QuietI's Full Review: Sony SIXAXIS PS398040 controller for PlayStation 3
That request is made multiple times, daily, by my 3 year old boy. The baby is not quite that articulate. She hears her brother's statement and echoes it in her own way, "sss-cream? sss-cream?" The fact that we live in the 'burbs of Phoenix where the average daily temperature is well over 100 degrees may explain this somewhat, but not entirely. Like most kids, and like their Boston born-and-raised Mom, my kids are ice cream addicts.
A bit of an interesting side note... residents of the Greater Boston (Massachusetts) area at one time had the distinction of highest per capita ice cream consumption in the US. I suspect this holds true still, but I don't really have a good line on where to investigate it. The point is, as a long time Boston and Cambridge resident, ice cream is a dietary staple to me. I firmly believe everyone should have some everyday. Not a lot, but a nice little serving. The world would be a better place, believe me.
The Machine
I bought this machine for my husband's birthday. Let me make it clear that I bought it so that I could make him ice cream in it. I never intended it as something for him to actually use himself. We are devotees of the low-carb lifestyle, and have yet to find a truly low-carb ice cream. I bought the machine so we could make our own.
Features
This machine is extraordinarily simple and wonderfully designed for the most part. The base is quite heavy and contains the surprisingly quiet motor which turns the freezer bowl. A plastic scraper-blade fits inside the bowl, and slots into the clear plastic cover, which holds it in place while the motor turns the entire bowl apparatus. The ice cream freezes along the inside of the bowl, and the blade scrapes it off the walls, allowing the still-liquid portion to flow up against the walls, which cause it to freeze. This process continues until all the ice cream mixture has reached a uniform texture.
This method is a much better way to go than turning the blade/paddle in the ice cream, as it allows the machine to be assembled quickly, with a minimum of fuss. There is no question of whether you've got it right or not; everything just fits together, and you're ready to make ice cream.
Provided you remembered to pop that freezer bowl into the freezer... If you have an ice cream maker, part of your freezer is just dedicated to keeping the bowl ready to go. If you leave it out of the freezer, you are never going to make ice cream, so what's the point of even owning the machine? Just get over it and make a permanent space for it in the freezer, you'll be happy you did.
How to make ice cream
As long as you have a frozen bowl and the ingredients on hand, you can have a nice soft-consistency ice cream in about 20 to 30 minutes. If you want it to firm up a bit even more, put it in the freezer to harden. The basic methodology is:
1. mix up your ice cream recipe and chill it well (vital, especially for cooked custard ice cream bases)
2. assemble the machine
3. pour the ice cream into the machine through the top of the lid
4. turn it on
If you want to add liqueur or nuts or chocolate chips, wait about 20 minutes, until the ice cream is nearing the consistency you want, and then add them through the hole in the top. This is an excellent design as you don't have to interrupt the mixing to do add-ins.
About 20 minutes from when you started, sneak a little spoonful from the top and see if you like the texture. OK? Then turn the machine off. Still too soft? Give it another 5 minutes or so, but it's not going to get the consistency of Ben & Jerry's, say, without going into the freezer. Very important: the machine does not turn itself off!
You must remove the ice cream from the freezer bowl before putting it into the freezer! If you put a full freezer bowl back into the freezer, you are never going to get that ice cream out short of letting it all melt down to goo. You have been warned.
"Decanting"
Ah, the pleasure of getting the ice cream out of the machine! It goes in so easily, too. Well, about 75% of it comes out easily. The remainder is now permafrost attached to the inside of the freezer bowl, and believe me, you will damage the bowl if you try to scrape it off. Your only alternative is to let it sit out until the bowl defrosts slightly, and then you can scrape it off and add it to the rest of the stuff that's now in the freezer. I'm pretty sure this is a problem with all ice cream makers, but it still irks me considerably.
The Finished Product
Depending on your recipe, your ice cream is going to range from dense to extremely dense. Very little air gets incorporated into the ice cream during the freezing process, so the stuff you get out of these machines makes some flavors of Hagen Daaz or Ben & Jerry's seem like ice milk (and if you know what that is, you're at least as old as I am.)
What that means is, if you leave this stuff in the freezer too long, it will become brick-like and completely impossible to serve. You are then forced to take it out of the freezer and wait at least 20 minutes for it to soften before you can scoop some out to eat. (My husband just microwaves it for a bit on medium power. He's not that patient.)
Clean up
There are so few parts to this machine, clean up is a snap. All the plastic pieces are dishwasher safe. Once you have rid the freezer bowl of the last 25% of the ice cream that has now slid down its sides, just give it a quick wash in sudsy water and a rinse, and then pop it back into the freezer. Couldn't be simpler.
Conclusions
About a million years ago, I had a Donvier manual ice cream maker. It had a smaller capacity than this one (which holds 1.5 quarts) and you had to crank it manually to make the ice cream. It was a pain in the butt and I didn't use it more than a handful of times before the novelty wore off. This machine beats that old manual hands-down. It is easy to assemble and fill. It's easy to see when the ice cream is "done." It's easy to clean. My only quibble is how much ice cream gets stuck inside the freezer bowl, but I have the feeling that comes with the territory.
I wish I could share a great low-carb ice cream recipe with you, but I have found that even the best artificial sweetener [Splenda(tm)] has a truly nasty bitter taste when frozen. I think we're going for berries-and-cream next, with no added sweeteners. I'll post a recipe if we finally find one that's a winner. Until then, I'll keep experimenting with this nifty little machine. The kids have no problem with being taste testers!
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