Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Machine- Mix It In Ice Cream Maker for Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, Gelato, Drinks 1.5 Quart, White, ICE-48

I bought this on a whim. We used to have the same type of liquid-filled bowl for our Kitchen Aid stand mixer but misplaced it somewhere along the way. This is the same concept, but it's a full-sized machine with a soft-serve style dispenser.Having owned it for just under a week now, I must say that I absolutely love it. I've made two batches of ice cream so far, one a maple cinnamon vanilla and the other chocolate. Both were as tasty as anything at the ice cream parlor. I definitely read as many Amazon reviews as I could, and it really helped me with my first batch to know what to expect.Pros:- Simple set up.- Great set of initial recipes included.- Makes delicious ice cream. Haven't made frozen yogurt or sorbet yet, but I can't wait.- Easy to clean.Cons:- Large footprint. Even though it's a handsome machine, not exactly something you want to keep on the counter, especially if, like me, you have limited space on your kitchen counter.- The dispenser is cool, but the lack of height makes it sort of challenging. I find myself having to dip my head down near the dispenser to make sure I'm getting it into the bowl correctly.- A fair amount of ice cream gets left over on the mixing paddle, and it's a bit tough to get it all off.- Ice cream comes out pretty soft and melts quickly. But if you leave it in the bowl for too long, it can't come out of the dispenser easily.So why am I giving it five stars? Because it's reasonably easy to use and it makes PHENOMENAL ice cream. I solved the soft and melty problem by putting it in a wide-mouth mason jar and sticking it in the freezer for a few hours. The resulting ice cream is as good or better than anything you can buy in a store. I'm not kidding, the simple combination of milk, cream, sugar and flavoring creates superior ice cream, even better when you realize there are no preservatives or strange ingredients you've never heard of (guar gum, anyone?). And, as a dad with two small kids, the ice cream making process is heaps of fun for the little ones. I feel like our days of buying ice cream from the store are behind us, at least until it breaks!I do recommend reading a handful of the more helpful Amazon reviews, as they give a pretty good idea of what to expect. The main things are to make sure the bowl is completely frozen (we have a chest freezer in the basement which is a perfect place for the bowl to live) and to understand that it takes a minimum of 20-25 minutes to make the ice cream.Enjoy!

This is absolutely wonderful ❤️ making homemade ice cream let's YOU decide what to put in it, or on it. The kids love to be creative with their toppings and adults are always surprised by what little ingredients it takes. Basic recipe; cream, milk, sugar, vanilla. Soo much better than store bought. It does make some noise, but well worth it and definitely not as much as the old "rock salt and ice" machine, and so much faster. The capacity is just right too, although, everyone always wants more!

I got the pink one. Set up was easy. My bowl freezes pretty quickly since my freezer is new. I Ice burned my fingers when putting the freezing cold bowl in the machine. Ouch! Anyway I bought a big heavy whipping cream from bjs for a little over 4 bucks so that should make a few batches of ice cream. I Also bought the 12 box pack of ice cream mix from Amazon for about 23 bucks. I always use 2% milk nothing else. Anyway after mixing all the ingredients,(1 1/4 cup milk, 3/4 cup Heavy whipping cream, and 1 pack of ice cream mix) I turn machine on and pour mixture into machine and about 20 minutes later I place my cone or cup under it and pull the handle down and I pull the jimmies tab out and I have a cone with jimmies. It doesn't sprinkle a lot of jimmies on it but it's ok. But The Oreos I mashed in machine don't really pour out well. I have to manually scoop some up and hand sprinkle it onto the ice cream. Also,Ice cream will get very hard and stiff if you leave it in the machine too long and the arms won't be able to turn. So you better be ready to make your cone when 20 minutes hit or your gonna have to turn machine off and scoop ice cream out with a spoon because it will be too stiff to flow thru the hole in the machine. I Don't know why some people said their ice cream won't stiffen up. Maybe their bowl is defected or maybe their freezer isn't cold enough. But yes the ice cream does get stiffened to make a tall ice cream cone and it don't melt that fast like mr frosty's either. I was able to hold my cone in my hand for minutes without any ice cream melting all over the place. But Mr frosty's ice cream melts before you can even lick it. Good bye Mr Frosty and hello Cuisinart.4 Stars because more jimmies should be able to sprinkle out.