Ice Cream Maker

What's The Scoop?
Ice Cream Making Machine Has Benefits
Make Ice Cream At Home

You really can make ice cream at home without even having an Ice Cream Maker.

You can make ice cream using plastic baggies!

Want to make ice cream using two coffee cans? That can be done, too.

You can see that making homemade ice cream can be a fun and educational family activity. But once done, most people will want to "graduate" to an ice cream machine.

Based on the method of freezing, there are three types of ice cream making machines that I am familiar with.

One type is "ice freezing" where you have a double layer of buckets. You put the ice cream mix in the inner bucket and then place ice and salt in the outer bucket.

This is what my family used to make ice cream for years. My ice cream maker was a hand crank machine and for awhile my kids did most of the cranking. They soon tired of having to work for their ice cream. They became "cranky."

This type of ice cream maker can now be purchased with an electric motor that turns the paddle. Both of these types are pictured here.

Another type of ice cream machine uses a double-walled bucket with a special fluid sealed between the walls. You place this bucket in your freezer overnight, then when ready to make the ice cream, you take the bucket out of the freezer, assemble the machine, pour the ice cream mix in the bucket and hand crank it or turn an electric motor on.

With most of these machines you can only make one batch per bucket per day because of needing to freeze the bucket.

You don't have to bother with rock salt or salt and ice, but you also need to have the freezer space to accommodate the bucket.

The mechanical freezer type is an ice cream maker with a compressor for cooling. These are the more costly machines because they come with the compressor.

Any of these types of machines will make great ice cream. The "key" is the recipes you use. And with most of these you can easily make other frozen desserts.

An example is the Deni 5000 Scoop Factory Compact Automatic Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert Maker pictured here. With it anyone can make great ice cream and healthy fruit-filled yogurt, light sorbets or ...great margaritas!

It is fully automatic meaning there is no ice, salt or hand cranking needed.

The Rival 8704 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Machine is a popular example of a motorized ice cream maker that requires you to use ice and salt.

The Cuisinart ICE20R Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker is my personal favorite because it "fits" most of the criteria for a good machine.