The three Finest Ice Cream Makers of 2022

Letting a spoonful of clean, candy ice cream soften in your mouth is fantastic—however the satisfaction of getting made it your self makes the expertise transcendent. Churning your individual ice cream isn’t that arduous to do, and investing in an awesome machine gives you persistently scrumptious outcomes. After testing seven fashions for our 2021 replace and churning greater than 40 pints of custard, Philadelphia-style, and dairy-free coconut ice cream, we predict the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker (ICE-21) is an reasonably priced, reliable machine able to crafting among the greatest ice cream you may make at residence. (Plus, professionals reminiscent of Jeni Britton Bauer advocate it.) If you happen to’re on the lookout for a compressor mannequin that doesn’t require pre-freezing the bowl, the Whynter ICM-201SB is the very best we’ve present in 4 years of testing.

The Cuisinart ICE-21 made among the smoothest and most scrumptious ice cream in our exams. This machine, which makes use of a frozen bowl insert, is extra reasonably priced than a compressor mannequin. Regardless of its easy design, it’s a powerhouse, churning ice cream quicker than the competitors at a fraction of the associated fee. With only one swap, the ICE-21 is a breeze to make use of, and since it’s lighter and smaller than compressor machines, it could be simpler to maneuver and retailer. Acclaimed ice cream makers reminiscent of Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Lotions have used the ICE-21 to develop recipes, and this machine persistently makes creamy frozen desserts. You’ll have to plan your churning round pre-freezing the bowl in a single day, which may even take up freezer house. However to make a number of batches in a row, you’ll be able to simply get an further freezer bowl.

With a self-cooling compressor mannequin just like the Whynter ICM-201SB, you may make a number of batches of ice cream in a day with out having to pre-freeze an insert. We’ve examined a number of Whynter ice cream makers since 2017, and this mannequin continues to edge out the others. In our 2021 exams, the ICM-201SB made fluffier ice cream than different fashions we examined; the outcomes had been nonetheless scrumptious, in addition to considerably much less icy than ice cream from funds fashions just like the KitchenAid attachment we tried or the Nostalgia ice-and-salt machine we examined. So in the event you choose a lighter, extra mousse-like texture, you could love ice cream from the ICM-201SB, however in the event you like denser ice cream, you could choose one in all our different picks. The ICM-201SB is taller than most different ice cream machines we examined, nevertheless it has a smaller footprint so it takes up much less counter house. It comes with a number of modes and a timer to fine-tune your dessert making. Though the shallow detachable bowl could be a little slippery to deal with, scooping out frozen treats from the bowl and cleansing it had been nonetheless simple duties for us. This ice cream maker, like most compressor-cooled fashions, is pricier than those who require you to pre-freeze the bowl. The same, smaller-capacity, 1.6-quart Whynter ICM-15LS is an efficient choice that makes denser ice cream and normally prices lower than the ICM-201SB, although we’ve discovered that the worth distinction between the 2 machines fluctuates fairly a bit.

The glossy, shiny Lello 4080 Musso Lussino is the crème de la crème of ice cream makers. It churned out the richest and most luscious ice cream quicker than different machines we examined, and it’s self-cooling just like the Whynter ICM-201SB. It’s costly, enormous, and heavy—it appears to be like like a curvaceous stainless-steel spaceship from Nineteen Sixties sci-fi landed on the kitchen counter. However in the event you make a number of batches of ice cream every week, plan on turning ice cream making from a passion right into a profession, or simply need the best possible, the Musso Lussino is the best way to go. It’s streamlined to make use of, with a timer and a button to pause spinning so you’ll be able to add mix-ins or verify your ice cream’s progress.