Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Machine- Mix It In Ice Cream Maker for Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, Gelato, Drinks 1.5 Quart, White, ICE-48

This thing is freaking awesome. My husband is kind of a DQ addict and it's very nice to be able to make it at home (at a fraction of the price). There are some recipes that come with the book. Forget them. There are some Junkett mixes you can buy that will do in a pinch. But here's how to make PERFECT DQ copy cat ice cream:Mix 1 tablespoon of Gelatin in a 1/4 cup of cold waterWarm 2 cups of milk, be careful not to scorch it. Turn off the heat before it boils.Add Gelatin Mix, 1 Cup of Sugar 1 teaspoon of REAL vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the Milk. Mix it well and allow it to cool for 30 minutes.Add 1 1/2 cups of cream to the cooled mixture and place it in the fridge for 8 hoursThe mixture turns into a kind of milky, ice cream jello. It's kind of alarming at first, but trust me, it'll be good.Mix it in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes. Be sure the bowl is frozen solid and you keep the mixer away from the sun or lights that produce heat.Yes this is time consuming and takes planning, but remember, you have to freeze the bowl for about 12 hours to get your ice cream to freeze anyway. It's totally worth it. I'm not kidding.You can make a Peanut Buster Parfait by layering hot fudge, spanish peanuts and ice cream or my favorite, the pecan mudslide, which consists of hot fudge, caramel, salted pecan pieces and, of course, ice cream. The above recipe is perfect for about 4 DQ treat-size servings or 8 small cones. I don't think it's great for cones, it doesn't come out in a nice neat stream, maybe because I make the ice cream so thick. But, we're not in it for cones anyway.The one complaint I have about this ice-cream maker is that there was a little piece on the condiment slide that was broken upon opening. A little super glue fixed that right up.Speaking of the condiment slide. You can use mini M&Ms, mini chips, chopped nuts, or sprinkles with it. Anything larger will clog it up. Also, it won't hold liquid condiments like chocolate or butter scotch. It works by dropping the mix-ins down a chute while the ice cream is dispensing. It's kind of a cool feature, but I don't really use it.

So I made my first bowl of ice cream 2 days ago. I was using the mint recipe that is included in the manual. I was skeptical of the reviews because others were having issues with the freezing. The the first bowl I made was slush. I had put my bowl in the freezer overnight but I wrapped it in a plastic bag as the manual suggests. I had mixed all the ingredients before taking out the bowl. I put everything in according to directions and after 15 minutes it was still slush; 20 minutes, slush; 30 minutes; slush. Finally after 60 minutes I gave up. I came back here and read over all the reviews again. I saw several people suggest to mix the ingredients and freeze for 20 minutes before starting the ice cream maker. So last night I attempted this again. My bowl had already been in the freezer overnight. This time it was not wrapped in a plastic bag. I wanted to try vanilla this time so I mixed together all of my ingredients. I placed them in the freezer for 20 minutes. Once the time was up, I pulled the bowl out and put the ice cream maker together and started it. Then I pulled the ingredients out of the freezer and poured them in. 15 minutes later we had ICE CREAM! and the longer we ran it the thicker it got. Today I attempted coffee ice cream and went through the same steps. ICE CREAM AGAIN! So for those of you that are having issues with getting your ice cream to freeze, try mixing your ingredients and freezing them for 20 minutes BEFORE you take your bowl out and start the ice cream maker. It made a big difference for me.

We absolutely love this at-home ice cream machine! Every time we have family over or throw a party, this becomes the highlight—especially for the kids! It’s fun, easy to use, and makes soft serve with great texture that rivals the real thing.The bowl needs to be frozen before use, so we keep it stored in the freezer and ready to go at all times. I also love that it comes with homemade recipe suggestions and a built-in side compartment for toppings—such a fun touch!⛔️ Heads-up:It’s a bit bulky, so we store it away between uses to save counter space.Only one mix can be preparredCleaning requires disassembly, but it’s easy to take apart and reassemble.The churning takes some time, so make sure your mix is well-chilled before starting to get the best results.Overall, this is a great homemade ice cream machine and I highly suggest for the price.