Cuisinart ICE-20R 1.5 Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker Machine for Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet - Red | Perfect for Home Kitchen, Parties & Summer Desserts

I bought this ice cream maker because I saw it being used on Giada DeLaurentiis' Everyday Italian. I'd wanted an ice cream maker for years, but could never quite decide what brand to get. I figured if a product was being used on Food Network, it would at least work like it's supposed to, and given the nice price tag on the Cuisinart, I decided to give it a try. I don't think I'll ever find the need to buy ice cream again... the product that this maker puts out is AMAZINGLY good! And it's sooooo easy!So far I've made basic vanilla ice cream with frozen bites of eggless cookie dough mixed in (yum), ice cream made with two packages of butterscotch Jell-O pudding (YUM), and just five minutes ago, peach frozen yogurt (*dies from the yum-osity*). I have plans to make chocolate frozen yogurt this afternoon and strawberry ice cream and mango sorbet tomorrow, then I'm hauling all my homemade noms to a friend's house for a birthday celebration. We might pass out from the sheer goodness of all this ice cream, let me tell ya!I did read through several reviews of the machine and took some tips into consideration, so for those who are having problems getting this machine to work properly, I offer this:- When you freeze your bowl, make sure your freezer is turned really low... I always keep mine at the lowest setting, anyway, so it freezes very well. Also, I put a ziploc bag full of ice in the bowl, thinking it might help. Don't know if it does, but my freezer bowl starts thickening my ice creams almost immediately and only requires a couple hours in between batches to re-freeze, so maybe it does help.- I mix all my ingredients in the quart Ziploc twist containers in which I plan to store the finished product. That way I can A) give my ingredients a good shake before pouring into the mixer and B) I also stick the containers either in the back of my fridge for 20-30 minutes or, sometimes, into the freezer for 10 minutes or so. My fridge is set to super-cold (about 32 degrees or so) most of the time, so chilling the ingredients like that also helps a lot. My ice creams usually start thickening within 5 minutes and by the end of the 25 minutes are an absolutely perfect soft serve consistency.- If soft serve isn't your thing, just put the ice cream/frozen yogurt in your quart container and freeze it for awhile. It may sound like a lot of steps to get ice cream, but it's really not that much work and it's WORTH IT.The only things I haven't really experimented with are using ingredients that have to be cooked, then cooled, first or having the machine mix in any add-ins (when I made the cookie dough, I mixed it in by hand because my ice cream maker was too full for me to add anything else to it). I am sure I will try new recipes as the weeks go on and I am already planning to buy a couple extra freezer bowls so I can make some big batches of ice cream. All in all, I give this ice cream maker two thumbs up and a wink for good measure!I've owned this ice-cream maker for a month and just love it! To avoid the problems other reviewers have experienced, just follow these tips (some posted by other reviewers too):1) Freeze the bowl with a bag of ice cubes in it (thanks for the tip, Cynthia Nelson). It worked for me, and now I only need to freeze it overnight (instead of 48 hours each time I wanted to use it).2) Use a blender to mix all ingredients! It's easier to pour from the blender jar into the ice-cream machine, and the sugar is properly mixed and melted into the heavy cream.3) For fruit-flavored ice cream, use frozen fruits instead of fresh fruit puree, or you can buy fresh fruits and cut them up and freeze them. Blend away as you would if you were making a smoothie. I did this and compared it to using fresh fruit puree and found that the "smoothie" mixture chills and thickens faster in the machine (10 - 15 mins); whilst the fresh fruit puree mixture tends to take about 30 mins or longer and yields more crystals when the mixture is frozen.4) Put a small bag of ice on top of the opening of the transparent lid - use the bag of ice cubes that you put into the bowl in the freezer. It helps with chilling the mixture faster while it is being churned. Mine did not melt nor drip into the mixture.5) Put an empty glass container in the freezer before you start making the ice-cream mixture. Use it to store the ice-cream. I use a Pyrex bowl with its lid as glass chills faster than plastic.I modified a recipe I found online, and get awesome creamy ice cream which doesn't get frozen hard like a rock even when it's been in the freezer for 2 - 3 days! You can, of course cut down on the sugar or use fat-free products or artificial sweeteners (which I haven't tried - I believe natural is better than those chemicals in artificial sweeteners. Our bodies can work off the sugar, but the chemicals stay in our system!)1.5 cups heavy whipping cream1 cup Half & Half or evaporated milk1 - 1.5 cups frozen strawberries or any other frozen fruit1 + 1/4 cup granulated white sugar2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)Put everything in the blender and blend until the ingredients are well-mixed. Turn on the ice-cream machine and pour the mixture in. Once the mixture thickens and has a soft-serve or thicker consistency, turn off the machine. Scoop and serve, or pour and scrape the mixture out with a rubber/silicon spatula into your chilled glass container and freeze for about an hour or so.Very goodヨーグルトシャーベットを自家製で沢山作る事が出来ました。ボールを１日冷凍庫に冷やしてから使用しています。簡単で、健康的な素材でデザートが作れますので大満足です。I'm not happy with this product. First it is incredibly noisy. Second the bowl in which you make the ice cream is far to small. Third by the time you buy the ingredients to make a batch it costs double that store bought does if you buy it on sale, and ice cream is always on sale some where. I do not recommend this product.