I was positively giddy when Gaggia asked me to have a play with their Galetiera ice cream maker. I've never made ice cream before because without a machine, it just sounds like too much faffing. London isn't short of decent ice cream options. But as I write this, there's some strawberry ice cream churning and mixing in the kitchen.Homemade ice cream tastes better than any other. You can put whatever you want in it! If you want your mint choc chip to be more choc chip than mint, no one can stop you. I made chocolate and butterscotch as a fun birthday present for a friend and it was simple. The built-in freezer means that you only need to wait five minutes and it's ready to use. But, the instruction manual (translated from Italian very, very badly) says that your ice cream mixture should be cool before you pour it in. It should actually be cold so after some furious Googling, I had to do twice the amount of churning.
But the ice cream was amazing. It tasted only of the things that I put in it (recipe coming tomorrow!) And even with the extra churning time, it's still very very quick. Without the machine you'd be doing it by hand every half an hour to get rid of ice crystals and you'd be so bored. There's only three buttons - a timer, freeze and churn. It's really that simple. It'll make sorbets and even a frozen margarita if you churn for half the usual time.
I always want homemade ice cream now. The machine is easy enough to use (if a tad fiddly when it comes to removing the ice cream and washing) and it's very quick. But I'm not 100% smitten. I want to be, but because of the built-in freezer, it's HUGE. It's not much smaller than my microwave, and while it's fitting perfectly well on my kitchen counter, it only makes 500ml of ice cream. That's not very much at all for such a large machine, especially if you've got a big family.
I've always wondered if I'd ever use an ice cream maker if I had one. I would use this one (it's £295 so I'd be very mad at myself if I didn't). But I think you'd have to really really love ice cream to invest in one. You'd have to be using it every week to make it worthwhile and I'm not sure that I'd use it much come winter. By that time I'm all about the hot chocolate and custard treats. I understand why the machine is so pricey, and it makes fabulous treats. I'm just not sure it works for me.
Oh my god, I had FORGOTTEN that frozen margaritas existed until I read this. Now I'm seriously thinking of investing so I can make them. Mmmmm.
ReplyDeleteI'm a straight up marg girl, but daquiris? Whole different story. Like a boozy Slush Puppy.
ReplyDeleteThat monster is huge!
ReplyDeleteIf you still want to make ice cream but spend less money and take up no room then the magimix le glacier is brilliant, it makes the same amount as the above beast but is tiny. The bowl goes in the freezer. (we just keep it in there permanently and put things in it, like cartons of soup, so it hardly takes up any space) and the motor/churner is a tiny little thing, no bigger than a stick blender you can keep in a drawer.
Works brilliantly (ice cream in 20 minutes), always ready to go and the bowl doubles as an icebucket/ superquick winecooler/receptacle for huge amounts of margerita
Lemoncello sorbet rocks..
I *really* want an icecream maker but I fear I would soon end up so fat I'd have to be winched out of the house. I did make super-easy frozen low-fat yoghurt the other day though - chuck a carton of Total 0% fat greek yoghurt, a tablespoon or so of icing sugar and a load of frozen raspberries or blackberries in a food processor, whizz until blended but not melted. Delicious, and positively healthy.
ReplyDeleteI was given a really easy easy ice cream recipe over the weekend. No need for an ice cream maker. Ping me an email if you'd like me to share :)
ReplyDeleteI had one when I rented a big house
ReplyDeletethen I bought a bijou flat and had to give it away
alas!
The problem is, if I had bits that went in a cupboard, I KNOW that I would forget all about it. The size doesn't bother me so much as the amount of ice cream that you get considering that. I could eat all of what I made in one evening, but maybe I'm just greedy.
ReplyDeleteIf you make it yourself it has no calories in - that's the rules :)
ReplyDelete