How to choose best automatic ice cream makers

Do you need the best Automatic Ice Cream maker?

Have you ever wished to make best ice cream just in minutes? Have you ever considered buying an Ice cream machine? Are you tired of reading reviews?

If yes, then you are exactly in the same position I was a couple years ago, when I wanted to have a soft serve ice cream maker, but did not know which one to buy. There are at least ten different automatic ice cream makers in the market which, according to reviews all promise you to make a delicious ice cream in less than an hour, but may be just some of those meet our needs.

What should we look for when choosing an automatic ice cream maker?

After trying out numerous makers (and reading a lot of reviews), I am ready to share some secrets...

Amount of the Ice Cream Produced

Usually we need an automatic ice cream maker which can produce ice cream for the whole family or a bunch of friends. Too often automatic ice cream makers fail to produce adequate amount, so this is the first feature you should check – whether you will be able to get enough of ice-cream for everyone using the particular ice cream maker.

Gel-canister or Compressor

Many ice cream makers do not freeze the ice cream on their own, like Gel-canister models, which require pre-freezing (you place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer first and use it only after it is frozen; it may take 6-22 hours). If you are like me, then most probably also your freezer is usually too occupied to have free space for an ice cream maker. So you need a machine with a compressor so that you do not need to reorganize your freezer.

Timing

Most automatic ice cream makers require at least half an hour to make a soft serve ice cream. Gel-canister ice cream makers cannot be used twice in a row, you have to freeze the bowl again before you produce your next batch. It is OK if you are able to plan your days ahead, but I often fail at this. I myself only having guests and I like my kids to bring their friends unexpectedly. I like to serve an ice cream for them, but, though I usually the necessary ingredients at home, I am not ready to wait an hour until I get a result. So, you need an ice cream maker which can make the necessary amount of ice cream in a very short time.

Price versus Value

Another very important issue: price versus value: most of the freezer ice cream makers are definitely cheaper than truly automatic ice cream makers which can freeze the stuff on their own. On the other hand – the automatic ones which will be able to produce the adequate amount of ice cream in less than an hour, are very expensive.

Advice: consider your own priorities carefully!

So, have you considered what is the most important for you: amount of ice cream, time spent in preparation, price of the ice cream maker, or free space in your freezer?

Click here to find out more about your priorities and take this quiz on how to choose the best automatic ice cream makers.

The quiz will let you make the right choice, and you will also learn a very simple and effective solution if you want to get a delicious ice cream fast and with little efforts at very reasonable price! 

Choosing best automatic ice cream makers quiz

Choosing Among Best Automatic Ice Cream Makers Quiz

When picking best ice cream maker, these are the main points to consider

Answer the following questions to pick most appropriate ice cream maker.

1. Do you want an ice cream maker which	Best sellers in this category:
a) has a compressor and freezes ice cream on its own	Lello 4070 Gelato Junior; Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080; Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker;
b) Gel-canister model, which requires pre-freezing (you place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer first and use it only after it is frozen; it may take 6-22 hours	Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker; Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker
c) you are ready to use either frozen components or use ice and rock salt	Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3 (you must have either frozen berries or ice cubes) White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer(you need ice and rock salt)
2. The price point you are comfortable with:
a) below 50 $	Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker
b) below 100$	Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker
c) below 200$	White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer;  Lello 4070 Gelato Junior;
d) below 300$	Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker;
e) below 600$	Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3
f) above 600$	Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080
3. What amount of the ice cream you want to produce with your ice cream maker?
a) 1 quart	Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3 (but you can use the machine numerous times without a stop)
a) 1,5 quarts	Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker; Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080
b) 2 quarts	Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt
c) 4 quarts	White Mountain F69204-X 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer
d) 6 quarts	White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer (But you need a lot of ice and rock salt)
4. Is the noise the ice cream maker produces is an important factor for you?
a) very important	Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080;
b) not so important	These machines are loud: White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer; Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3; Cuisinart
5. What is the time limit in which you want to have a ready made ice cream?
a) 5 minutes	Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3
b) 20 minutes	Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker
c) 25 minutes	Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt
d) 30 - 40 minutes	Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080; Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker; White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer
6. Do you want to be able to use your ice cream maker for other purposes?
a) I want to make smoothies, grinding whole spices, grains; producing soups, sauces and dips; grinding fruits and vegetables; making frozen yogurt, sorbet	Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3
b) I do not want to use my ice cream maker for anything else:	Cuisinart; Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080;
7. Is the size of the automatic Ice cream maker important for you:
a) yes, it must not be bulky	Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker; Rival GC9101-W Treat Shoppe 1-Quart Ice Cream / Frozen Yogurt / Sorbet Maker, Blue; Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3
b) not important	Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt;  Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless (very heavy); Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker
8. The cleaning of the ice cream maker
a) must be easy to clean	Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker; Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3; White Mountain F69204-X 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer
b) I do not care	Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080; Lello 4070 Gelato Junior
9. Does it need to be easy to use?
a) yes	Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker; Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker; Lello 4070 Gelato Junior; Lello Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker 4080
b) moderately	White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer; White Mountain F69204-X 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer; Vita-Mix Vita Prep 3

Why Ice Cream is Good for You

Want to make friends? Make an ice cream party, where everyone makes his or her favorite frozen treat at you house, using your Vitamix! It takes just minutes to prepare any ice cream type and you can start enjoying your cold creamy dessert.

Want to get a husband? Make an ice cream for your male friends. Studies have discovered that 55% of males would choose an ice cream for a dessert. So, you may be the one, who will surprise him with an extremely delicious, fresh made treat! Though you should, prepare it before your friend arrives, as using Vitamix Vita prep 3 may cause a lot of noise. On the other hand this noise lasts for less than 2 minutes, so every sensible man should be able to tolerate that much! Even more, if this lets him appreciate your superb cooking skills.

Want to get pregnant? Eat an ice cream every day! Scientists say that eating high-fat dairy food once a day, fertility of women increases and these women are more likely to have ovulation. Of course, this will not help if you are a male:), but eating this sweet goodie will make you happier anyway.

Want to lose weight? Eat low fat ice cream. You will spend a lot of calories just warming the stuff up :). Use either Vitamix or an automatic ice cream maker to prepare your favorite frozen low fat yogurt dessert and burn calories every day! Remember that the best recipes require the smallest amount of ingredients.

Want to be healthy: prepare your own frozen smoothies using Vita prep 3. Use cranberries, acai berries, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, melons and oranges – whatever you prefer! It allows you to get more minerals, vitamins, enzymes and co-enzymes than you would be able to get eating just fruits and vegetables, as Vitamix Vita prep 3 breaks down the fiber and seeds, releasing these extremely vital nutrients.

Want to be happy: use your ice cream maker, take the best quality ingredients, prepare a delicious chocolate treat, which melts on your tongue, and feel how endorphins (hormones that increase the happiness) are released in your body.

Just enjoy!

This ice cream is just brilliant

Ok, now the time has come, we are ready to share our ice cream recipe! The following ice cream recipe is a result of lengthy experiments and we have spent years in developing just the right taste.

As we like to have unexpected parties and our friends frequently just drop in without warning, it was very important for us that we could make our ice cream with little efforts in very short time. We tried numerous ice cream makers, but before we bought our Vitamix Vita-prep 3, we could never offer a fresh made ice cream in less than 10 minutes.

If you want to try the recipe, I advise using an electronic scale, it helps to shorten the preparation time even more.


Ingredients:
heavy cream (36 to 40 percent milk-fat content)_____240 g (8.47 oz)
frozen cranberries (temperature -4F/-20C)_____320 g (11.29 oz)
vanilla sugar_____15 g (0.53 oz)
sugar_____150 g (5.29 oz)

1. Place the container of Vitamix Vita-prep 3 on electronic scale. Press “0” to reset the scale to zero, this will eliminate the weight of the empty container.

2. Place the heavy cream (240 g/8,47 oz) in the Vitamix container. Press “0” on the electronic scale.

3. Add sugar (150 g/0,53 oz), press “0” and add vanilla sugar (15 g /0,53 oz)

4. Place the container on Vitamix Vita-prep 3, secure the lid, turn machine on Low speed. Wait for 40 seconds, then switch off. You should have got a half-made whipped cream, all sugar should be dissolved.

5. Place the Vitamix container on electronic scale. Press “0”, add frozen cranberries (320g/11,29 oz)

6. Place the container on Vitamix Vita-prep 3, turn the machine on Low, then gradually increase speed to Variable 10, then to High. For first 30 seconds use the tamper to press ingredients into the blades. In 30 seconds you should have got uniform mass. Let Vitamix work for 10 more seconds, then switch it off.

It should look like this:

Do not overmix or your ice cream will melt.

7. Serve immediately, or place your ice cream in small bowls and put those in the freezer. Take out 15-20 minutes before serving.

How we got our best ice-cream maker

First, we tried every automatic ice-cream maker our friends had. Some of those were pretty good, like Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic Ice-Cream Maker, but in most cases, the whole process seemed to be just too time consuming. I hated the idea that I needed several hours to get my favorite treat. In some cases, we did not like the result – it was either too soft, sometimes not smooth enough.

As none of the friends could help us, we started to search through the internet, evaluating all kinds of icecream makers, checking for and reading numerous customer reviews. We were looking for an automatic machine, not a blender, so it was just a chance that we came across Vitamix reviews. While reading those, we found out that most of the users of these blenders were obviously greatly satisfied with it. And some of those reviews contained boastful stories of the delicious ice creams they had made using the blender. What made it different from all other ice cream makers – these recipes were very simple, did not require a lot of effort and – what was the most important, they said that using this blender we could get a ready-made frozen treat just in minutes!

Luckily, one of our friends had a Vitamix 4500. It was a rather old one, but he said that it was working marvelously. So we tried to make our first frozen dessert using the blender. And it worked! The result was smooth, soft, creamy, and extremely tasty.

Now we needed our own machine, so we typed “eBay Vitamix” and got an instant result. It was very difficult to choose between all kinds of products, as they even had a Mix'n Machine – which is exactly a completely superb automatic ice-cream making machine. None of our friends had any of these, so the decision had to be ours... I was for the Mix'n Machine, but my friend was for Vitamix Vita-prep 3 – another sophisticated machine for professionals. After reading hundreds of reviews, we decided to the one my friend preferred, as this offered more options and was comparatively cheaper than the Mix'n Machine. So we have bought Vitamix Vita-prep 3 – and are still happy with the machine.

First attempt to make an ice cream

So, I wanted to make another ice cream, taste, enjoy it, the photos and video while making it, and then put down some recipes… But, alas, I am not going to have an ice cream tonight, you are not going to get the recipes. Still, there is one who is satisfied and happy, so the story is about him.

First I measured the necessary amount of the whip cream. To make my life easier, I always use electronic food scale (actually digital scales, as these are called nowadays) instead of measuring cups (too approximate) or counting spoons. This way I never need to remember which cup should be used for measurements, I can just grab the first from the shelf, place on the electronic food scale, press "0" to reduce the weight of the cup, and add the necessary amount.

So I did it also today. I took the cup off the scale, then I turned my back to take some frozen stuff from the fridge (the most important ingredient of our best recipe)… And look, what happened:

OK, I do not mind to share my house, my garden, and even my bed with this precious beauty! But I do mind sharing the whip cream! Even more, if this is my last bottle. And it means, I am not going to get the ice cream tonight. And you are not going to get the recipe!

Only the cat is happy – it has got full stomach, and it even does not know that the stuff was not too healthy for it.

My wanderings in the World of Automatic Ice-cream Makers

I have always loved ice-cream, so I am always surprised to find people who do not appreciate this sweet, delicious, literary melt-in-your mouth dainty.
But since I learned to make my own ice-cream using the best possible ice cream maker, even those of my friends who have never bought an ice-cream cone since age of 15, ask for the second helping :)

It was not at all easy to find the best ice-cream maker - it took me years to test different automatic ice cream makers, I wasted mountains off eggs, cream, sugar and other stuff before I found out the best ice-cream machine and the best recipes.

For a long time I was not ready to share the secrets of how I prepare my most delicious ice-creams even with my closest friends, but, alas, a long time ago when I was young, inexperienced and naive, I promised to disclose the truth when I would turn 40. :) Then it seemed ages away.
Now the time has come... I have to keep my promise. So, my dear friends, I, being fully conscious, promise that I am going to publish here all my secrets - so long kept from you :) So, check soon, I will continue! (But not now, I just have to prepare one more ice-cream before I proceed)