Create two quarts of delicious frozen treats in just 20 minutes with an improved paddle & faster processing time.
LCD screen, 3 settings with multiple speeds & a countdown timer w/ auto shutoff
Factory Refurbished w/ 90 Day Cuisinart Warranty
Check out your local goodwill before buying one of these. I see them all the time there. I bought one a while back and stopped using it shortly after; it's loud for 20 minutes, you have to make an icecream base which is a bunch of eggs cooked into a custard, the end result is soft serve at best and needs to be put back in the freezer for another hour or so to harden into scoopable ice cream. It also takes up a ton of space in the freezer as you have to freeze the basket for 48 hours. Could be worth $10 at Goodwill
I have a ninja creami now and would never go back to this kind of maker. The creamy you just mix whatever and freeze for 24 hours, put it in the machine and 5 minutes later you've got Delicious ice cream.
I'd recommend spending another $50-80 on a ninja creami
I did a bunch of research between the NInja and the smaller version of this (ICE-21) before buying the ICE-21 and watched numerous videos
Freeze time is 24 hours for the basket, and you probably could shorten that to 12 hours or so if you have a cold freezer. There's also plenty of recipes that you don't need to cook -- most of the ones included are just milk, sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and whatever other flavors you add.
The biggest issues I saw with the Ninja are that it's not the same as churned ice cream - it's shaved ice. That's great if you want to do sorbet or something different, but it's not the same as ice cream.
In addition, if you refreeze the Ninja after taking a few scoops, you need to re-process it again (which is way louder than the Cuisinart makers as it's essentially a blender). Meanwhile, I can just take the container with my ice cream out of the freezer and scoop it like normal ice cream.
In the end, they're just different tools. We personally have a garage freezer, so space isn't an issue and I'm not sure I trust the Ninja to last as long as the cheaper Cuisinarts. If space is a concern and you want to do other things besides ice cream / gelato, then yeah, the Ninja could make sense for you.
Have both a cusinart ice cream maker and a ninja creami.
Ice cream maker is way more inconvenient for washing/space/difficulty
Ninja creami is easier to wash and deal with
If you want that real ice cream level of fluffiness, the only way is with a churner style. The main reason is the fluff is from rolled micro structures that result in air pockets that are stable when frozen
The ninja will make "creamy" ice cream, but you wont get that fluff no matter how much guar/xanthan gum you use.
That being said i prefer the creami for the convenience but I'd be lying if i said the texture was the exact same as store bought. Its denser yet closer to soft serve (somewhat in between normal ice cream and soft serve)
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Thanks to everyone for all the contributions to this thread. I'd decided against the Creami since I think it's more likely we'd keep a canister in our freezer and pull out when we want ice cream rather than make it 24 hours ahead of time and then wait.
I'm intrigued by the idea of half and half if you're not going to freeze it, because that goes affect the economics of it. (I feel like you'd have to use it a lot to justify the initial expense, even if it is a good deal like this is.)
In terms of freezing, has anyone ever tried putting some of those long-lasting gel ice packs in the canister to expedite the freezing? I feel like they are small/soft enough to mold around hte inside and thought it might speed things up and also help balance out the on-off cycling of most home freezers.
Buy the creami, man. It's my most life-changing appliance ( and I have tons of appliances thanks to SD lol)
I have this, its ok... its not great though. The ice-cream still gets stuck to the sides of the bowl. Its annoying to have to freeze the bowl before use etc etc. I just buy the ice cream I want now.
Just a heads up if you have an Ollies near you they have the 2 qt. cuisinart ice-30bc for $19.99. Not sure how it compares to this one but it's highly rated and a significantly cheaper option.
Thank you, I asked my friend to get one for me since I live far from WPB FL. She just picked up one, I will get it next time I visit her
It's funny reading some of these comments. I bought a 1qt Cuisinart model that some people said left lots to the imagination from a previous Walmart deal. And I have to say it's life changing. For anyone wondering,
No, this is not for saving money. Industrially scaled ice cream production and distribution cannot be beat.
Yes, this makes delicious ice cream on par with the best I've ever had.
Yes, there is effort involved. But not more than with any baking or cooking or food prep. Think of making ice cream like baking. You will need some utensils, you will need patience, some measuring, some cleanup.
What you get with this machine or one like it is the ability to let your imagination run wild. Get yourself a copy of The Perfect Scoop by David Liebovitz and use any of his 200 recipes. Or, make whatever crazy flavors you want. You want a chocolate banana bread ice cream? Make your base custard, throw in some banana slices and chunks of your banana bread you baked over the weekend as the ice cream churns. Just as one example. You're never going to get the flavor you can dream up from a grocery store or local ice cream shop. That's the power you get with a home ice cream machine.
FYI: Never put the chilling bowl in the dishwasher, don't even soak it in really hot water because it will ruin its ability to chill properly. We had the dual bowl model they sold years ago and it was great until someone soaked them in hot water. We tried replacing them with some we picked up used- and sure enough- someone else had ruined theirs and dumped it off (so I don't recommend used, or even secondhand).
It worked really well until we ruined the bowls, made fantastic ice cream- the sugar free Rum Raisin, peanut butter, and pumpkin from the recipe book were surprisingly good.
It's the air injection process
Creami has almost none, churning has a little, commercial literally has multi layer air injection process at various stages of freezing
This is not accurate. In fact, premium commercial ice cream quality is often evaluated on how little air is remaining in the finished product. Companies spend tens of millions of dollars on specialized equipment to eliminate as much air as possible. The science of it is pretty neat. Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's figured out that they couldn't deliver a more intense flavor just by simply cramming in more fat and or sugar. The breakthrough was figuring out that they didn't need more flavor, they needed more of the existing flavors to be experienced by the tongue. Air is wasteful as it leaves a significant portion of the tongue's flavor receptors out of contact with the ice cream and therefore not tasting it. So they stopped tweaking ingredient ratios and declared war on air. Even with an at home churn style maker you won't be making the highly dense premium stuff.
Picked one up at Goodwill for $10
It's fun to make ice cream once on a while but not much cheaper than buying some Ben & Jerrys
This is great if you want to make alternate milk type desserts or funky flavors though
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I have a ninja creami now and would never go back to this kind of maker. The creamy you just mix whatever and freeze for 24 hours, put it in the machine and 5 minutes later you've got Delicious ice cream.
I'd recommend spending another $50-80 on a ninja creami
Freeze time is 24 hours for the basket, and you probably could shorten that to 12 hours or so if you have a cold freezer. There's also plenty of recipes that you don't need to cook -- most of the ones included are just milk, sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and whatever other flavors you add.
The biggest issues I saw with the Ninja are that it's not the same as churned ice cream - it's shaved ice. That's great if you want to do sorbet or something different, but it's not the same as ice cream.
In addition, if you refreeze the Ninja after taking a few scoops, you need to re-process it again (which is way louder than the Cuisinart makers as it's essentially a blender). Meanwhile, I can just take the container with my ice cream out of the freezer and scoop it like normal ice cream.
In the end, they're just different tools. We personally have a garage freezer, so space isn't an issue and I'm not sure I trust the Ninja to last as long as the cheaper Cuisinarts. If space is a concern and you want to do other things besides ice cream / gelato, then yeah, the Ninja could make sense for you.
Ice cream maker is way more inconvenient for washing/space/difficulty
Ninja creami is easier to wash and deal with
If you want that real ice cream level of fluffiness, the only way is with a churner style. The main reason is the fluff is from rolled micro structures that result in air pockets that are stable when frozen
The ninja will make "creamy" ice cream, but you wont get that fluff no matter how much guar/xanthan gum you use.
That being said i prefer the creami for the convenience but I'd be lying if i said the texture was the exact same as store bought. Its denser yet closer to soft serve (somewhat in between normal ice cream and soft serve)
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I'm intrigued by the idea of half and half if you're not going to freeze it, because that goes affect the economics of it. (I feel like you'd have to use it a lot to justify the initial expense, even if it is a good deal like this is.)
In terms of freezing, has anyone ever tried putting some of those long-lasting gel ice packs in the canister to expedite the freezing? I feel like they are small/soft enough to mold around hte inside and thought it might speed things up and also help balance out the on-off cycling of most home freezers.
- No, this is not for saving money. Industrially scaled ice cream production and distribution cannot be beat.
- Yes, this makes delicious ice cream on par with the best I've ever had.
- Yes, there is effort involved. But not more than with any baking or cooking or food prep. Think of making ice cream like baking. You will need some utensils, you will need patience, some measuring, some cleanup.
What you get with this machine or one like it is the ability to let your imagination run wild. Get yourself a copy of The Perfect Scoop by David Liebovitz and use any of his 200 recipes. Or, make whatever crazy flavors you want. You want a chocolate banana bread ice cream? Make your base custard, throw in some banana slices and chunks of your banana bread you baked over the weekend as the ice cream churns. Just as one example. You're never going to get the flavor you can dream up from a grocery store or local ice cream shop. That's the power you get with a home ice cream machine.It worked really well until we ruined the bowls, made fantastic ice cream- the sugar free Rum Raisin, peanut butter, and pumpkin from the recipe book were surprisingly good.
Creami has almost none, churning has a little, commercial literally has multi layer air injection process at various stages of freezing
It's fun to make ice cream once on a while but not much cheaper than buying some Ben & Jerrys
This is great if you want to make alternate milk type desserts or funky flavors though