Our decide
This frozen-bowl-style ice cream maker churns out dense, creamy ice cream sooner than any of our different picks—and at a fraction of the fee.
The Cuisinart ICE-21 is our favourite ice cream maker. It’s humble but mighty and often obtainable for underneath $75. And it’s favored by ice cream professionals together with Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Lotions, and Tyler Malek, of Salt & Straw.
This machine makes fairly dense ice cream, however we discover it to be properly chewy and wealthy. It’s a few of the smoothest ice cream you may make at residence with out upgrading to a self-chilling compressor mannequin.
The ICE-21 is a frozen-bowl mannequin, so you might want to pre-freeze the bowl in a single day earlier than churning. And although that requires some preparation and persistence, as soon as the bowl’s prepared, this machine churns out ice cream sooner than our different picks—it reaches soft-serve consistency in about 18 minutes.
Plus, in contrast with our different picks, the ICE-21 is feather-light. It’s additionally straightforward to make use of: There’s only one change (on and off), and this mannequin has a large opening so you’ll be able to style your composition and simply deposit mix-ins.
Additionally nice
This self-cooling machine churned out ice cream that lots of our testers discovered to be simply the precise texture—mild, creamy, and stretchy.
This smaller-capacity compressor mannequin makes barely denser ice cream than the ICM-201SB, and it made a few of the greatest vegan ice cream—dense and creamy, with minimal ice crystals.
When you’ve got the price range and the house, the Whynter ICM-201SB and the Whynter ICM-15LS are two also-great choices. Each are self-cooling compressor fashions, so you’ll be able to churn out batch after batch of ice cream with no in a single day prep wanted.
Each Whynter fashions make exceptionally creamy ice cream with ease. Compressor fashions like these two freeze extra steadily than the Cuisinart ICE-21 (which regularly will get hotter). And their paddles spin extra quickly, creating smaller, much less detectable ice crystals.
The pricier ICM-201SB outshines the ICM-15LS by a smidge. The ICM-201SB has a bigger capability for mix-ins (2.1 quarts, versus 1.5 quarts) and a best-of-both-worlds ice cream texture—wealthy and creamy but barely fluffy.
However if you happen to like denser, chewier ice cream, the ICM-15LS could also be a better option for you. This mannequin additionally carried out one of the best general in our non-dairy checks, producing ice cream with a great, chewy texture and minimal ice.
Improve decide
This premium, chrome steel compressor mannequin churns out flawless, creamy, gelato-like ice cream. However this machine is particularly heavy in addition to expensive.
In the event you’re critically dedicated to creating ice cream as a interest and are able to take your setup to the subsequent degree—and also you need to put money into one of the best residence ice cream maker cash can purchase—the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino is the machine for you.
This mannequin rapidly churns out flawlessly clean, creamy ice cream with a wealthy, decadent, gelato-like texture. The huge chrome steel machine is a compressor mannequin with no detachable pail, however it’s fairly straightforward to wash out the bowl recess.
Aside from the plastic cowl, the machine’s parts are all steel—it’s the one mannequin we examined with a chrome steel paddle. The interface is unfussy, with one light-up change for churning, one for cooling, and a timer knob. However this machine is a giant funding.
