Why make homemade ice cream:
Choose a Machine:
Ice cream makers come in several varieties. Old-fashioned versions use rock salt and ice, and, sometimes, good old-fashioned elbow grease to constantly churn your ice cream base mixture until it's frozen. The most inexpensive automatic ice cream maker models, meanwhile, have a special liquid-filled bowl that needs to be frozen solid in your freezer before using. More expensive models, meanwhile, have built-in compression freezers that enable you to make multiple batches back-to-back, without waiting for the bowl to freeze.
Manual and Rock-Salt Makers:
- Play & Freeze Ice Cream
- Rival Electric Ice Cream Maker
- White Mountain Traditional Electric Ice Cream Maker
Makers with Freezer Bowls:
Learn how to use your machine:
Making ice cream sounds complicated, but it's really just a matter of mixing up a base of cream, sugar and flavorings, chilling the base, pouring it into your machine, and churning until it's done. Your machine should have a detailed instruction manual, but if you're still lost (or if your manual's lost), here are instructions on how to use both the automatic freezer-canister models, and the rock-salt models:
Practice makes perfect, but you can also perfect your skill with some handy tips.
Find Some Favorite Recipes:
If you find a basic vanilla ice cream recipe that you love, you can dress it up with all sorts of mix-ins and flavorings. And don't forget, your ice cream maker can also help you create fat-free sorbets, refreshing sherbets and healthy frozen yogurts. Get started with some of these recipes:
- Vanilla Ice Cream
- Cherry Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
- Caramel Ice Cream with Sea Salt
- Ovaltine Ice Cream
- Basic Fruit Sorbet
- Watermelon Sherbet
By the way, the terms ice cream and gelato are not interchangeable. Learn the difference between ice cream and gelato.
Find a cookbook you like:
A good ice cream cookbook or two will provide you with plenty of recipes for ice creams, gelatos, sorbets and more. There are plenty on the market, but here are two of my favorites:
