question for others who have a gel-type ice cream maker

[skyline]

I'm now really curious as to whether others' frozen-bowl ice cream makers work better than our Cuisinart ICE20, or whether this is simply 'the nature of the beast':

From what I have read, the paddle in this kind of unit is supposed to "scrape the sides of the bowl". However, I always find that the whatever kind of liquid is being used to create the ice cream, sorbet, etc, a fairly thick layer of it freezes onto the sides of the bowl immediately after the first couple of turns. This layer quickly gets even thicker. As a result, no matter how long the unit runs, the remaining product never gets beyond the consistency of a pudding rather than of what we think of as ice cream. Is this typical/normal in this kind of machine, or do the insides of other freezer bowls remain clean enough to actually chill the entire contents to a decent consistency?

We learned early on that if it's sorbet we're making, it has to be eaten right away, pretty much from ice cream maker to serving dish -- or at most, frozen for no more than a half hour. Any longer than that and it just ends up as a solid block of ice. Ice creams (cream-based; neither of us likes the taste of egg/custard based ice creams) fare better as a rule because they come out of the Cuisinart softer than they should be (no more than soft-serve consistency). So those are okay as long as we do NOT want to eat any for at least 3-4 hours, LOL.

Is this the experience that every frozen-bowl-maker owner has? I read a bunch of Amazon reviews and some mention this same problem but others do not.

FYI, I do realize that "scraping the bowl" is a technically incorrect description because the paddle/dasher/whatchamacallit does not move -- it's the bowl that moves,instead. Still wondering if a fairly thick layer normally builds up on the walls and bottom of these bowls, thus reducing the level of coldness available to the rest of the ingredients, however.

[rainey]

I have a Cuisinart with a gel-filled bowl. Don't know the model # but the exterior resembles a bucket if that's helpful.

I am less bothered by the problem you describe than the ice cream continuing to freeze to the side when the powers turned off and you're trying to unload the bowl. I end up losing 10% of what I've made and/or my hands being a cold, wet mess.

Plus the dasher is a joke, it doesn't work air into the ice cream.

I have gone back to a 30 yo Waring Ice Cream Parlor machine that is a small ice & brine-type machine that operates on a tray or 2 of ice cubes and ordinary table salt. What I get out of it is vastly superior.

Waring doesn't make them anymore but you can still find them on eBay. I buy the ones I can find for spare parts. ...tho the only part I've ever had to replace was the plastic top to the canister.

You don't need to plan ice cream making 24 hours in advance. You can make one flavor and turn around and make another or as many more as you want. Nothing is taking up freezer space. And it can handle chunky inclusions.

[skyline]

Just table salt.. like Mortons? or kosher salt? Now that I could handle. The idea of having to fuss with rock salt,packing ice in, etc etc was a total off-put ;) for me.

What is the interior canister, and the dasher itself, made of on the Ice Cream Parlor machine? Plastic or metal?

[rainey]

Just table salt. I got a big old 5 pound sack of it at Smart & Final for about $3 a couple years ago and just finished it up.

The interior canister is metal, possibly tin. The lid to the canister is plastic and the most vulnerable part -- tho I now make a point of letting it come up to room temp before I use hot water to clean it and I hope that will bode better for this lid. OTOH, if it lasts the 30 years that the first one did I'm probably OK. ;>

There is a rigid plastic arm that holds the dasher stationery while the motor in the bottom turns the canister. My original plastic arm shows no signs of wear nor does the motor or any other part. The dasher resembles the traditional open dasher of a White Mountain machine. It is very heavy plastic and very effective.

The whole thing, assembled, is about 16" tall and 10" across. All the parts disassemble for cleaning. I have only washed the parts by hand and wouldn't recommend subjecting any of them to a dishwasher but they are open and very easy to clean.

They seem to run between $20-30 when you can find them on eBay.

I highly recommend it as a smaller approximation of a White Mountain churn's approach to making ice cream that does NOT require rock salt.

[rainey]

Here's what it looks like: http://compare.ebay.com/like/17068009...

That one is offered for just $25 and I see another listed with the bidding beginning at $13. NOT, mind you, endorsing either of these offerings -- I didn't even read the listings -- just went looking for an image and ran across these 2 machines.

[Jen76]

I have a cheapie brand of this type of ice cream maker. On mine, it is the paddle that moves - not the bowl. A thin layer does remain stuck to the inside of the bowl, but it's not thick and the middle certainly does get frozen. In fact, once I turned it off to scoop some out and thinking it wouldn't freeze much more, I left it off. Oops. The whole thing was solid and the paddle got stuck. I had to jimmy the paddle out of it. Sorbets do get hard-ish. I've never actually made ice cream in it. For the ~$30 i spent on it, it works quite well. It's never taken 3-4 hours to freeze a batch either, but it's small, so maybe that's why?

[skyline]

Well, to be fair the 3-4 hour wait depends on the recipe. The fresh strawberry ice cream recipe that's in the icecream maker owners manual took only a little over an hour to firm up in the freezer, whereas the recipe I just made today from the Jeni's book says it needs to freeze for 4 hours. I made it 3 1/2 hours ago and it's still not much firmer than the consistency of soft serve (it was semi-soupy after 30 mins churning in the Cuisinart). Most other ice cream recipes we've tried in this machine take about 3 hrs to firm up properly after churning.

Btw, my unit says it's a 1.5 qt but because so much of the ingredients are sacrificed to the frozen sides and bottom of the bowl, it only produces 1 qt of eatable ice cream.

I didn't know there were any gel type makers that didn't have a rotating bowl base. I just read a number of posts from people who have an ice cream maker attachment for their KitchenAid stand mixer and I just looked at that: It's a gel bowl but like yours, it's the mixer paddle that moves.That would seem to work better, I'd guess. I retired my KA Artisan last year in favor of a VIking which I love dearly, so the KA is living on the back bottom shelf of the pantry ever since. I'm wondering if it's worth giving it a new job description as Ice Cream Maker, LOL.

Sadly VIking does not offer an ice cream maker attachment. I bet it would be awesome if they did though. Perhaps someone needs to whisper sweet nothings into the R&D Dept's collective ear. ;-)

[Jen76]

Oh, look, I found it: http://www.target.com/Rival-Gel-Canis...

I made "ice cream" in this made out of coconut milk and mango once. That was pretty tasty. Maybe I should go toss the bowl into the chest freezer tonight for tomorrow!