Expensive, but worth it!

This was a gift to the family for Christmas. We enjoy good ice cream, but like to control the ingredients in what we eat. Based on the reviews here and elsewhere, I decided to take a chance when I saw a good price on the machine.

First thing, the machine is heavy and large as people warned. At about 40lbs and bigger than my toaster oven, it takes up a lot of counter space. Thank goodness I have a place outside but near the kitchen to store it. However, the reason it is so heavy is it is built extremely well. You can see the copper tubing through the vents and the exterior is mostly stainless steel (except for buttons/dial/feet). The nice thing is that everything is self contained and almost nothing separates. Only the lock nut and the stirring paddle are removable and easily so.

The unit comes with a recipe book. We have tried a few of the recipes and they are excellent. We also have others but the provided ones are just as good. We especially like the French Vanilla and Maple Walnut recipes we tried.

Making ice cream is simple, unless you go the custard based (French) route where you have a fair amount of prep work for your base. However, that is all before it goes into the unit. Before putting your base in the unit to freeze, you should cool it a bit in the fridge if it requires heated preparation. Otherwise, you should allow significantly more time than the 30 minutes cool ingredients take to freeze. Once you put your ingredients in and are ready to go, it is S-I-M-P-L-E with one caveat. Set the timer preferably a bit longer than you expect it to take to freeze the dessert as you can turn off the refrigeration a minute or two prior to make removal easier as you need to wait 3-5 minutes after it turns off to restart it.. This will save you some down time if the process takes a little longer than what you expected. Once you set the timer, press the refrigeration and mixing buttons to activate. Then just wait until your dessert is ready. You can adjust the timer midcycle if need be, but remember again the cooling unit takes 3-5 minutes of downtime once it goes off before you can restart it. Then, remove your dessert with the provided plastic spoon (though another will work, this one is designed well for the machine bowl). If you like really firm desserts, you can let it set for a bit in the freezer. Otherwise, for those who like softer results, they are just like soft serve when I have removed a dessert from the machine.

Then, cleanup is a snap. The included directions work extremely well. Remove the lock nut and paddle and wash with the sink. Then take a couple ounces of hot water and pour them in the bowl. Use a sponge to clean the bowl and dry with a cloth. You may have to repeat the process once or twice. Takes a couple of minutes in all. I prefer their method to just using a sponge as it is slightly quicker than going back and forth to the sink where I have it with just a sponge and it also keeps the machine away from the water source and potential splash problems. You can also clean the outside of the machine/buff it if you want.

Then you can put it away or on to the next batch..

The results are terrific.