Ice cream maker - stupid waste of money or not?

[ADreadedSunnyDay]

Would quite like to buy an ice cream maker but have a horrid feeling it would be a white elephant and end up gathering cobwebs in my kitchen cupboard.

If I bought one it would need to be one of the expensive freeze and churn ones rather than the ones you pre-freeze the bowl for 24 hours. I'm not organised enough to use one of the pre-freeze ones, nor do I have the freezer space to accommodate a large bloody bowl.

Benefit of making my own ice cream would be that I could use lactose free milk or coconut milk or similar - family all have issues with milk and shop bought stuff costs between £3-6 a pop depending on what I get.

Does anyone have a fancy ice-cream maker? Do you love it? Is it a waste of space / money? If not what would you recommend?

I was gifted a fancy ice-cream maker. I can't profess to use it once a week or even once a month, but honestly the ice cream is to die for. Gone are the days of sparse chocolate chips! No more do we complain that our rum and raisin is not sufficiently rummy!

As well as ice creams, the recipe book I bought has granitas, sorbets and cocktails.

If you have the added incentive of making dairy-free, I would go for it.

I bought myself one a couple of years ago and it gets used every week or two in the summer. I like to be able to experiment with flavours, know what goes into the ice cream/sorbet, and not be continually generating plastic tubs of bought stuff. I have the Vonshef one.

There's a lovely recipe using condensed milk, google it, lovely creamy ice cream and just put in freezer (once- don't need to keep taking it out to mix)

I look at things like this as a novelty and think if I used it for a year would it be cost effective? (Can you sell it again second hand if you decide you aren't using it? Do you entertain? If so you can make it cream for that....Price out a couple of recipes too and factor that into the cost equation?)

We are dairy free and since they started selling dairy free ice cream in supermarkets we started buying it frequently.
At £3-4 for a tub of Swedish glacé it soon adds up so I thought I’d save a fortune so bought one.

We used it loads for a few months and then the novelty wore off and i realised it was easier to spend £3 on a tub in the weekly shop than get everything out, prep all the ingredients make it and then wash all the machine and things.

It’s great but a lot of hassle.
Ours sat in the cupboard for two years before we sold it on Facebook last summer (for almost what we paid for it)

If you have a stand mixer you can make pretty good soft serve style ice cream using coconut milk or dairy free cream.
Make sugar syrup, let it cool, mix it into the cream to taste with your flavourings of choice.
Put it into a tub, freeze for 30 minutes, into the mixer for. 10 minutes, back in the tub and into the freezer for an hour, back into the mixer for 10 minutes, into the tub and freeze for another hour, then back into the mixer.
Depending on how firm you want one more round but that’s usually perfect for us.

Waste of money! I have a really nice one and never use it despite regularly making "no-churn" ice cream (there are some great recipes, I especially love coffee flavor)

The ones where you freeze the bowl are good. I find it doesn't take up that much room as you can shove peas or something in it so our bowl tends to live in the freezer. We usually have frozen berries in stock so dd will whip up a sorbet at the drop of a hat.

I didn't realise it doesn't keep well according to a friend, she said you need to put it on just as you're dishing up dinner. She said it's amazing though!

I've got one that you need to freeze the bowl for, it doesn't take up any more space than a 2l tub though. I've used it about 5 times in a year and the ice cream is so good! I keep it in the garage when not in use so it's not in the way.

I have one of the basic ones, but will be sending it to the charity shop soon as I never use it,

I use Nigella's Coffee ice cream recipe and vary it...condensed milk, double cream whisked up and into the freezer, it makes gorgeous icecream for the very minimal effort of opening a tin and turning on the Kitchen Aid!

Had one as a wedding present. Think we’ve used it twice in 18 years.

TBH I think if you make enough ice cream to make it worth it then you're almost certainly having too much ice cream.

Mine went from shop - shelf - skip fully boxed.

I had a freeze in the freezer one, it made delicious ice cream but if you add up the ingredients you are not saving much on supermarket brand premium ice cream and the taste isn't that different

We’ve used ours once. Had it about four years.

We have one and never use it. Husband used it once 2 yrs ago and I used it once but that’s it. It sits under a chair in the corner of the dining room as there’s no cupboard space for it in the kitchen.

Don’t waste your money or your time.

Ah thanks everyone. Lots to think about.
We don't eat a huge amount of ice cream but I am alway looking at ways to try and improve DS calcium intake without relying on the shop bought soya alternatives which tend to be loaded with sugar and additives. Maybe I should start with a cheaper freezer the bowl one ...

We have one, haven't used it in a while but we go through stages of using it multiple times a week. Ours is the type you freeze the bowl and it just permanently lives in the freezer. Buy a book called The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, he's the god of home made ice cream (and desserts in general).

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow

I have one of the basic ones, but will be sending it to the charity shop soon as I never use it,

I use Nigella's Coffee ice cream recipe and vary it...condensed milk, double cream whisked up and into the freezer, it makes gorgeous icecream for the very minimal effort of opening a tin and turning on the Kitchen Aid!

Yes that's the one, it's excellent!! I have seen recommendations to eat a scoop on toasted brioche but haven't tried it. I imagine it's amazing though!

Maybe try something like this? It's all natural and can be made in a food processor. I've made it a few times and it's delicious.

nadialim.com/banana-honey-ice-cream/

Just to add, I've also done variations like adding frozen strawberries for strawberry "ice cream".

I bought one, used it once in 8yrs and gave it to DS1 3yrs ago. He's never used it 😁

Some right cheerful contributers on here! Get yourself one with a compressor, circa £200. A litre of ice cream in 50 mins! 300ml of milk, 300 ml of double cream, 100g of sugar dissolved in there mix. Then whatever flavours you want. Just google best dairy alternatives though!

Crush a dozen maltesers and throw it in at the start and another dozen at the end is my top mix. Same with Oreo biscuits. Biscoff biscuits to and for added luxury a tbsp of Baileys!

Whe have used digestives, faffa cakes, choc chips, strawberry and basil. Going to try orange twirl next.

Made me laugh that someone says doesn't last in the freezer. Very true, it's gone in days!

Prep time is 10 mins. 50 mins in the machine for Soft scoop. Pop it on the freezer for 1-2 hours for firmer.

It works out about £2 a litre and is as good as the top brands. Wouldn't be without mine now!

I have the ninja one. I use it a lot. I make a batch of several tubs, put them in the freezer and then blend them when needed. I make sorbets, diary free and frozen yoghurt as well as traditional creamy ones.