While more and more luxury ice-cream brands can be found in British supermarkets, they rarely taste as good as the home-made stuff. And that’s not all ice-cream makers have going for them - they also enable you to play around with quirky flavours or make vegan or low-calorie alternatives. What’s more, home-made ice cream will cost you a great deal less than in shops – and many ice-cream makers can turn their hand to other puds such as frozen yoghurt, gelato, icy drinks and sorbet. Read on to find out what features to look out for – as well as checking out the machines we reckon are worth splashing out on.
How to choose the best ice cream maker for you
What choices are available?
There are two main types of ice-cream makers. Manual machines come with a freezer bowl, which must be pre-frozen before you start (for between eight and 24 hours, depending on the machine), which you then attach to a paddle and motor unit before adding your ingredients. Fully automatic machines, on the other hand, have an inbuilt freezer that cools the bowl to the optimum temperature within minutes.
What are the pros and cons of each?
Manual machines are both cheaper and smaller – some no bigger than a kettle. But the fact that you need to pre-freeze the bowl means you need to be (a) organised and (b) have enough space in your freezer (generally around 14x 20cm). Also be warned you can’t make large quantities in one go as you’ll need to re-freeze the bowl between batches - unless you buy an additional bowl, which is possible with some machines. And because the bowl starts defrosting during mixing, the ice cream can become soft and need further freezing.
Fully-automatic machines, meanwhile, enable you to make ice cream whenever you feel like it. You just switch on the machine for a few minutes to chill the container before adding the mixture, which can then be popped straight into the freezer, often in the original bowl. These machines usually have whizzy extra features, including different settings for preferred texture, but they can be heavy and bulky (some as big as a large food mixer) and most will set you back over £200 (with the odd exception, such as Vonshef).
How do I tell the amount of ice cream your machine will make?
You can expect a manual machine to make around 0.8 litres of ice cream, while fully automatic ones tend to make up to 1.5 litres. But check your machine’s exact specifications to be sure as you’ll be annoyed to get your fancypants machine home, only to find out it makes no more than a few scoops’ worth. If it doesn’t tell you (some don’t), check customer reviews - but don’t gauge the quantity by the size of the bowl. After all, this doesn’t account for the room (often a lot) that the paddle takes up.
The best ice cream makers to buy
1. Sage Smart Scoop: The best ice cream maker for experimenting with flavours
Price:£280
There seems to be no end to the bells and whistles on this clever machine – 12 hardness settings, 4 pre-set programmes, manual mode, flashing light when it’s time to add mix-ins (such as raisins or chocolate chips) and an automatic hardness sensor. Plus, our favourite feature of all - an ice cream van jingle when it’s ready. If it’s not quite time for pud, simply use the keep-cool function, which keeps it at the required texture for up to three hours. The result of all this attention to detail is that you get professional results for ice cream, sorbet, gelato or frozen yoghurt, as well as having some funon the way. The instruction booklet has 16 great recipes and some top tips from Heston Blumenthal, although it would be nice if the parts were dishwasher friendly and the ice-cream isn’t the easiest to remove from the machine. The bowl could be bigger too, while the machine itself is huge.
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: Yes; Size of bowl: 1 litre; Accessories: Ice-cream paddle, cleaning brush, spatula; Dimensions (WDH): 26 x 39 x 23cm; Warranty: 2 years
2. Andrew James Ice Cream Maker: The best budget ice cream maker
Price:£28
Provided you’ve pre-frozen the bowl for at least 24-hours first, you can whip up creamy, smooth ice-cream, sorbet or frozen yoghurt in 20 to 30 minutes. And despite it arriving in six separate parts, it’s a very simple jigsaw to put together – we did in less than five minutes. There are some great recipes included, although on the downside, we couldn’t really see the markings on the bowl and as with the Vonshef machine, the ice-cream doesn’t come out as all that hard, so you may need to pop it in the freezer to finish it off. It’s also very noisy and things can get messy when you use the chute to add anything like berries or chocolate chips. But for anyone who makes ice-cream only occasionally or wants a machine to get them started, this is a great option with a wallet-friendly price-tag.
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: No; Size of bowl: 1.5 litre; Accessories: None; Dimensions (WDH): 17.8 x 17.8 x 15cm; Warranty: 2 years
3. Magimix Gelato Chef: The best for making huge amounts of ice cream
Price:£259
If you’re planning to make ice-cream for the masses, this is the machine for you. Not only does it have a bowl that gets you a whopping two pints’ worth of ice-cream, but you get two of them – one fixed and one removable, so you can just keep swapping them round as you make ice-cream to your heart’s content. It took us a bit more time than the others to set up, but it’s worth the wait as once it’s good to go, you simply switch on the built-in freezer and five minutes later, you can whip up anything from elderflower sorbet to double chocolate ice-cream. We found it nice and easy to remove the ice cream out of the bowl, but it’s both heavy and noisy and the paddle motor doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as it could.
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: Yes; Size of bowl: 1 litre (x2); Accessories: Ice-cream paddle; Dimensions (WDH): 34 x 24 x 29cm; Warranty: 1 year
4. Cuisinart Gelato and Ice Cream Maker: The best gelato maker
Price:£200
Close your eyes and imagine you’re in Italy. It shouldn’t be too hard with this machine that comes with a special gelato paddle to help incorporate air into your cold culinary delights. Meanwhile, for the richer, denser texture of ice-cream, you can just swap paddles and still get excellent results. Either way, you get can your finished product under 45 minutes and we found it the easiest to use of the fully automatic machines that we tried, thanks to very clear instructions and easy-to-follow (and delicious) recipes, although don’t be tempted to rush them. Icy drinks and frozen yoghurt do well too and the high-end metallic finish gives a professional look. But it’s big (about the same size as a large slow cooker), cumbersome and loud.
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: Yes; Size of bowl: 1.5 litre; Accessories: Ice-cream paddle; Dimensions: 29 x 56 x 23cm; Warranty: 5 years
5. Judge Ice Cream Maker: The best option for one-touch operation
Price:£31
Once you’ve found room in your freezer to pre-freeze the bowl for eight hours, you’ll be ready to experiment with flavours ranging from rum and raisin ice cream to mango sorbet, thanks to the handy funnel. It’s not quite as quick as the Andrew James machine and even when the ice cream is made, you might want to harden it up in the freezer before serving. But we like the fully automatic one-touch operation, the clear markings and the fact that the mixture isn’t prone to separating - and you don’t get annoying crystals of water forming on the top, as you do with many machines. It’s robust too so should last you many summers.
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: No; Size of bowl: 1.5 litre; Accessories: Ice-cream paddle; Dimensions (WDH): 19 x 23 x 22cm; Warranty: 2 years
6. VonShef Premium Ice Cream Maker: The best value ice cream maker with an in-built freezer
Price:£140
You’d normally be hard-pushed to find a decent ice-cream maker with an inbuilt freezer for under £200, let alone £150, making this astonishingly good value. But does its performance stand up to its more expensive counterparts? Well, we found it simple to assemble and the LCD display is nice and clear, making it simple to operate. It’s so quiet that you wouldn’t know it’s switched on and it’s quick too – giving you great tasting ice-cream, frozen yoghurt and sorbet in just one hour. We have three small niggles, though. First, the chute for adding ingredients is a bit on the small side. Second, the paddle and lid can be a bit fiddly. And third, the ice cream doesn’t always harden quite as much as it should. However, it’s easy to live with the first two issues, while the last is easily solved by popping it in a tub and in the freezer.
Buy the VonShef Premium Ice Cream Maker from Domu
Key specs – Built-in freezer?: Yes; Size of bowl: 1.5 litre; Accessories: Ice-cream paddle; Dimensions (WDH): 40.2 x 30.5 x 29.1cm; Warranty: 2 years