Customer Reviews

Back to Basics SIT18091 Electric 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Ice cream maker works great. The recipes that come with it are very tastey. The only downfall is the base needs to freeze for atleast 12 hours before making any icecream.

Can't agree with threemoons' review enough. After freezing the bowl for two days, then letting the mixer run until it stopped itself to keep from overheating (approx 1 hour), I didn't have ice cream. Put the whole thing in the freezer again with the ice cream mixture in it. Two hours later, some thickening. Started the mixer again... another hour and forty-five minutes... still no ice cream. Froze results overnight, and then had decent ice cream. Next, I will get the large wooden bucket with electric motor, just like my grandmother had during my childhood. I know it works.

If I could give this zero stars I would.
I bought this ice cream maker at my Local NEX for my husbands birthday. We brought it home all excited to have some ice cream. We got everything ready and followed the directions in the book. The paddle wouldn't even spin in a circle and after 1 minute the machine over heated and shut off. Needless to say, we got NO ice cream and my family was very let down.
I took this product back to the store and will now invest a little more money in a better ice cream maker.

I got this as a Gold Box special on a lark; I have a CSA membership and thought that making some organic fruit ice cream and herb sorbets would be fun for $30. As per the ad copy, I thought that once I put stuff in the frozen bowl and hit ON, I would have ice cream in 30 minutes. Not so.

First of all, most of the recipes have some sort of pre-prep, the results of which must be chilled before adding to the mixer. I don't really have a problem with that part. However, once I got everything ice cold--and I left the freezer bowl in my freezer for two days--it still took the fully-allowed 40 minutes of mixing to get anything semi-solid.

The instructions strictly warn against running the motor for more than 40 minutes, however, I can't imagine ever getting a thick enough product in that time. There's a definite physics problem here also: I don't think that the bowl chills the swirling mix fast enough against the heat being added to it by air circulation and the motor.

All I know is that I started with cold ingredients from the fridge (made strawberry ice cream with fresh organic strawberries) and after 45 minutes I had something like a thick milkshake, NOT the "semi-soft" ice cream that the manual promised.

As per the manual's suggestion, I put said slurry into an airtight container and let it sit overnight. Granted, this morning, it was properly firm and free of ice crystals (which is the whole reason why you need an ice-cream machine and not just a blender--you need to prevent the formation of large ice crystals). It was also delicious; then again, it was made ONLY of strawberries, sugar, cream, milk, vanilla extract, and a smidgen of lemon juice (used for macerating the strawberries).

Yes, the bowl was cold enough and yes my freezer is working (everything else in my freezer is rock-hard).

Final verdict: If you want to play in the kitchen occasionally and/or experiment with odd ice cream/ices combos, this is a good bet. Unless you get one of the semi-professional ice cream makers with built-in active freezing (ie one with a proper electric mini-freezer, not a passive freezer bowl) for hundreds of $$, I think that you'd get the same results with a more expensive model so you may as well get the cheapest one available. ANY "chill bowl" ice cream maker is going to run into the same physics issues.

Having said that, if you think that this is a fun way to whip up ice cream for the kiddies in half an hour if they ate their veggies at dinner, suffice it to say that all you'll have after half an hour is a bunch of pissed-off kids.

I am very pleased with this product. It makes great ice cream and I really like the pour nozzle feature. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the bucket part is a bit small and you can't use metal utensils on it. You have to have wood or rubber utensils handy.

Used this product twice. The first time, the ice cream was done after about 40 minutes and was good (though it could have used a little more time). The second time, it stopped after 30 minutes and would not turn back on. The ice cream was still not solid though so we put it in the freezer for 20 more minutes at which point it was good.

If this didn't break, I would say it's a great product. However, it did break ... and after only two uses! Too bad.

I bought this maker because it was less than $20 at the local Target store. First thing I have to say is that it worked about as well as any frozen-bowl maker does. There wasn't anything wrong with the motor or paddles. I've used it for over a year and with certain recipes it would produce some really good ice cream. That was the problem--there was no way to predict what it would freeze and what it wouldn't. I really, really hate these types of makers. Once you pull that bowl out of the freezer, the clock is ticking. If it hasn't made ice cream when the motor shuts off at 45 minutes, you are screwed. When it failed to freeze a coffee ice cream recipe this week, I just threw it in the trash. Then I logged onto Amazon and ordered a REAL machine that uses ice and rock salt!

This has worked perfectly for us, and we've made 3-4 batches of ice cream already. It's usually done in 25-30 minutes. Perhaps some other reviewers are using bad recipes. Here's what we use for sugar-free (low carb) ice cream:

Choc. Chip Ice Cream

2 c Heavy whipping Cream
24 drops liquid splenda
.5 tsp Vanilla
1 square unsweetened chocolate, chopped

We usually make only a half batch of this, because the ice cream is best right after it has been made.

Back to Basics IC10893 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker

Just what I've been looking for!
Right size for Two people and right Price too.
OH, and it's Very easy to Operate.

'Was pleasantly surprised by this inexpensive machine. I have not experienced any of the negatives and find it easy and quick. So far have only used the recipes that came with it but have had 100% success. We keep the bowl in the freezer as suggested and then it is ready whenever we are.