Cuisinart Mix-It-In Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker ICE-45 | Fresh ice cream never tasted so good

Cuisinart Mix-It-In Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker ICE-45 | Works great!

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Cuisinart Mix-It-I...

	Cuisinart Mix-It-In Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker ICE-45 average customer review:based on 97 reviews view larger image
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Fresh ice cream never tasted so good

After reading many reviews of this product, I wasn't so sure that I spent my money wisely. What I think many people who left negative reviews here don't realize is how to freeze the bowl correctly, which results in the thin, milkshake texture and not ice cream. I have used this machine quite a few times in the past month that I have had it, and the results varied at the beginning until I learned a few tips through trial and error.

First, follow other reviewers' advice and freeze the bowl in the back of your freezer to ensure the coldest temperature possible. Not only that, but leave the top of the bowl uncovered by other objects so that the cold air can penetrate the inside area of the bowl completely. I left a frozen meal box on top of the bowl one time, and the ingredients did not freeze to as hard of a consistency as usual. If you have any doubts as to whether or not the bowl gets cold enough, let me share my story. I made my ice cream and was washing the bowl afterwards. When I went to dry it with a paper towel, the paper kept tearing off and sticking to the sides because the water was freezing on the bowl! Mind you, I have a standard refrigerator/freezer unit in my house, not a fancy separate deep freezer.

Invest in a whisk so that you can beat the ingredients together well- it aerates the mixture so that it's easier to freeze while in the bowl.

Don't take out the freezer bowl until you're ready to turn the machine on and pour the ingredients in. Also, while you're setting the bowl up in the machine, put the bowl with your ingredients in the freezer so that it gets an extra minute to chill on its own.

In general I find that the consistency of the mix is perfect at about 20 minutes or longer. Sometimes the ice cream looks like it's being pooped out 1 inch at a time, but if you have a small container (like a cone), just hold it as close to the dispensing spout as possible, and you will get the swirl dispensing action of a real soft serve machine. Don't think that this machine is the same as the real thing- it doesn't dispense exactly the same way and costs a lot less for a reason! Whatever is left of the ice cream can be frozen into a nice Italian ice consistency and tastes just as delicious!

Clean up is easy- whatever you need to clean is detachable from the main unit. The only thing is you need to wash things by hand, but that's not that hard to do!

It's been a lot of fun creating my own recipes with this machine. Homemade ice cream is great because you know exactly what is going into the mixture, and you can adjust the sugar/fat content on your own. I'd recommend this machine to anyone who loves soft serve. It's a great gadget for kids and adults and a lot of fun to use.

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Works great!

I was a little hesitant to buy this since the reviews are basically split, but it works great for us. I have a regular freezer above my fridge and I turned it to its coldest setting. I keep the freezer bowl in the back (and center) of the freezer, directly in front of the cold air. The bowl gets so cold that I usually can't wash it within a few hours after making ice cream since water freezes on it immediately and paper towels break off and stick to it... Even regular towels leave fibers frozen to the side of the bowl.

The first time we made ice cream, we didn't get really good results. I think the reasons are that the bowl wasn't cold enough, and we used the lower-fat vanilla recipe which lacked heavy cream to make it the right consistancy. The second time we got it right. That tells you that even if you get bad results the first time, maybe you're doing something wrong and just try again!

Although the ice cream is good, I must say that it's NOT exactly the same as you'd buy at an ice cream stand. It's a little lighter & fluffier and not as solid. Actually we like it better when it's too cold to dispense, because it's colder & closer to the kind you'd buy. The mix-it-ins don't work very well for us, but we just sprinkle the toppings on afterwards if we want them. So far we've tried the simple vanilla, chocolate, mint, strawberry-banana frozen yogurt and orange creamsicle sherbert. We did not like the chocolate at all, but the others were pretty good (You should use half mint and half vanilla extract for the mint ice cream because it tastes too much like double-mint gum if you don't). I always reduce the amount of sugar by half, and it's still very sweet. Also it usually takes 20-25 minutes to make, unless you're making less than half the recipe. Eventually I'll have all the recipes modified to our taste after trial and error.

As to the clean-up, other than the freezer bowl which I find has to defrost before washing & re-freezing, cleaning everything is pretty easy. I take all the pieces apart and let them sit in hot soapy water for a few minutes.

I ended up buying another bowl so we can make two kinds at once. Overall we're really happy. We haven't had any store-bought ice cream since we got this, although I have spent about $70 in ingredients! I think I went a little overboard though, at least now I'll only have to re-stock the milk and cream.

Check out the pictures I uploaded; I think our results look better than the pictures on the box!

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yummy icecream

This ice

cream maker is easy to use and easy to clean!

Cuisnart Ice Cream Maker Freezer Bowl

A must-have if you own the Ice Cream Maker - otherwise it takes too long to clean and freeze the bowl that comes with it.

Easy to make

I received this as a Christmas present and have made ice cream at least a dozen times since. The only time it didn't turn out was when I only froze the bowl for 7 hours instead of all day or overnight. We just have a normal freezer and it freezes just fine in there.

We usually make the simple vanilla or simple chocolate recipes which are as the name says, simple. Takes about 5 minutes to make the batter and then about 16 minutes to freeze. We only make a 1/2 batch, so I don't know if it would take longer with a larger batch.

One trick we learned with the mix-ins is to chill them first. We put the sprinkles and mini chocolate chips in the freezer while the ice cream was being made. They dispensed easily, nothing got stuck, and cleanup of the dispensers was easy. Many parts are dishwasher safe, but cleanup is more involved than our traditional ice cream maker.

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