Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Review - 6 Months Later

If you like tech and you like ice cream , I think this is gonna be the video for you .

I'm Josh Teter for six months later .

And in this video , we're going to go through the best features of the Queen Art I ce 100 ice cream machine .

I'm gonna tell you how it's held up over the past six months of use and whether or not I recommend getting the device .

Now , this video is a little bit different than what we typically do on the channel because we're reviewing an ice cream machine here .

So I can't really get away with doing a video and not talking about how to make one of my favorite all time ice cream recipes with this machine .

So we're gonna do that as well .

Let's dive in last year .

I wanted to save on how much we were spending , getting ice cream at the grocery store and going out to the local creameries and custard shops .

Plus I really just wanted to learn and understand how to actually make ice cream for myself .

So I went out on the search for the perfect ice cream machine for my set of circumstances .

Now going in , I knew I would probably only consider two different types of machines .

Either the ones with bowls you need to freeze or the ones with built in compressors .

The machines that require rock salt and ice were just nonstarters for me .

Because of the slow churn time with ice cream .

You want to churn that mixture as quick as possible .

So , I've also tried the Cuisinart freezer bowl ice cream machines as well and they work fine .

My issue with those is that they take so much room in your freezer and I don't have a ton of room in my freezer for one of the those freezer bowls .

So , uh I just wasn't gonna go that route .

So I ended up going with the Cuisinart Ice 100 .

The Cuisinart ice 100 is a large machine at 13 inches long and 17 inches wide .

It's also a bit heavy weighing £32 because it has a compressor .

You'll need to keep it upright 24 hours before using it .

And the same rule applies if you don't store it upright .

Now , what's the big deal with this compressor ?

What the compressor does is chill the area around the removable bowl in the machine to between negative 29 Celsius and negative 34 Celsius or negative 20.2 Fahrenheit and negative 29.2 Fahrenheit with these temperatures , the ice cream mixture will freeze faster , resulting in smaller ice crystal formation which equals a smoother texture .

In my experience , this machine makes incredibly smooth ice cream .

However , to make smooth ice cream , you don't just need the right machine .

You also need the right recipe with the right fat ratio and ingredients .

You've probably guessed we've now come to the part in the video where I'm going to show you how to make my favorite ice cream recipe with this machine .

Cherry chocolate chip very similar to Ben and Jerry's cherry Garcia .

If you want to skip to the rest of the review of the machine , skip to the video time .

You see below .

In the video for my ice cream , I like to use a custard base which uses eggs as a stabilizer .

The eggs help keep down the ice crystal formation within the mix in terms of fat .

I like to use a 2 to 1 ratio for cream to milk .

Typically in ice cream , I try to get as much fat into the mix as possible .

One because it will cause you to eat less of the ice cream because fat will fill you up quicker and two fat also contributes to a smoother texture and keeps down that ice crystal formation .

Now , fat in general just gets a bad wrap , especially here in the United States .

And I'm not gonna get a soapbox and talk about my feelings of fat in the food industry personally .

Within my own eating habits .

I typically go for higher fat content foods while trying to reduce my total sugar consumption and my diet and the same goes for ice cream generally .

Although ice cream , unlike a lot of other desserts out there that you can try to do more sugar free stuff with sugar is actually a really vital component in ice cream because it depresses the freezing point of your ice cream .

So when you pull it out of the freezer , your ice cream is actually scoop .

Thanks to the sugar versus being hard as a brick .

So typically in my ice cream recipes , I try to keep the sugar down as much as possible without sacrificing on texture .

If I taste my ice cream mix and feel that it needs to be sweeter .

Instead of adding more sugar , I'll add a powdered Erythritol , which is just a naturally occurring sugar , alcohol .

The full recipe I'm using is in the video description below .

First , we'll start off with our five egg yolks , half a cup of sugar .

1/4 of a cup of powdered Erythritol and a pinch of salt whisk together or use a stand mixer until the color turns a slightly pale yellow .

While whisking .

I slowly tap in 1/4 of a teaspoon of Xanthan gum , which I use as another stabilizer and it helps give your ice cream a bit more chew .

Next combined one cup of milk , one teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla paste .

If you don't have vanilla paste .

Just use 2.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract whisk together .

So the vanilla specks are evenly distributed in the milk heat .

This mixture over medium heat until you see it start to steam .

And the vanilla specks float to the top .

Make sure it gets hot but not hot enough to boil and occasionally stir the mixture to break any film that forms at the top .

Next , slowly , incorporate the hot milk mixture into your egg mixture .

A few spoonfuls at a time .

You don't want to bring the egg mixture up to temperature too quickly or it will curdle .

Next , add the heavy cream into the pan that the milk mixture was in to absorb any leftover vanilla and then combine with the egg and milk mixture .

Once you've done that strain the mixture into a bowl that you can put into the fridge overnight or for a few hours giving it enough time to chill for the cherries .

I use one bag of frozen cherries , but you can also use fresh if they're in season .

We'll also use 1/4 a cup of sugar and one fresh squeezed lemon and a pinch of salt heat cherries over medium heat , adding the salt and pouring half of the sugar as well as half of your lemon juice into the pan .

To start once hot enough , start to break the cherries to your desired size for the ice cream .

I'd suggest at least breaking them in half reduce until the liquid is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and not drip off .

Taste a cherry and see if more lemon juice or sugar is needed , then remove from heat and freeze the cherries along with some chocolate chips .

All right .

Now , let's make some ice cream .

The Cuisinart I ce 100 has a 1.5 quart capacity .

So keep that in mind with your recipe .

One thing that helps freeze your mixture as quickly as possible is to turn the machine on and run it for 15 minutes before you pour in your mixture .

The machine didn't surprise me in terms of the noise it makes , I can keep it running in the kitchen and still watch videos in the next room without a ton of disruption .

The Cuisinarts design is pretty simple in terms of operation , there's a power button to turn it on and off a timer button which when pressed will start the timer from 60 minutes and will count down to zero .

There's also a start stop button .

When you stop the machine , it will keep the compressor running for about 10 minutes allowing you to keep your mixture cool while you scoop it into a container .

Once the machine has cooled , you can pour in your mixture , make sure you don't pour a above the second dasher .

Otherwise , the machine will overflow in my experience over the last six months with this machine , it will take around 20 minutes to churn the mixture .

So I typically wait about 15 minutes before adding in my mixing .

Now , note when shooting this footage though , I waited a bit too long to add in the cherries .

So I had to take the lid off once everything is mixed in , you can stop the machine .

The mixture's texture should look kind of like soft serve ice cream .

It's not supposed to look like hardened ice cream At this point .

When you stop the machine , it will keep your ice cream cold for up to 10 minutes while you scoop it into a container .

I like to use a double insulated container that has been frozen already .

You want to keep your mixture as frozen as possible .

So I also freeze the spoon I use for scooping a few hours before as well .

If you're having trouble scraping the remaining ice cream from the sides of this container , take it out , the removable container comes out pretty easy or turn the machine off allowing the temperature of the container to rise .

I'll let my ice cream harden in the freezer for about 24 hours and then it's ready to eat .

Although if you can't wait that long , it does taste pretty good right out of the machine as well .

The Cuisinart Ice 100 is an easy machine to clean the dasher lid and container can be rinsed with water and dried with a paper towel .

I let all that stuff completely dry out before putting it back in the machine .

If you don't .

And there's water on the exterior that bowl , especially in the bottom .

The next time you use the machine , it's likely going to freeze the bowl to the machine and you will not be able to remove it until it thaws .

The Queen Art Ice 100 has been one of my favorite kitchen gadgets over the past couple of years .

And it's one I've used way more than I thought I would because the ice cream I can make with it is just that good .

It's simple to use , easy to maintain and produces good quality ice cream that can rival your premium ice cream brands and local shops over the past six months , I can't say I've run into any issues at all using this machine .

The only thing about the design I find somewhat annoying is getting the bowl back into the machine .

You have to fidget with it slightly to get it back into the right place .

Other than that , I don't have any complaints and I highly recommend this machine for anyone looking to make a ton of ice cream at home .

Well , that's it for our six months later review of the Queen Art Ice 100 ice cream machine .

If you like this review , make sure to hit that thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more six months later .

Product reviews like this one .

Well , thank you so much for watching for six months later .

I'm Josh Teter .