Sticking the finished product in the freezer for a couple hours firmed it up, but it retained its smoothness and scoopability. In testing, our ice cream and sorbet both had even texture, albeit a bit softer and more soft serve–like than some other machines. (To add mix-ins, you just toss them into the bowl when the batch is almost done spinning.) There's only one setting, one blade, and no timers to worry about. After about 20 minutes, you get fully churned ice cream. You pour in your base mixture, and as the bowl spins, the paddle scrapes a layer of frozen material off the interior wall, incorporating it back into the mixture. The double-insulated freezer bowl fits into the base, the mixing paddle fits into that, and the plastic cover holds everything together.

The process is simple and designed to be mess-free. The Cuisinart ICE-21 may not have all the bells and whistles of higher-end models, but it's fully automatic and can deliver quality homemade ice cream in 20 minutes, at an excellent price. It's not much cheaper than the Deluxe, which is why we prefer the latter.)Ĭuisinart ICE-21R Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker Review If that's the case, you can also look for the original Creami, which works the same way but has just seven modes. (Thanks to its online popularity, the Creami Deluxe may be sold out at many retailers. On top of all that, cleaning is easy: Most of the removable plastic parts are dishwasher-safe, and the blade itself is simple to remove and wash by hand. In our test, the blade did break up some of the larger chunks of Oreo, but we got thorough, even mixing that stayed that way after hours in the freezer. We love the mix-in mode, which incorporates solid bits into finished ice cream. The Creami Deluxe has 11 modes, with automatic time and speed settings designed for different textures and ingredients, from ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt to milkshakes and Frappuccino-style coffee drinks.

The great thing about the way this machine works is that the freezing and whipping process can produce all sorts of frozen treats. That's a decent amount, but making fresh ice cream on demand for a huge group isn't really feasible.

Each of the two included cups has a maximum fill line for the base at about a pint and a half, which turns into roughly a quart of finished product. The actual whipping process with the Creami Deluxe takes just over five minutes, but you do have to prepare the base and freeze it overnight first. After two hours of re-freezing, the ice cream maintained its texture exactly, and the sorbet was still pretty good-a bit denser than we'd like, with a few ice crystals on top. Both were ready to eat and perfect straight out of the machine. With both sorbet and ice cream, the Creami Deluxe produced a firm and consistently textured product, with no ice crystals or un-spun base built up in the corners of the container. The unusual method made our Lab's team of trained chefs and experienced home cooks suspicious, but in the end, the TikTok-famous gadget turned out to be the best ice cream machine we've ever used. While most ice cream makers freeze the liquid base while whipping in air at the same time, the Ninja Creami starts with a jar of frozen base and uses a special blender-blade-like 'Creamerizer Paddle' to give it proper smooth and velvety texture.

Ninja creami vanilla ice cream recipe