KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Customer Review: If your ice cream won't freeze, read on...
Summary: 4 Stars
I too have trouble getting the ice cream frozen in this attachment. I've tried decreasing my freezer temp, storing the bowl in the freezer indefinitely, and using a variety of full-fat recipes to no avail. Even so, the ice cream was tasty yet way too crystalline and hard and I practically had to chip off some with an ice pick and a hammer for dessert.
But, I spent a lot of money on this thing and I'm stubborn, so I occasionally give ice cream making a shot just to see I can get it to work. Today I used a Ben and Jerry's recipe that called for 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup milk. I misread the recipe and only added 1 cup of cream and 1 cup milk. After 10 minutes of churning, I realized my mistake, and added the second cup of cream while the whole thing was mixing. Within 5-10 minutes, the whole thing bound up very nicely forming a wad of ice cream around the paddle. Perhaps starting with a smaller volume allowed it to freeze faster? I have (properly) used this same recipe in the past and it did not freeze, so I think its something about adding extra liquid later. I can FINALLY understand all these people who have been raving about this attachemnt, but I'm still perplexed why mine just does not freeze as well. I wonder if my bowl has less freezing as it sounds very sloshy when I turn it around.
So, if you have trouble freezing, maybe give this weirdo method a shot. Hopefully it works for others. This batch is infinitely better than my previous ones! I've had this attachment for over a year but have used it only around 10 times because the results were so disappointing and I felt like I was wasting good ingredients. If I can replicate this success, I will be using it constantly!
Customer Review: Third Machine, the Only One that has Worked
Summary: 5 Stars
The GOOD:
- I have bought 3 ice cream makers in my life. This is the most expensive one I have purchased, but it is the only one that made ice cream after I used it! I was very happy and pleasantly surprised.
- Only had to freeze the container before use for a day. Just washed it and popped it in the freezer the night before.
- As many other reviews suggested, I made an ice cream from Ben and Jerry's book to test the machine out. I cooked the eggs before so my family was not eating a raw egg mixture. Did it by searching online and finding a recipe. Basically, all you have to do is beat the eggs, sugar, and milk over a glass bowl while heating the glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Use a surface thermometer to measure when the mixture reaches 160 degrees F. I kept my hand mixer on the whole time. Then rapidly chill the whole bowl in a ice water bath. Then pop it in the fridge to chill overnight. Yes, this makes ice cream take an extra day to make but, hey, you are chilling the container overnight anyways.
The BAD:
- Well, the mixture does kind of climb up the top of the paddle. It did not exit the container because it can hold 2 qts of ice cream. The Ben and Jerry's mixture barely made it. Chalk it up to good measurements of the ingredients I guess! I still don't care about downsides. This is truly the first machine that actually made ice cream in the end!
- I think the ice cream could have been creamier. Perhaps it lets too much air into the ice cream? I used every fatty ingredient I could: whole milk, heavy whipping cream... or maybe it's just a function of using a home ice cream maker.
The UGLY:
- NOTHING SO FAR!
Customer Review: Love it, now that I figured it out!
Summary: 5 Stars
I looked at a lot of ice cream makers & reviews before deciding on this one. It was a big selling point that it would work with an appliance I already have, thus taking up less cabinet space. The only thing about that, though, is there is no insulation on the sides or lid on top, which means the temperature in the kitchen will affect this maker more than others.
This fits my KitchenAid Artisan 325 Watt mixer model, using the larger opening of drive assembly, and I did not need the base adapter for the bottom of the bowl.
The first two times I tried to make ice cream, I ended up with a thawed out bowl, full of soupy liquid ice cream mixture after 30 minutes. Frustrated (and hungry!) I hit the internet to find some answers, because the manual doesn't have any trouble-shooting assistance. After a bunch of reading, I found some mistakes I had made:
- Smaller recipes freeze faster. I was making a recipe that supposedly would make 2 quarts (as the manual suggests) but it was still too much.
- Reduce the temperature of your freezer - I took mine down from 5°F to -5°F, and the frozen state of the mixer bowl definitely lasted longer.
- Bury the bowl at the bottom of your freezer - it's colder the farther down you go.
- Freeze the dasher paddle with the bowl, so it doesn't have to cool down with the ice cream mixture.
So for my third attempt, I only poured in half of the mixture I had originally made, along with following the other tips above, and the ice cream turned out beautifully in just 20 minutes!
Now I'm looking forward to lots of delicious recipes... so glad I bought this!
Customer Review: Yum!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my boyfriend for his birthday and because we try to avoid processed food but love ice cream - a tough dilemma! We love it! I bought it because he already had a kitchenaid stand mixer, and I didn't want to buy yet another appliance to store in our cozy (small) apartment. We've made several batches in the last couple of weeks, all of which turned out really well, once we perfected the batter. We've only done ice cream and custards, but I'm excited about doing some sorbets and frozen yogurts.
I think that one negative, which is probably just because I didn't realize what was involved with ice cream making, is that you have to freeze the bowl for 15+ hours before using it - which requires some planning. Also, I'm not sure how it would do if you wanted to make more than one batch at a time - you might have to re-freeze the bowl. The batters require a bit of a learning curve, especially if you're an amateur and learning how to temper eggs! Just search online and you'll be fine... it also takes a little practice. Finally, I was a little suprised when the ice cream never really 'thickened' or completely froze while mixing. My boyfriend told me that it's not supposed to. The maker is just supposed to get it to be like soft-serve and get air into the mix so it's light and creamy. You let the mixer do it's thing, then put it in a container - big, cheap rubbermaid works well - and back in the freezer for a few more hours to harden, especially for batters with a lot of stuff in them - like fruit or bananas. After figuring all that out, we discovered that it makes delicious (all natural, organic, corn-free, etc...) ice cream!
Customer Review: Great, but you have to treat it right
Summary: 5 Stars
We are on our second ice cream bowl. Our first bowl sprung a leak after about two years of use. We suspect this is possibly our fault - we cleaned it with very hot water despite the warnings to use luke warm water.
Yet we're still giving it 5 stars. We have made many, many batches of ice cream and sorbet without a loser batch in the lot. In fact, our friends request ice cream if they are joining us for dinner. Even plain vanilla ice cream is the best we've had (and we have expensive ice cream tastes - we beat out some of the small batch made from scratch ice cream shops in our area, in our not-so-modest opinion). We did a pear-cardamom sorbet that was unbelievable easy - 1 can of pear nectar with a little sugar and a little spice. We've experimented with strange flavors, but also end up making the same recipes again and again because they are so good!
We've learned to plan ahead, although we can speed things up if we 1) have the bowl live in our freezer (where it's always ready), 2) put the custard bowl in an ice bath after it's cooked (add salt to the ice to really reduce the cooling time) - we can have the batter cold enough to process in as little as 20 minutes, and 3) ripen the ice cream by spreading it into a big tupperware - if it's only an inch or two deep, it will ripen enough to serve in about 45 minutes.
It's a great machine. And homemade ice cream is absolutely worth the work, although I think the work is pretty minimal. And I do the fully leaded custard base most of the time! One recipe we love (Epicurious Clove Cinnamon ice cream) has 8 egg yolks and lots of heavy cream. Totally worth it.