Best Ice Cream Makers in 2023
There’s nothing better than a cold bowl of ice cream on a hot summer day, but who says ice cream is only for the hotter months? When you have your own ice cream maker at home, any day of the year can be ice cream day.
Of course, it’s not only about making your own ice cream, but rather having a greater deal of control over the ingredients. Perhaps you’re vegan and have a hard time finding vegan-friendly ice cream or prefer fruit sorbet. Using an ice cream maker gives you the opportunity to mix together your favorite toppings as well as healthier ingredients.
So, treat yourself to one of the best ice cream makers available for purchase today.
Our Favorite Ice Cream Makers of 2023
The king of frozen treats
You’re better off asking what the Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker can’t do. If you love experimenting, you’ll love that it can churn sorbet, frozen yogurt, gelato, and ice cream.
If you’re crazy about frozen treats, from sorbet to hard serve ice cream, the Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker is the peak of performance. Not only does it make a great deal of ice cream in one go, it comes packed with QOL features that streamline the entire process.
The Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker features 12 hardness settings, allowing you to serve frozen treats as soft or as hard as you like. What you’ll find equally useful is the keep-cool option, which keeps the finished treat cool for up to three hours. If, say, you’re having guests over, you can set-and-forget while you prepare and the ice cream will be just fine.
The most exceptional aspect of the Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker is just how easy it is to work and maintain the machine. Buttons are clearly labeled, and the lack of crevices means cleanup is a breeze, nor will you end up with frozen dairy inside the electronics. Even the lid pops off easily, giving you quick access to the bucket inside if you need to quickly dump more ingredients in.
Compact and powerful
The Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker is among the quickest ways to whip up your favorite frozen treats. It’s easy to use, clean, and store thanks to its compact size.
Maybe you’re not making frozen treats every night, but often enough that it’s become a part of your life. With the Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker, you have great control over what you whip up, whether it’s ice cream, sorbet, or gelato.
First off, the Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker is incredibly easy to use. On the front is the start-and-stop button, along with presets for ice cream, gelato, and sorbet. Regardless of which setting you use, the little ice cream maker only takes 20 minutes to whip up your chosen frozen treat.
The most significant addition to the Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker is what you’ll find at the top. When you’re making your frozen goodies, there’s a measuring cup you can remove from the top to quickly add in extra ingredients such as chocolate chips or fruits.
Personal size and handheld
The ideal choice for those who don’t eat frozen treats very often, but still want the option. You can have the DASH My Pint up and running in only a minute.
A large ice cream machine that takes up counter real estate isn’t exactly space-efficient, especially if you don’t indulge in delicious frozen desserts very often. Luckily, the DASH My Pint lets you quickly churn your own personal portion when you inevitably have those cravings.
Mixing up your own ice cream with the DASH My Pint is as easy as it comes. You attach the spatula to the lid, toss in your ingredients, and press the power button. In about 30 minutes, you’ll have 1.6 cups of your preferred frozen dessert that’s not too soft, nor too hard.
What’s arguably the best part of the DASH My Pint isn’t with the appliance, but access to a recipe database in addition to a physical recipe book. It provides a great deal of fun being able to branch out from your favorite flavors, and children especially will love having so many options to choose from.
Why stop at ice cream?
The Ninja CREAMi has so much potential thanks to its unique way of mixing ingredients, not to mention making frozen treats healthier in the process. It’s also dishwasher safe and easy to operate.
The Ninja CREAMi is as much an ice cream maker as it is a blender, using what Ninja calls “creamify technology” to shave layers of frozen ingredients before mixing everything together into a creamy, soft texture. It’s through this unique method of blending that you’re able to craft smoothies, milkshakes, and smoothie bowls to add to your diet.
Even more impressive than its blending method is just how little you need in the way of ingredients to make delicious frozen treats with the Ninja CREAMi. Take sorbet for example: all that’s required is a can of fruit in fruit juice and you’re good to go.
With the Ninja CREAMi, the benefits don’t stop there. The interface is intuitive thanks to its preset buttons, including a re-spin option that’s quite handy for mixing ingredients one last time if, for example, your sorbet ends up a tad crumbly. To top it off, there’s a recipe book packaged inside that comes with oodles of desserts to try out.
Handles any base you pour in
The Whynter Automatic Ice Cream Maker is a monster of a machine when it comes to churning alternative bases. Its compressor also ensures you can sate your cravings at a moment’s notice.
No one on Earth wants to wait for ice cream or plan 24 hours in advance. When cravings strike, the Whynter Automatic Ice Cream Maker is built to whip up a batch of frozen desserts at a moment’s notice.
Rather than freeze the mixing bowl an entire day beforehand, the Whynter Automatic Ice Cream Maker is rocking a compressor underneath the hood. This makes it so you can start up the ice cream maker anytime you want, without having to plan ahead, which is a handy feature to have if you have unexpected guests or random cravings.
If there’s one characteristic that makes the Whynter Automatic Ice Cream Maker stand out, it’s the way it handles a variety of bases. You aren’t limited to just milk, but cream, custard, and even vegan-friendly options, like coconut milk, are handled incredibly well.
Traditional method with a splash of modern
When you want ice cream made the old-fashioned way, but without the hassle. Instead of churning rock salt and a base by hand, the Hamilton Beach Automatic Ice Cream Maker does it for you.
Back in the day, your grandparents likely used an old salt-and-ice churner to make ice cream. It was a pain due to the manual crank you had to use, but the reward was worth it. Well, technology has caught up and took that old design and gave it a modern makeover with the Hamilton Beach Automatic Ice Cream Maker.
Gone is the crank, replaced by marvels of modern science and electricity. The Hamilton Beach Automatic Ice Cream Maker resembles its predecessor but now works entirely on its own, making 4 quarts of soft, spoonable ice cream in just 20 to 30 minutes. If soft serve isn’t your style, you can always chill the bucket beforehand and get a much harder consistency.
In addition to a lot of ice cream, the Hamilton Beach Automatic Ice Cream Maker offers a lot of value through its included manual. You’ll get tips for operating the appliance, as well as 20 delicious recipes to try out, from cookies-and-cream to fruit sherbet.
Take your KitchenAid mixer to the next level
A great addition to an already great mixer. The KitchenAid Ice Cream Mixer Attachment is the perfect option if you aren’t too keen on having another appliance on your counter.
If you don’t have space for yet another appliance, but do own a KitchenAid Mixer, what’s one more attachment? The KitchenAid Ice Cream Mixer Attachment is nothing more than the bowl and mechanism itself.
To get started, all you do is fasten the KitchenAid Ice Cream Mixer Attachment to your mixer, dump your ingredients in. After just 30 minutes, you’ll have 2 quarts of soft serve ice cream that’s immediately spoonable. However, if you prefer a much harder consistency, you can simply freeze the bowl.
Once you’re all done, cleaning up the KitchenAid Ice Cream Mixer Attachment is simple thanks to all but the bowl being dishwasher-safe. The rest takes nothing more than a bit of warm water and soap. Best of all, none of the parts are large, so storing them won’t be a hassle.
Finding the Best Ice Cream Maker for You
Given the fact that ice cream makers are fairly niche appliances, picking one that’s versatile is always going to be the better choice. Versatility alone offers a boatload of value due to the diversity of frozen treats it’s possible to make, beyond just ice cream.
Keeping that in mind, the Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker natural falls on top. Its myriad of hardness settings means you can have soft serve one day or drop a few scoops of harder ice cream on a cone. Being able to skip freezing the bowl a day beforehand is also great for sudden cravings.
Of course, the Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker is for the most dedicated fans of frozen desserts. When you just want a single portion for yourself or share with another, the DASH My Pint is an easy pick. It’s handheld, only takes a couple minutes to set up and operate, with a price that’s hard to argue against.
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