Ice cream makes a delicious treat any time of the year. If you’re tired of feeling the urge to have a dish of ice cream or gelato after dinner, only to find the freezer empty, then the Cuisinart ICE-100 might be right for you. It’s a powerful appliance with a commercial quality compressor that can whip up a batch of frozen stuff in less than an hour. With its touchpad controls, worry-free timer, and straightforward operation, you’ll be able to enjoy frozen treats without a lot of fuss. It’s easy to clean afterwards, so you’re more likely to use it often.

The ICE-100 uses a transparent lid that lets you watch the progress of your recipe as it’s being mixed and chilled, and the lid has an opening that allows you to add toppings and ingredients like nuts or chocolate chips without interrupting the cycle. The mixing bowl is made from anodized aluminum, and lifts out of the machine easily with an integral handle.

Specifications

• Fully automatic ice cream maker
• 1.5-quart capacity
• 16 x 12 x 9 inches
• Weighs 32 pounds
• Runs on regular household current
• Plastic parts manufactured without BPA
• Two paddles; one for ice cream, one for gelato
• 60-minute countdown timer
• Touchpad control
• LCD readout
• 10-minute keep cool feature

Features

The ICE-100 comes with two paddles; one is for making ice cream, and one for gelato. The gelato paddle whips less air into the mixture, which imparts a denser texture than the ice cream paddle. Whichever cool treat you prefer, the Cuisinart can deliver it.

The ICE-100 is a very powerful ice cream maker. In order to chill the ingredients effectively, the unit has a commercial quality compressor onboard. Less powerful units require the user to pre-freeze most of the ingredients in order to be able to turn the ingredients into a smooth, firm concoction, but the Cuisinart can handle refrigerated or room temperature ingredients with ease. While the Cuisinart ICE-100 can make 1.5 quarts at a time, users can opt to make smaller batches, which will freeze even more quickly than with the mixing canister full.

Another way the Cuisinart ICE-100 outperforms many of its competitors is with a powerful mixer motor. If your ice cream maker has trouble stirring the ingredients when they begin to gel, you can get poorly mixed ingredients, or a runny concoction instead of smooth, firm ice cream. The Cuisinart has both the rotary mixing power and the chilling capacity to deliver ice cream and gelato that’s better than you can buy at the grocery store, and have it ready in as little as forty minutes. The power the ICE-100 offers doesn’t come without a downside, though. The unit weighs in at a hefty 32 pounds, and it’s pretty noisy during most of its cycle. That’s probably too heavy for the average user to comfortably move from countertop to storage regularly, so purchasers should plan on allowing the ICE-100 to be permanently place on a countertop.

The unit is automated nicely, and has an easy to use and read timer. It includes a nice keep cool feature that automatically keeps your mixtures chilled for up to 10 minutes after the unit has finished making your ice cream or gelato, which makes it easier to serve your finished product at its peak of freshness without worrying about using it the minute it’s done.

Pros

• Makes great ice cream and gelato
• Very easy to assemble
• Supplied instructions are very detailed
• Makes a full batch in under an hour
• Easy to clean after use
• Unit is powerful enough to skip pre-freezing of ingredients
• Appliance is stylish and suitable for display on kitchen counter
• See through lid lets you observe progress of batch, and fold in additional ingredients at the proper time

Cons

• Somewhat noisy
• Too heavy to move from storage to countertop regularly

Final Verdict

The Cuisinart ICE-100 is a best seller, and users are almost unanimous in their satisfaction with the machine. Almost 90 percent of users rate the ICE-100 at four stars or better. Users mention the unit’s ability to make both first-rate ice cream and gelato using the same machine, and some users say they’re even able to make frozen drinks like slushees by monitoring the freezing cycle and stopping it before the ingredients fully gel. Users often mention how glad they are to be able to enjoy ice cream and gelato that’s free of the preservatives, stabilizers, food coloring, and excess amounts of sweeteners that many brands of prepackaged ice creams contain. Of course there are many recipes for flavoured  ice cream! Try some!

While reviewers mention that the unit is fairly big and heavy, they report that they don’t mind leaving it on their countertop because it’s attractively styled in black plastic and chrome, and it’s easy to clean. The Cuisinart is a best buy.