Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker, Black

It may have been me...but when I used my Frozen Dessert Maker for the first time yesterday, I found that even after 35 minutes, my raspberry frozen yogurt was about the consistency of a "soft serve" ice cream, not firmer as I had anticipated. I poured it into a container and put it into the freezer compartment of the fridge for a couple hours and it was fine. Perhaps still a bit more like sherbet than frozen yogurt, but still was firm, and very good. I don't know if the fact that I used frozen raspberries caused this because they may have been too "wet" when they thawed, or if perhaps the canister wasn't as thoroughly frozen as I believed it to be when I began (it did not "slosh" when shaken so I assumed it was ready...maybe not!) I do like the appearance and ease of use, and anticipate many more attempts at making ice cream and sherbet this summer. 07/09/13 EDIT: Since posting this, after my initial use, I have made several more batches of ice cream. I can now say, the frozen yogurt was a bomb. The quick ice creams are fine, but lack a little something. But if you take the time to make the custard and cool it before putting it into the machine, you will not be disappointed. And...freezing time of these is 25 minutes, every time. I'm delighted with this machine now!

This is SO much better than the old hand crank, or even the wood electric ice cream maker. No more ice, salt or salty ice cream! ( from the salt accidentally getting into your mix. We keep the bowl in our freezer for whenever you have the hankering for ice cream. 20 minutes is plenty to make a batch and we have found that you can do back to back batches. Just need to make sure your ice cream mix is ready and chilled. The second batch may not be as stiff as the first, simply store it in your container and pop in the freezer. It is quieter than expected, clean up is easy. Best of all, use your own ingredients! I'm finding better chocolate cocoa that makes store bought chocolate ice cream seem pathetic.

I looked for alternatives to making healthy ice cream since my 4 kids absolutely love it soon much!. In the grocery EVERYTHING seems to have too much dairy in them, so I decided to try this to see if I could finally find a machine that would take my ingredients (coconut and goat milk based) and still taste like ice cream. This machine will take anything you put in it and taste pretty good. There are mainly 2 issues why I don't give it a 5 star: a.- it's too noisy b.-you loose quite a bit of ice cream because it stays "stuck" to the walls. If you try to scrape it off, you scratch the aluminum as I did. On the ingredients; and if you're not using the recipes that come with the machine; make sure you put MUCH MORE flavor and sweetner than to your actual taste buds liking when mixing the ingredients; the reason being it gets lost somewhere along the freezing process. The first batches I made came out a bit bland, but consistency is nice. Yes; I must agree on 2 other issues prevailing in the older posts: a.- get another freezer bowl and B.- make sure all the ingredient mixture you're using is as cold as it possibly can be. Overall it's a good value considering that 1/2 a pint of coconut milk base ice-cream is about $6.00.

have not used it very much at this point but it did a good job on what we have had. smooth ice cream!

Right from the start, I'd like to say I am very happy with this ice cream maker. Going back to the 1960s, I have used two electric models, the kind that need ice and salt, the same technology that goes back over a hundred years, just with a better power source than my dad had when he had to hand crank the freezer to make ice cream when I was a kid. My old one was making the kind of noises that an electric motor emits when crucial and expensive parts are wearing out, and the idea of no salt, no ice, was irresistible. Besides, my doctor told me to cut down on sugar, so I figured a 2-quart model was better than a 1-gallon machine. For close to 25 years I have been using a recipe that friends, family and co-workers rave about (in a good way). It's nothing particularly special - I merely kept tweaking the recipe that came with my ice cream freezer until it was "just right." For the Vonnegut fans among you, the name of the recipe is Ice Cream Nine, and two years ago I put it on line at [...] Getting to the point: For my first batch, I used my recipe for vanilla, cutting everything in half, and reducing the eggs from 3 to 1. This mix should be heated, so I have always been in the habit of mixing it up the day before I want to freeze it, and chilling it overnight. I followed the freezer instructions carefully, and within ten minutes or so I could see slush forming. One of my favorite features of this product is the open top. When the freezing is close to done, this allows you to spoon out a sample to make sure everything is going well. Although my reduced size recipe produced a tiny bit less than two quarts of liquid, filling to the recommended level left a cup or two unused. And since the mix expanded to where I had to spoon it off the top, I would recommend filling to an inch below the top instead of a half inch. The instructions had said something about making two batches one after another, without specifically saying this was OK, so I scraped out the finished product, put in the leftover juice, and it came out fine, despite filling only the bottom inch or so of the bowl. As it froze it seemed to pile up on one side, so I stopped the machine, swirled the slush around a bit, and re-started the freezer. I live alone and know better than to eat two quarts of ice cream all at once, so I always put it in the freezer (except for the "test bowl" that you are mandated to eat immediately). I don't know if this means anything, but I put the containers of ice cream into plastic bags, and it was always scoopable without having to sit out and soften. Of course, it was incredibly delicious as expected. I make homemade hot fudge sauce using a recipe that came with my first microwave oven 30-plus years ago. Although the vanilla is delicious plain, it's heavenly with the fudge sauce. Next up will be my chocolate toasted almond, which will be served to a group of friends, the first true test of whether this was a good idea. Oh heck, I KNOW it was a good idea. UPDATE FEB 2014: I have found that trying to make a second batch right after the first does not really work that well. The ice cream at the bottom of the container gets so hard that it fills in the slight depression where the dasher sits, so unless you wait till it melts free, the dasher is not positioned correctly. I have reduced my total milk/cream/half and half by a cup to make the entire batch fit in the freezing bowl.