Best ice cream maker, and is it worth while getting one?

[FearOfThePig]

Just that really, I spent all last summer wanting one and resisted because I worried that it would go the same sorry was as the slow cooker!

i bought one, having had exactly the same thought process. I bought it three months ago and have used it twice.

But I think will more when it gets sunnier. It is quite a fag actually making the custard etc but it does taste delicious.

I bought the magimix one. Its quite good.

have just bought one on e bay for about £20 so no biggie if i dont use it often - i got the phiips one as it was recommend ed to me -will let you know if it is a faff when it comes

I find I make more icecream if I use more of a parfait recipe, ie whipped cream and eggs, plus fruit puree (all sugary sweet) so that you don't have to faff with the custard.
But use good quality eggs, because you are not cooking them

I may be biased as I use mine a LOT - so much so that I have gone through 3 in 7 years and would find it hard to be without one! (I do also use my slow cooker a lot too!)

Don't have to make custard-type ice-creams (I used to but don't often now) - fruit-based ones with cream/yoghurt thrown in or sorbets are much less faff.

Only warning is that because the home-made stuff is SO nice you become a complete ice-cream snob about the bought stuff

Sorry, forgot to add - mine's a Magimix, the second one I've owned and it does a good job. Only advice is to check the height of your freezer drawers and make sure the bowl will fit - in ours the 1.1l one does, the 1.5l one doesn't.

I use it to freeze fat free yoghurt (dieting). Have used it for icecream maybe 4 times, yoghurt 5 times. Had it 4 years!

So if no-one makes the custard for their ice creams, how exactly do I do it without going through the arse of making a custard?

You can use good quality bought custard. It's not as nice as proper home-made but is still better than most bought versions, especially if you're using fruit as well.

I tend to either do that, or do sorbets - blackberry and strawberry were favourite last year.

Mine is the Philips Delizia by the way - the advantage of this one is that it has a disc rather than a bowl you freeze so if you're short of freezer space you can fit it in more easily. Have never used another though, so can't really compare.

I think it is going to be the kind of gadget you use a few times a year rather than all the time - twice in 3 months sounds like quite good going to me!

we have a cheap (£20) kenwood one which does a great job

I have one with a built-in refigeration unit so you don't have to freeze anything in advance (they are expensive, though - DH bought it for me pre-DC when we still had a disposable income)

Unless you have very small DC, I would recommend making italian-style ice cream with raw eggs - beat sugar and eggs, and milk, cream and any flavouring, churn. Since I use our eggs from our chickens I know they are fresh and the taste is amazing.

brilliant plan am rushing out to get custard now (slaps head with obviousness!)

So stealth, I literally just beat it all together in one go, not over a bowl of hot water or anything?

Beat eggs and sugar first until pale - my default using up glut of eggs recipe is 4 egg yolks with 100-150g of caster sugar and a bit of vanilla essence - beat well until as pale as you can get them. Then add 400g of whatever combination of cream and milk your conscience dictates, beat just enough to combine, and churn.

lovely - thank you so much