In as little as 25 minutes, this device makes two quarts of your favorite ice cream, sorbet, gelato, or frozen yogurt. Since it’s all homemade, you’ll know exactly what’s going in it—so you won’t be left second-guessing if you have any food sensitivities or allergies. All you need to do is add the ingredients, turn the machine on, and the Cuisinart handles the rest. Satisfy your sweet tooth with the help of these ice cream makers from Sur La Table.
If a test machine ended up making icy ice cream from this luxurious base, we figured it wouldn’t be worth buying. We spent hours comparing recipes, poring over reviews of machines, and reading up on the science behind ice cream, sorbets, and vegan frozen treats. Before diving into full-on testing, Anna spent a week tinkering with recipes and machines to land on recipes that we thought would level the playing field. While testing, Anna also had help from her mom, a retired caterer and Art Institutes culinary school graduate who has been making French vanilla ice cream for over 15 years at home. Of all the compressor machines we’ve tested over four years, the larger-capacity ICM-201SB is one of the easiest to use, scoop from, and clean. And compared with far pricier options, this model can’t be beat for the smooth ice cream it produces.
These work fine, but require a lot of patience and scraping of the sides of the container. With Yonanas, all you need to do it place frozen fruit into the feed chute, push the plunger, and watch as your fruit soft serve is dispensed. The 1.5 quartLello 4080 and it’s bigger brother, the 2 quart Lello 5080, cuisinart griddler elite made ice cream that’s so smooth, it’s on a completely different level to every other machine I’ve used. The best ice cream maker for you, will depend on what level of convenience you’re looking for, how much money you’ve got to spend and how you personally rate the pros and cons of each machine.
But none of these features are essential, and we don’t think they’re worth the machine’s steep cost (which is at least $150 more than the ICM-201SB’s price tag at this writing). While the ICM-201SB is not as heavy as the Musso Lussino, it still weighs a fairly substantial 24 pounds. It’s taller but has a smaller footprint, measuring about 10.5 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and 13.6 inches high. The machine is nearly cube-like, with an attractively modern stainless steel housing with black accents. It can be a pain to lug in and out of a cabinet every time you want to use it. The Whynter ICM-201SB has a one-year warranty, which is on a par with the Musso Lussino’s coverage but is shorter than the Cuisinart ICE-21’s warranty.
Out of all the compressor machines we tested, the Whynter ICM-201SB Upright Automatic Ice Cream Maker was by far the best. This ice cream maker was not only amazingly simple to use, but it also churned the smoothest ice cream out of all the machines we tested, with barely any icy buildup on the sides of the bowl. Plus, the Whynter’s upright configuration means that it takes up a lot less space on your counter than other compressor models.
Since many models performed equally well in those regards, we narrowed the list down by taking into account factors such as ease of use and cleanup, price point, and additional features. With our second test of American-style ice cream, we cuisinart pots and pans set added chopped peanuts and caramel to the ice cream just before stopping the churning. The toppings were frozen ahead of time to prevent their addition from causing the ice cream to melt, which can lead to pockets of iciness and density.
All the other ice cream makers made a decent amount of noise , so when the Whynter let out a low and quiet hum — somewhat similar to an efficient dishwasher — we were thoroughly impressed. You could easily have this machine going in the background while you work, talk or even watch TV in the same room without it being a huge distraction, which was a big win in our book. It was relatively speedy too, taking 25 minutes to churn out a batch of dairy ice cream, and 35 minutes for a cuisinart pots and pans set vegan recipe. The freezer bowl temperature is another factor influencing the rate of nucleation and ice crystal size, with lower freezer bowl temperatures promoting higher rates of nucleation and smaller ice crystals. Similarly, Russell et al. found that as the freezer bowl temperature was lowered, the nucleation rate increased accordingly. Cook & Hartel simulated ice cream freezing in an ice cream machine by freezing ice cream mix in a thin layer on a microscope cold stage.
It has a 1 ½ quart capacity, which is substantial, though you will need to have the second double-insulated freezer bowl waiting in the freezer for any leftovers. The recipe I used made a lot of ice cream, but I was still able to make all of it in just two batches. Four of the machines we tested were compressor models, meaning that they have an internal cooling unit, which eliminates pre-freezing the machine’s inner canister. The compressor models also allow you to churn several quarts of ice cream in a couple of hours.
Even if you have trouble with freezing, the mix will eventually freeze and still taste good, she says. The process is simple and designed to be mess-free, for which several people have given it positive reviews. The double-insulated freezer bowl means you don’t even need ice to churn a batch of ice cream. Like its larger counterparts, this Dash ice cream maker churns out creamy creations at the push of a button. The small-but-mighty machine makes 1.6 cups of fresh ice cream in as little as 30 minutes and comes with a plastic spoon to help combine toppings and mix-ins.