe! My second batch I made just plain vanilla and my husband agrees it is the best ice cream ever. I did not use the recipe that was in the book, I used a non bake one that I found on-line.
If you are in a hurry for ice cream then you might be disappointed. It is a slow process, but well worth it. After mixing the ice cream you transfer it to a plastic container to ripen, and that can take several hours to harden to the right consistency. It does not come out of the bowl hard, but very soft, almost perfect if you are wanting a milk shake.
They suggest leaving your bowl in the freezer so it will be ready when you want to make ice cream, and that is what I have been doing. If you have a deep freeze I would suggest putting it in there, along with any ice cream you are waiting to harden. I found that if I kept it in my regular freezer it took a lot longer.
I have been very satisfied with my purchase and I am looking forward to trying many new and delicious recipes in the future.