does anyone have the kitchen aid ice cream maker?

[shelley72]

and is it worth buying, or would i be better off buying a stand alone ice cream maker? have been thinking about it for a while (to start making sorbets etc for DD) but need some convincing!

also, is ice cream very difficult to make? do you have to make a hot custard base first? are there any recipe books you would recommend?

thank you

I have both the Kitchenaid and a cheap standalone and they both work fine. I think the KA maker is quite expensive so it depends if you want to splash out!

For books, I like The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. I think most ice cream recipes use a custard base but there are some that don't. I've also made frozen yoghurt with just full fat greek yoghurt, sugar and some flavouring and it was amazing.

I have one, but I find it annoying that you need to keep it the freezer before using it. My freezer is too small to keep it in it all the time, so I need to be organised as to when I am going to use it.

I have this book which is good.

thank you, have checked out the books on amazon. can i ask exactly how big is the bowl, as we only have a fridge freezer, so i may have the same problem as you MidnightinMoscow?

The dimensions are here.

It's ok, I just find it a bit of pain that you can't be spontaneous, and I am not the best planner!

It's not massive - the size of the standard KA bowl - but it's bigger than the bowl to my standalone (this one). Needing to freeze it a day in advance doesn't cause me problems as I usually need to buy in the ingredients so no spontaneity!

thank you. so americanexpat - which would you recommend - the standalone, or the KA attachment? one is so much cheaper (which makes it attractive), and i take it the KA will make more ice cream (which can go back in freezer for another day?) but do they make very similar tasting ice cream? i too would have to plan ahead with buying ingredients, so not too worried about the freezing ahead aspect. i just dont want to buy the KA, feel disappointed with it and wish i'd spent a lot less. I have lots of hardly used gadgets taking up cupboard spaces as it is!!!

Yes, the KA bowl is bigger so will hold more, but it depends how much ice cream you eat! I find a litre is enough for DH and me to have some when it's fresh and the rest into the freezer for another night.

I think they produce very similar ice cream - the important bit is that the bowl is well frozen. I have the KA because it was a wedding gift (and it's currently living in my mum's basement in the US which is why I have the standalone here) but I don't know if I could part with the money myself. I would probably get the standalone because I'm cheap thrifty!

I have a phillips ice cream maker - a freeze the bowl type - my freezer isn't huge, so it's slightly inconvenient - did think about an integrated freezer type but I suppose I'd eat too much ice cream. Occasionally when using my Phillips my ingredients weren't cold enough (custard based ice creams take forever because the custard needs to be very cold before you start) and the ice cream isn't so good.

I would now buy the Phillips disk ice cream maker - as it is so much smaller than the bowl. I have a kitchen aid which I love but I wouldn't be tempted to buy the ice cream attachment - I'd buy a proper ice cream maker first!

Thank you, think I am going to go for one of the cheaper, smaller machines. Might eat far too much ice cream otherwise!

i have a bowl-in-freezer type one.

i also exclusively use lebovitz's perfect scoop book ( you can trawl his blog if you don't want to buy it before trying.

i always have icecream on hand but for speed and to avoid constantly having to make mringues and coconut macaroons from egg white i cheat and turn any custard based recipe into a Philly one by just leaving the eggs out.

my top tips. make sure freezer is minus 19-20 degrees cold for chilling the bowl and fully chill the mixture or it won't churn.

the standalones are good but big. try first with a freezer one.

standouts i make regularly are malteser, cherry and almond, belgian choc, toasted coconut, lemon yoghurt, the fleur de lait, raspberry the one with homemade speculoos.

and niglla has a good non churn bitter orange one using icing sugar that uptou don't need a mixer for.