Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Machine, 1.5 Quart Mix It In Soft Serve, Yogurt, Sorbet, Sherbet Maker, White, ICE-45P1

This thing is freaking awesome. My husband is kind of a DQ addict and it's very nice to be able to make it at home (at a fraction of the price). There are some recipes that come with the book. Forget them. There are some Junkett mixes you can buy that will do in a pinch. But here's how to make PERFECT DQ copy cat ice cream:Mix 1 tablespoon of Gelatin in a 1/4 cup of cold waterWarm 2 cups of milk, be careful not to scorch it. Turn off the heat before it boils.Add Gelatin Mix, 1 Cup of Sugar 1 teaspoon of REAL vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the Milk. Mix it well and allow it to cool for 30 minutes.Add 1 1/2 cups of cream to the cooled mixture and place it in the fridge for 8 hoursThe mixture turns into a kind of milky, ice cream jello. It's kind of alarming at first, but trust me, it'll be good.Mix it in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes. Be sure the bowl is frozen solid and you keep the mixer away from the sun or lights that produce heat.Yes this is time consuming and takes planning, but remember, you have to freeze the bowl for about 12 hours to get your ice cream to freeze anyway. It's totally worth it. I'm not kidding.You can make a Peanut Buster Parfait by layering hot fudge, spanish peanuts and ice cream or my favorite, the pecan mudslide, which consists of hot fudge, caramel, salted pecan pieces and, of course, ice cream. The above recipe is perfect for about 4 DQ treat-size servings or 8 small cones. I don't think it's great for cones, it doesn't come out in a nice neat stream, maybe because I make the ice cream so thick. But, we're not in it for cones anyway.The one complaint I have about this ice-cream maker is that there was a little piece on the condiment slide that was broken upon opening. A little super glue fixed that right up.Speaking of the condiment slide. You can use mini M&Ms, mini chips, chopped nuts, or sprinkles with it. Anything larger will clog it up. Also, it won't hold liquid condiments like chocolate or butter scotch. It works by dropping the mix-ins down a chute while the ice cream is dispensing. It's kind of a cool feature, but I don't really use it.

This machine is a hit with the family. It is so easy and quick, (30 minutes). No need for salt. Just follow the easy recipes. Our favorite so far is the birthday cake ice cream.

Just wanted

I love my old delonghi that finall gave out, after almost 20 years. LOVED IT. It was a compressor model and i know this was not. So I purchased two bowl, that amazon recommended to go with it. IT DID NOT, this ice cream maker is newer style and bowl revised, $50 bucks waisted after packaging gone and frozen bowl that did not fit.I think what I do not like is the way this works, messy, too many parts that are unnecessary = hard to really clean and to make it, you really need a very cream based recipe, whole milk, not a way to make a healthy alternative like in a normal compressor nodel, so i made it (after the first bowl disaster) and it was ok, worked, not great, a bit soft and runny (just limp), or it then went too frozen and would not come out. Very little wiggle room, not good. But it worked about 80% of what I expected and have again, experience in making ice cream. I think if i was on a budget, and this was not a budget buy at $179, but if so, i would buy just a simple freezer bowl maker, more options in recipes, you do not need to worry about the soft serve being just right recipe and timing and better experience. I would not buy this again. BUT, i also would really not buy a freezer bowl model again, instead there are new compressor models out there, amazon and magazine recommended I am going to buy, they are about $280, but for the extra money, they do more, no freezing and will use more like my old delonghi. I just do not like this one from Cusinart, it has a limited window of results, take a bit too long, the recipe is really based on heavy cream and milk (not at all healthy and tastes like fatty ice cream) and the texture is only so so. It is way too many parts, messy, big and complicated. Add to this the shoot for kids toppings did not really work, was super messy. This is more of a novelty that was part of a party that I will just never want or like to use again. Waist of money, go better with a compressor if you really make ice cream or a smaller freeser bowl unit - same size both, but smaller machine and not mess and easier, cheaper and you just make ice cream over limp soft serve. I do not recommend this item.

So I made my first bowl of ice cream 2 days ago. I was using the mint recipe that is included in the manual. I was skeptical of the reviews because others were having issues with the freezing. The the first bowl I made was slush. I had put my bowl in the freezer overnight but I wrapped it in a plastic bag as the manual suggests. I had mixed all the ingredients before taking out the bowl. I put everything in according to directions and after 15 minutes it was still slush; 20 minutes, slush; 30 minutes; slush. Finally after 60 minutes I gave up. I came back here and read over all the reviews again. I saw several people suggest to mix the ingredients and freeze for 20 minutes before starting the ice cream maker. So last night I attempted this again. My bowl had already been in the freezer overnight. This time it was not wrapped in a plastic bag. I wanted to try vanilla this time so I mixed together all of my ingredients. I placed them in the freezer for 20 minutes. Once the time was up, I pulled the bowl out and put the ice cream maker together and started it. Then I pulled the ingredients out of the freezer and poured them in. 15 minutes later we had ICE CREAM! and the longer we ran it the thicker it got. Today I attempted coffee ice cream and went through the same steps. ICE CREAM AGAIN! So for those of you that are having issues with getting your ice cream to freeze, try mixing your ingredients and freezing them for 20 minutes BEFORE you take your bowl out and start the ice cream maker. It made a big difference for me.

The cooling section must be frozen. The machine does not freeze electronically.