The 10 Best Ice Cream Makers in 2023

With the average person in the US consuming around 48 pints of ice cream per year, it is no wonder that some of prefer to make it at home instead of buying it from the store. Making our own ice cream, sorbet or gelato allows us to create our own flavors as well as letting us make it for specific diets, such as low fat, or lactose free or dairy free diets.

Things to Consider Before Buying an Ice Cream Maker

Ice cream was first produced commercially in 1851 in Boston, Mass. and when ice cream was sent to the military during World War II, it became popular as a summer treat. The end of the World War II was also celebrated with, yes, you’ve guessed it, ice cream!

Around 90% of US households eat ice cream and vanilla is still the most popular flavor.

An ice cream maker allows you to make whatever flavors of ice cream, sorbet, gelato, frozen custard or frozen yogurt you want in the comfort of your own kitchen. You also have the freedom to create healthier ice creams or ice creams that are suitable for specific diets, such as lactose free.

How Ice Cream Makers Work

The traditional ice cream maker needs ice and rock salt to form a refrigerant that can freeze the mixture. The salt causes the ice to melt and become brine, which keeps at temperatures of between 8°F and 12°F. This brine quickly absorbs the heat from the ice cream mixture and allows it to begin to freeze.

The body of a traditional ice cream maker is usually a bucket or tub and a canister sits inside of this, leaving enough space to place ice and salt between the two. At one time, it would always need cranking by hand, but nowadays, most prefer a maker with an electric motor on top of the canister to reduce the amount of work needed!

When making ice cream, the canister needs placing into the bucket or tub and the paddle needs attaching and fastening into place. The ice cream mixture is poured into the canister and the lid placed on top. The motor then fastens securely to the lid/drive mechanism and you can then begin to add ice and salt.

The typical ratio is five cups of ice to one cup of salt and ice needs breaking up before use. The ice and salt needs adding to the space between the bucket and the canister, then as the motor runs and the ice melts down, it needs refilling with ice and salt until the ice cream is finished.

The amount of ice and salt also depends on air temperature and if frozen cream starts sticking on the inside of the canister then you can allow the brine to warm up slightly and reduce the amount of salt added.

The other two main types of ice cream maker include the pre-freezing style, which uses a removable coolant lined bowl that is pre-frozen before use and the self-refrigerating type that has its own compressor to chill the canister or bowl.

An ice cream mixture is usually a loose dairy or fruit base, added to either the bowl with frozen coolant around the outside of it, or to a bowl sitting in a refrigeration unit - depending on the type of maker.

The bowl or canister of an ice cream maker has a paddle or dasher that gently stirs the ice cream mixture as it cools. This is to not only keep it smooth, but to stop ice crystals from forming, which can ruin the ice cream. The dasher also helps aerate the mixture as ice cream needs air to stop it from becoming a solid ice brick. Some mixers may have a static dasher and the bowl itself will rotate.

Once the consistency of the ice cream changes to that of a milkshake or soft-serve ice cream you can move it to a clean container and pop it into the freezer for a couple of hours to firm it up further. A home ice cream maker can rarely harden ice cream to the consistency of store-bought ice cream.

You can also buy a kit, usually consisting of a coolant lined bowl and a paddle, that can go onto major stand mixers and temporarily convert them to an ice cream maker.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ice Cream Makers

An ice cream maker can take up a lot of counter space, and if you have a pre-freezing style machine, you need to ensure there is enough room in the freezer the day before to freeze the bowl. If you want to make a new batch of ice cream straight after in this type of maker, you also must wait for your bowl to re-freeze (usually the following day) or you will need to keep spare bowls in the freezer ready to go.

These pre-frozen styles tend to consume less power though as they just need an electric motor to turn the paddle.

The self-refrigerating types can be power heavy as they need to refrigerate, and they are usually much more expensive to buy. If its bowl is removeable though, it does offer you the choice to start a fresh batch of ice cream as soon as the bowl has been cleaned off and dried.

The size of the ice cream maker not only depends on its type, but also its capacity. Many make around 2 quarts, but most will have a minimum quantity, which you should think about before you buy, as you will need enough room to store the ice cream once made.

Different Types of Frozen Desserts

Ice cream makers are not just for ice cream – many are suitable for making a wide range of frozen desserts. Here is the low down on our favorite frozen treats and what makes each of them different:

Ice cream must be sweet, contain at least 10% milk fat according to the USDA and must be churned during freezing. Usually made with cream, milk and sugar and sometimes egg yolks, an ice cream base varies, but many use a French custard base of tempered egg yolks in milk.

Gelato is Italian for ice cream, but unlike traditional ice cream, gelato has less milk fat and less air added during its production. It can be lower in saturated fats than ice cream, but it may have more sugar content. Gelato is usually churned slower than ice cream, making a denser treat. It needs serving slightly warmer than ice cream as this makes it softer and gives it a glossier finish.

Frozen custard is identical to ice cream except egg yolk is always added. This creates a softer and denser dessert.

Frozen yogurt is made the same as ice cream but has a yogurt base rather than cream or milk. It tends to be lower in fat and calories than traditional ice cream but may have more sugar and calories.

Sorbet is made with sugar and fruit, it does not contain any dairy and its refreshing taste is why it is a popular palate cleanser in restaurants. Like ice cream, sorbet is easy to make at home and it does not contain any fat, although it has a much higher sugar content than ice cream and lacks any calcium source.

Sherbet is always fruit based and like a sorbet, but it has around 1% to 2% of milk fat added as it is made.

Italian ice, or granita is often made like sorbet, with fruit sugar and water. The difference is its texture. When making, granita is scraped as it is freezes to create more of a flaked texture than the typical smooth texture of a sorbet.

Making Ice Cream Safely

Homemade ice cream causes several outbreaks of Salmonella every year – due to raw or undercooked eggs in the ice cream.

The FDA recommend that a cooked egg or custard base be used in ice cream, especially if it will be eaten by those such as infants, older adults and pregnant women as these groups have a higher risk of Salmonella infection.

To make an easy custard base, eggs and milk need cooking gently to an internal temperature of 160°F which will destroy any Salmonella present. The mixture can then be chilled and used as the base for the ice cream. Pasteurized eggs can also be used, as can egg substitute products, although you may need to experiment a little with these to get the best flavor.

The FDA and the USDA also advise us to always use pasteurized milk and cream in homemade ice cream.

The Best Type of Milk for Ice Cream

Traditionally, most recipes need heavy cream, whole milk or half and half. This is because these have the highest fat content to give better texture to the ice cream. When ice cream mixture starts mixing in an ice cream maker, the fat molecules that are already suspended in clusters in the milk and cream start to break apart and keep the pockets of air in place – this makes smoother ice cream.

Because skim milk has little fat, it is not usually as suitable for ice cream as it cannot give the necessary texture and lacks the creamy finish. You can use skim milk if you add extra fat, such as by increasing the ratio of heavy cream, or by adding melted butter or margarine.

Buttermilk can be a lower fat alternative as it is a low fat milk, but with an added bacterial culture. Buttermilk ice cream does have a different taste though, which may take some getting used to. Nowadays, other milks such as coconut, cashew or almond are suitable for making non-dairy ice creams.

Sticking Paddles

There are several reasons as to why the paddle or dasher sticks. Adding chunky ingredients such as chocolate or cookie pieces can cause sticking, so try to avoid adding these until the end of the mixing.

Another reason is if the bowl if pre-frozen, it may be too cold which means if mixture is freezing too quickly when it comes into the contact with the sides, it will make it more difficult for the paddle to mix. Adding the ice cream mixture to the center of the bowl, rather than the sides, can help minimize this.

If a maker has a paddle attached to the top of lid, there can be more chance of the ice cream maker lid coming off. This is because if the paddle sticks as the ice cream thickens, it will change direction to free itself. If this happens frequently it can cause the lid to unscrew from its base. The easiest way to prevent this is by watching it and if the paddle is sticking, you can manually scrape some of the ice cream out of the way.

Non-Freezing Ice Cream

There can be several reasons as to why your ice cream is not freezing, including that the ingredients for the base were not cold enough when you started.

If you have a pre-freezing maker, it may be that the bowl was not in the freezer long enough, or that your freezer is not cold enough to either freeze the bowl or properly set the ice cream. If you do not already have a thermometer in your freezer it is worth investing in one as ice cream needs to drop down to 0°F or lower to properly set.

When you freeze your bowl, also make sure that it is in the correct, usually upright, position in the freezer. If not, it means that the liquid inside freezes unevenly and this can stop the mixture from freezing properly.

If you have added too much ice cream mixture to the bowl it can stop it from setting. Also avoid increasing quantities of ingredients as if the bowl is too full as it begins mixing, the cooling ice cream mixture will expand and spill over.

If you try recipes outside of those provided by the manufacturer, then be prepared to increase or decrease quantities for the best results in your ice cream maker. If a recipe does not say how much ice cream it will make, then you may want to measure it out when ready - it will give you a useful guide for future batches.

Finally, if you add an alcoholic bite to your ice cream, do avoid adding too much as the ice cream will not be able to freeze properly at normal freezer temperatures.

Storing Fresh Ice Cream Properly

Fresh ice cream should be stored in the freezer center as temperature is most constant here and if homemade ice cream does melt, you should dispose of it rather than re-freezing and risking foodborne illness. It is recommended that ice cream be stored at -11°F and fresh ice cream should be eaten soon after it is made.

Before fresh ice cream is served; try leaving in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or at room temperature for 15 minutes as this can really help the flavor to develop.

Conclusion

In this review we have looked in depth at types of ice cream makers and how they work, as well as supplying some tips for un-sticking paddles and freezing ice cream that we hope you have found helpful. We have also reviewed some of the bestselling ice cream makers available and looked at what they offer to home ice cream making.