Making homemade ice cream was once a ritual reserved for special occasions like holiday picnics and other summer gatherings. Ice cream lovers can now enjoy creamy, delicious homemade ice cream anytime. With today's ice cream makers, there's no hand cranking, no bags of ice and no rock salt.With these easy to use counter-top appliances the ingredients are frozen in a double-walled insulated canister. Before using, the canister must be placed in a freezer to completely freeze the liquid contained in the canister walls. Your prepared ice cream mixture goes in the frozen canister, where a mixing arm churns and freezes the ingredients, transforming it into ice cream.
Most counter-top ice cream makers are able to produce up to 1-1/2 quarts of ice cream and other frosty desserts like frozen yogurt, sherbet, sorbets and frozen drinks.
For perfect ice cream, about the consistency of soft-serve, the canister must be completely frozen and the ice cream ingredients must be well chilled to start the process. For harder ice cream, you simply transfer it from the canister to a freezer container and place in in your freezer for about 2 or 3 hours before serving.
In between uses, keep the canister in your freezer, inside a plastic bag, so it's' frozen and ready to use whenever you want to make ice cream. Since it takes 6 hours or more to properly freeze the canister, to make more than 1-1/2 quarts of ice cream at a time, you can purchase an extra freezing canister, so you can start freezing a second batch right after the first batch has been made.
Here's some of the ice cream makers you can now find in kitchen shops, in the small appliance section of many department stores and in many online stores....
 | The Cuisinart 1.5-qt. Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker, |
| Keep an extra Ice Cream Freezer Bowl |  |
Cuisinart now makes several other counter-top ice cream makers too....
 | Cuisinart's Vintage-look Ice Cream Maker |
| Another adaptation from its original and very popular ice cream maker, the Cuisinart Pure Indulgence Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker |  |
Similar Ice Cream Makers from other manufacturers include the ......
 | Deni 1.5-qt. Automatic Ice Cream Maker and the Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker Both are fully automatic and both have a 1-1 /2 quart capacity. |  |
| If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer, you can make homemade ice cream and save counter space with KitchenAid's Ice Cream Attachment. |  |
Here's recipes that will work well with any of these counter-top ice cream makers...
| Banana Ice Cream |
