How to buy an ice cream maker

Everybody loves ice cream, and now more than ever, it’s easier to make ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt at home. While people have been making ice cream before the advent of electricity (so yes, you can make ice cream without a machine), there are several options in various price ranges that make the job easier, with results that your friends and family will love….

Cinnamon ice cream recipe

Everybody loves ice cream, and now more than ever, it’s easier to make ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt at home. While people have been making ice cream before the advent of electricity (so yes, you can make ice cream without a machine), there are several options in various price ranges that make the job easier, with results that your friends and family will love.

There are a few options to consider when buying an ice cream maker, but rest assured there’s one that’ll fit within most budgets. I’ve got additional information in my book, The Perfect Scoop, the best-selling guide to making ice cream at home,but here is some additional information about the various ice cream machines that are available, to help you make your decision.

(Note that this post contains affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase using a link from this page.)

Cuisinart ice cream machine

Cuisinart ICE-100

I’ve used a Cuisinart ice cream machine with a built-in compressor for over a decade with excellent results. Their latest model, the Cuisinart ICE-100 produces great ice cream and the price is right for a self-refrigerating machine. The great thing about a machine with a built-in compressor is that you don’t have to pre-canisters; you can churning your ice cream or sorbet as soon as it’s chilled!

One downside is that some people find the noise bothersome. But it is a machine and machines do make noise. (I’m still waiting for someone to make a noiseless vacuum cleaner!) To minimize noise, keep it in another room when churning ice cream. 

The Breville Smart Scoop machine comes with more options, at a higher price point. It offers the ability to pre-cool the machine, change speeds, and will keep the ice cream frozen for up to three hours. Outside of the U.S., these machines are sometimes sold under the Sage brand.

Cuisinart ICE-21

A lower priced option is a machine where you pre-freeze the canister 24 hours in advance before churning, so it requires a little patience, and sufficient freezer room, if you use one.

The upside is the price. These types of machines cost less than $100 (at the time of this writing, the machine above is selling for $69), and machine makes great ice cream as well as being affordable. Krups makes a similar machine, as does Hamilton Beach. (Hamilton Beach also makes a large capacity machine, that lets you freeze 4 quarts at a time, but requires you to add ice and rock salt. White Mountain, founded in 1853, also makes large-capacity machines that require ice and rock salt, and come in both electric and hand-cranked models.)

KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment

If you have a KitchenAid mixer, their excellent KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment works very well. I’ve used one extensively and it churns ice cream quickly, and you can adjust the speed easily.

Like other machines that don’t have a built-in compressor, you need to pre-freeze the canister at least 24 hours before you plan to churn your ice cream. So make sure you’ve got the freezer space for it.

Note: If you live outside the United States, KitchenAid mixers have different features and the U.S. ice cream attachment may not be compatible with them.

Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker

A new kid on the block is the Ninja Creami ice cream maker. Unlike traditional ice cream churning machines, this one works on the same principle as a Pacojet, a pricey machine used by professionals that can cost up to $8000! In these machines, you freeze the base in a pint container overnight, then place it in the machine and a rotating blade shaves the ice cream into a scoopable mass. The Ninja machine costs around $200 and although I haven’t used one, people are happy with the results.

You can also find more of my recommendations for machines and ice cream making equipment, as well as recipes for all your favorite ice creams, sorbets, granitas, toppings, swirls, and more in my book, The Perfect Scoop, revised and updated!

My Top Soufflé Secrets

The word soufflé in French means breath, which is an excellent name for these light as air treats. They’re easy and fun to make, can go from thought to table in 30 minutes and the ingredients are cheap and readily available (almost every grocery store has eggs). The only hard part is accepting that they must be eaten immediately, there’s no way around it. A…

The word soufflé in French means breath, which is an excellent name for these light as air treats. They’re easy and fun to make, can go from thought to table in 30 minutes and the ingredients are cheap and readily available (almost every grocery store has eggs). The only hard part is accepting that they must be eaten immediately, there’s no way around it.

A savory soufflé makes an excellent weeknight meal when the fridge is a little bare, either by itself or served with a little side salad, and it’s a great way to use up any herbs or that last piece of cheese that’s been hanging around a little too long. I really enjoy serving a sweet soufflé for dessert when we have guests as it’s full of flavour but doesn’t leave you feeling heavy when you leave the table.

Below I’m sharing my top tips and tricks, plus my favourite raspberry soufflé recipe, and I hope you’ll try out this this wonderful French dish.

Emily

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Anzac Biscuits

Hello, welcome to my guest post, where I share one of my favourite childhood recipes…and a taste of Australia. If you make these biscuits, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! –Emily When I lived in London, I once had an argument over holiday planning with a boss who didn’t want to let me have time off to go home to Australia…

Hello, welcome to my guest post, where I share one of my favourite childhood recipes…and a taste of Australia. If you make these biscuits, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Emily

When I lived in London, I once had an argument over holiday planning with a boss who didn’t want to let me have time off to go home to Australia for Christmas. “England is your home now,” she said. I immediately burst into tears and booked the flight online as she watched on in bemusement. In 3 years I will have been living outside Australia for longer than I lived there growing up but it is still where I mean when I say “home.”

With 12 years in London and 5 years in France under my belt (I’ll save you the math; I’m 37 and I moved overseas at 20) and with travel off the cards for the foreseeable future, it feels further away than ever. But there are some foods that transport me back home immediately, to dusty hot days in the playground (Vegemite sandwiches), salty air at the beach (shaved ice), or pre-exam jitters in the beautiful sandstone courtyard of my university (Allen’s pineapples).

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Summer Fruit Recipes

It’s summer! Whether you’re in or outdoors, hopefully for all of you there are beautiful summer fruits and berries to be had, and I hope that you’re able to get your hands on as many of them as you can. I am loading (actually, overloading…) myself up at the market. While a good portion on the fresh fruit gets eaten just as-is, some of it…

It’s summer! Whether you’re in or outdoors, hopefully for all of you there are beautiful summer fruits and berries to be had, and I hope that you’re able to get your hands on as many of them as you can. I am loading (actually, overloading…) myself up at the market. While a good portion on the fresh fruit gets eaten just as-is, some of it goes into the following dessert recipes that I continue to make year after year. Others go into jam, which is a great way to preserve all those summer fruits and berries, and make them last through fall and winter.

Cherry season is behind most of us (sniff…sniff…), but if they are still lingering where you live, you can type “cherry” or “cherries” into the search engine at the top right corner of the page to find cherry recipes. (And we don’t get a bountiful array of fresh raspberries and blackberries here, so I don’t have many recipes that use them on the blog.) But for nectarines, strawberries, peaches, plums and other summer fruits, here are some of my favorite recipes on the blog…

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Lockdown in Paris – plus some easy recipes for kids

Hello, Emily here. We are now on day 27 of official lock-down in Paris and day 32 since we decided to stay home with the kids. With other cities and countries also implementing stricter social distancing measures, I thought I would share our routine, favorite recipes and ways to pass the time, and hopefully pick up some ideas from you in the comments below! –Emily…

Hello, Emily here. We are now on day 27 of official lock-down in Paris and day 32 since we decided to stay home with the kids. With other cities and countries also implementing stricter social distancing measures, I thought I would share our routine, favorite recipes and ways to pass the time, and hopefully pick up some ideas from you in the comments below!

Emily

Lockdown in Paris – plus some easy recipes for kids

With a one-year-old, an eleven-year-old and a dog (not to mention I am also 6-months pregnant, which is wonderful, but can be overwhelming even during the very best of times!) in a Parisian-sized apartment, we had to quickly adapt to keep things manageable. I am self-employed so am working hard to keep my clients for as long as possible while supervising cyber-school and an Evel Knievel-like mini daredevil, who has just learned to walk. My husband Jérémy is also working from home but at a much more structured 9am-7pm job that is continuing as “normally” as possible. Renovations were scheduled to start on an extension to our apartment next week, to accommodate our rapidly growing family, but they are now on hold indefinitely as we try to figure out how best to welcome our upcoming baby with our current living situation. 

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