パナソニック アイスクリームメーカー BH-941P

OK, I got one of these a while back because it was cheap and...well, that's about the only reason. I figured it might be good for some fun with my daughter, but I also figured it would probably quickly land on the same shelf that holds that ice cream maker with that you have to pre-freeze before using (Donvier), and the traditional ice cream maker that requires rock salt and all that nonsense. I don't use the former because I never plan far enough ahead to clear space in the freezer and freeze the thing down, and I never use the latter because it's just too much of a hassle. OK, so the question is: Is this one any better? And the answer is: Resoundingly YES! This ice cream maker does not require any advanced planning. All you do is drop the ingredients in the (room temperature is fine) bowl, snap it together, and put it in your freezer. That's it. A few hours later: Ice cream. And it's GOOD ice cream that's ready to eat! One of the problems with the Donvier-type makers (pre-freeze the bowl type) is that they aren't cold enough to make real ice cream. They make ice pudding. To get that pudding to freeze to the right consistency, you have to put the pudding back in the freezer after you've made it and let it harden for a few hours. With this Panasonic ice cream maker, when the job is done, it's DONE. The ice cream is ready to eat. OK, as for the brass tacks: Pros: Easy to use; don't have to plan ahead; requires no user intervention--just set and forget and come back to ready-to-eat ice cream; The physical dimensions of the ice cream maker are small, so you should be able to find room in your freezer for it (a major consideration!); The ice cream it makes is really good (well, depending on what you put into it, of course!) Cons: Uses two lithium CR123A batteries to power ice cream maker. You should get 20 or more cycles out of a fresh set of batteries, but you will need to eventually buy more batteries (a set is included with the ice cream maker). Expect to pay between $1.50 and $5.00 each ($3 - $10 a set) for the replacement batteries (shop around on the net and eBay and you should be able to find batteries at the lower end of this price range). Assuming you get the batteries at a good price, that works out to about $3 per 20 uses or $0.15 per use; The small size, although a plus because it makes it easier to find space in your freezer, also means you won't be making huge amounts of ice cream. It will make about 1.5 pints, which is enough to dainty desert portions for a family or small dinner party, not enough for a big party of any type, but surely enough to push Dr. Atkins to roll over in his grave if you eat it all yourself :-) At the current blow out price, I'd say this is a no brainer.

If you have plenty of clear space in your freezer, and if you don't mind frozen desserts that are very, very sweet (because high sugar content promotes smoothness in the final product), then you can very easily use this device to make small quantities of ice cream, sherbet or sorbet. If however you have enough other stuff in your freezer to impede the free flow of cold air, or if you'd like to make a more tart dessert, then you will wind up with an equally tiny quantity of coarse, grainy stuff that you may as well have made in an ice cube tray. It IS a very clever little device, nevertheless, and worth the price just for that.

I've used this ice cream maker twice in making frozen yogurt. I found it inefficient, and the resulting product was hard as a rock afterwards, and I followed the recipe exactly! My biggest issue with this machine, however, is that the battery it requires is 15$, more than what I paid for it. I would like to use it to make regular ice cream to see how it does there, but unfortunately, I can't seem to make the paddle attach properly to the motor anymore. I would probably suggest getting an ice cream maker that's more elaborate, at least with a core that you can put in the freezer, to achieve better results. Buy this if you're a college student like me, on a budget, or only want a cup or two of ice cream. Don't expect quality.

Why go buy the "expenive" ice cream? Because with this machine *you* control what ingredients you want to use. You don't have to use cream or half-and-half; use skim milk if you want (it will be runnier than that with more milkfat in it). Make it sugar free by using one of the replacement sugar products, or use honey as your sweetener. My husband can go thru a 5-gallon bucket of ice-cream a week - he is an ice-cream afficiendo! We all love the taste & flavor of homemade ice-cream. I had my doubts about this machine, but after the first batch, my husband wanted to throw away our other electric ones that require ice. With our deluxe ice-cream, we use it to top off desserts (apple crisp ala mode), and if you use cream, it's so rich you don't want a huge bowl full; it was enough for our family of 5. I was very pleased with the ease of use, and most of the parts went right into the dishwasher and cleaned up great (can't put most of the metal containers of the other kinds of ice-cream makers into the dishwahser or they'll rust). Name brand pint of deluxe ice cream = >$3. Homemade version (after cost of machine) = <$3 for ingredients + $1 per use of battery + satisfaction of putting exactly what you want into it and no extra "unpronouncable" ingredients. NOTE: There IS a battery included in the box, you'll need to look for it in the packaging. It is *not* supposed to constantly churn like a regular ice cream machine, it will turn a couple of times, then "rest", then churn again.

I've made several batches of ice cream since buying this little machine two months ago, and I couldn't be happier with it. Oh, the joy of making ice cream to your exact taste, because you control the amount of sugar, cream, and flavoring you want. My coffee ice cream tastes better than the carton of Haagen-Dazs in the freezer, simply because I use better-quality coffee (using concentrated brewed coffee, rather than instant coffee). Beware of that recipe booklet, however, unless you want to die of heart disease at age 35. If you follow their recipe of vanilla ice cream as given, you'll produce a 1000-calorie serving of ice cream--even I gagged at this too-sweet and overly rich concoction, and I have a huge sweet tooth. It's best to cut all ingredients in half--that is, ONE egg yolk, not three, and 1/4 cup of sugar, not 1/2. And the cream does NOT need to be whipped--you can make beautiful ice cream with LIGHT cream rather than heavy cream. That said, it's a lot of fun to experiment with different flavors, consulting other cookbooks for various ice cream recipes. Making your own ice cream is as much fun as eating it.