Ice Cream Maker

[ArrynField]

Any good recommendations for an Ice Cream Maker?

Has anyone tried the Ninja Creami?

[CarterTG]

Bought a Cuisinart 2-quart several years back to satisfy a few curiosities: 1.) The process of making ice cream and 2.) if a milk substitute would work.



In the traditional process, it centers on the chilled tub. Modern machines like this one, the metal tub walls encapsulate the freezing gel found in reuseable ice packs. The tub is put into the freezer to freeze it in a similar manner. This MAY be the deal breaker given the size of a typical Hong Kong refrigerator. Continue if the freezer can abide…

Once chilled, the tub will stay this way for a good long time. It’s placed in the Cuisinart machine which churns the tub itself round & round. A stationary scraper insert makes contact with the chilled walls. Some refrigerated (cooled) ice cream mixture is poured into this tub. When the liquid makes contact with the wall, it’s turned into a thin layer of ice-cream and immediately scraped off. The scraper also serves to churn air into the forming mass of ice cream.

The design is such that the top remains open during the churning process for not only pouring the initial mixture, but to allow stirring-in of additional items at any time. Older machines had a motor at the top center that may have somewhat blocked finishing moves.

Watching a few videos on the Ninja Creami, it seems unnecessarily more complicated (to clean) by comparison. I’m also not a fan of outright freezing the concoction at the start and doing more of a “shaved ice” process. Conventional ice cream makers are nowhere near this “Ninja” in terms of noise. Did anyone tell these guys real Ninjas were stealthy and quiet? LOL

If I recall, mine was about a third of the price of the Ninja.



In the end, it was indeed possible to make vanilla ice cream using a non-dairy substitute like soy milk. If I had the time to try it again, I’d play with oat milk and retain control of how much sugar goes in.

[ArrynField]

Nice review on your Cuisinart.

Do you feel that it’s a novelty purchase, or do you use it regularly?

What are your favourite recipes? Have you tried the egg custard based chocolate ice cream?

Are your home made ice cream as good as store bought ones eg Movenpick / Hagaan Dazs (Haven’t bought since they had serveral batches with pesticide last year.

[Ellenna]

I have an ice cream maker similar in method to Cuisinart and I love it. Bought it solely for the purpose of making vegan natural ice cream and it's a bomb! Coconut milk with fresh ripe strawberries... Oatly chocolate milk with crushed Oreos... Lingonberry jam from Ikea with macadamia milk...
Bought the machine in the Japanese department store in Macao.

[CarterTG]

Do I use it regularly? No. But it doesn’t make it any more of a “novelty” than my rare use of the oven to bake brownies or cookies. It’s simply a tool I appreciate having to satiate any desires should I ever think up a “what if” flavor.

The yellow tint in the image above is because I -did- make a custard-based ice cream…. Slowly folding in eggs with its yolk during the process. I devoted a physical folder to keep notes in, but it basically started with watching a few YouTube clips and amalgamating the common ingredients.

Quality of the end-result will be linked to the richness of ingredients used. If I were aiming to make an ice-cream to rival the commercial gourmet stuff, I’d start by grabbing some (Costco) heavy cream. ($10+ usd/ quart) I’m confident I’ll prefer my end-result over a pint of Häagen-Dazs (aka sugar grenade )

As Ellenna stated, with a machine in-house, the mind is free to think up all manner of flavors. If I had the time (and I truly don’t lately) the flavors at the top of my lengthy experiment list would be:
Hazelnut coffee
Black Sesame
Mangosteen
Bailey’s Irish Cream or Kahlua?

[chobochobo]

Currently getting to grips with a Ninja. We had the big Cuisinart before, which was ok but super bulky.

You need to pre-freeze your ingredients for the Ninja to 'blend' into icecream. It seems more flexible. I'm looking foward to making lemon granita to put in my beer to make a fancy shandy.