The ice cream from the store is now not at all as tasty as it was before. After all, it is made from powders and flavorings, and not from natural milk. But, for our happiness, there are appliances on sale that allow you to cook it yourself! In this article we will tell you how to choose an ice cream maker for your home, as the options offer are different and the prices for them are also different.
Of course, if you really want to, ice cream can be made without special ice cream makers, but the finished product will be less airy and melting in your mouth. And the process itself will take more time. At the end of the article we will give you the best recipes for ice cream according to GOST, the one from the USSR.
Why is an ice cream maker worth buying?
If you have children, then you should definitely buy this unit. The products that make modern ice cream are just disgusting! Milk is used not natural, but dry, and very poor quality plus a large amount of starch. Instead of eggs and oil, palm oil is placed and all this infernal mixture is seasoned with a large number of emulsifiers and all kinds of flavors. And it turns out that we are buying children poison! And they want ice cream often.
Therefore, it is better to buy it all the same. Having an ice cream maker makes this dessert much easier than manually. The main thing is to choose it correctly.
See also - 10 best ice cream makers for home
How does an ice cream maker work?
The principle of the ice cream maker is very simple. The necessary ingredients are placed in a special bowl and it begins to slowly mix and whisk for 30-40 minutes. It is frozen due to the fact that the walls of the bowl are very cold, below freezing temperature.
As you can see, manually reproducing this process is quite difficult. And the big trouble with home cooking is that the bulk of the crystals are people, which really spoils the final taste of the product.
See also - Guide for the selection of built-in household appliances in the kitchen
What types of ice cream makers exist
Ice cream makers come in three types:
- Mechanical
- Semi-automatic
- Electric
Let's take a closer look at each of the options and you will choose what is more affordable for you in terms of price and principle of operation.
Mechanical - the most budget option. It is made in the form of a bowl with a double wall. Between them, you need to pour a mixture of salt and ice crumbs, and put in the container itself a mixed mixture for future ice cream. Then the lid is put on the bowl, to which the blades are attached, and on top there is a handle. It needs to be scrolled every 2-3 minutes, within half an hour, and maybe a little more.
The process is quite time-consuming, given the fact that you need to pre-cook ice crumbs and stand over it for as long as 40 minutes, constantly stirring. But this home-made ice cream maker can work without electricity!
Although, of course, the argument is dubious, with all the above inconveniences.
Semi-automatic - they also have a double bowl, but unlike a completely mechanical one, no ice is needed. The removable bowl has a refrigerant in the space between the walls, which must first be frozen in the freezer. The effect of such freezing is enough for one batch (and this is about 400 grams of the finished product). Then the bowl should again be placed in the freezer, for about 5-6 hours.
Manually disturbing is also not necessary, the blades rotate independently, after connecting the device to the network. Such ice cream makers are not very expensive, therefore, we can assume that this is an ideal and budget option.
Automatic - these ice cream makers are made like a mini-refrigerator, and work due to freon. Connected to the network, laid the right ingredients and that's it, the process is fully automated. After preparing one portion, you can immediately load another.
An automatic ice cream maker is, of course, very expensive. But, if you are not constrained by the means, then this will be the best choice. No preliminary preparations and most importantly, it is possible to make a large amount of ice cream right away. And this is quite convenient at times when a children's birthday is scheduled or guests are coming to you.
In the case of a semiautomatic device, the process of making 3 kilograms of ice cream will be delayed for a week (you won’t get up at night and cook it). So, of course, it would be right to choose the electric one, because this is not a one-day purchase.
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What to look for when buying
Bowl volume and dimensions - a very important point, since the final yield of the finished product depends on it. If you save money and take a very small bowl, you will soon regret it, because only 200 grams of ice cream will come out at a time, and it will consume almost as much electricity as a more capacious model.
Also, be attentive to the size of the bowl if you take a semiautomatic device. Do not forget that the bowl must be placed in the freezer. Do not lose with the size! It will be very disappointing if she just does not fit there.
Bowl material - they are plastic and metal, stainless steel. Of course, it is better to give preference to the second option. It is more durable and keeps the cold better. But, plastic, of course, is cheaper.
Material of rotating blades - also, there are plastic and metal. Plastic often "stall", unable to crank the mass, which came out a little thicker than necessary. And break that the worst. Therefore, it is better to take metal, although it is more expensive.
Ice Cream Power - as in any device, the larger it is, the more intensively it consumes electricity. And do not forget that it works for half an hour! If you do not need a large amount of product at once, then you should not take a two-liter bowl, it is better to prefer the middle option, a liter. Although, in fairness, even the largest power of these devices is approximately 200W, that is, roughly speaking, it is the same that two incandescent lamps of 100 W each will burn for half an hour.
Additional features - there are not many of them in ice cream makers, so we will give you the most useful of them:
- Window in which the mixing process is visible
- Opportunity to cook yogurt
- Sound timer
These add-ons are very good, but the cost will be higher. Then you yourself decide whether they are necessary.
See also - Overview of the NORD DM 158 010 freezer
Recipes from childhood - ice cream according to GOST
And now, let's move on to the most interesting: recipes. Of course, there are a great many of them, but, as a rule, those people who buy ice-cream makers want one thing: the Soviet one, which so closely resembles childhood.
We give you recipes for cooking by hand. But, if you buy an ice cream maker, the result will be much better: the finished product will come out airy, whipped and very tender. But in order to achieve such a result manually, you need to take the container out of the freezer all the time and stir it. But, even this will not save you from small ice crystals.
Ice cream recipe number 1
- Milk (preferably not store-bought, fatty) - one liter
- Sugar - two glasses
- Good butter - one hundred grams
- Potato starch - one teaspoon
- Yolks - five pieces
- Vanilla sugar - one packet
Cooking step by step:
- Take a saucepan and pour 850 grams of milk into it (150 should remain) and heat until warm.
- Put butter in warm milk, melt and bring to a boil.
- In a bowl, mix sugar, vanilla sugar, yolks and starch. We grind everything until smooth and add the rest of the milk to it. The consistency will come out like liquid - liquid sour cream. There should be no undissolved sugar. Beat everything with a mixer.
- At this time, the boiled milk will cool slightly (at least up to 50 degrees) and you need to pour the resulting mixture into it in a thin stream (very slowly), while constantly stirring. Beat again with a mixer.
- Bring the resulting mass to a boil, but do not let it boil too much. It should just start to bubble a little.
- Place the pot in a bowl of cold water and, while stirring, cool to room temperature. From time to time you need to change the water in the basin to a colder one.
- Beat the mixture well with a mixer until it slightly increases in volume.
- Put the finished ice cream in a plastic mold and place in the freezer.
- Take out and stir the mass with a broom every hour to prevent ice formation.
See also - DIY freezer installation tips
Ice cream recipe number 2
Here the recipe is without butter, it should be replaced by heavy cream. Both recipes are delicious and taste similar. But in this recipe, the yield of the finished product is slightly less and the concentration of the ingredients is stronger.
- Cream, fat content 33-35% - 300 grams
- Milk - 100 grams
- Sugar - 150 grams
- Vanilla sugar - incomplete package
Cooking step by step:
- Heat the milk to 35 degrees, remove from heat, add the yolks and beat with a mixer.
- Add granulated sugar and vanilla sugar, beat again.
- We put the mixture in a water bath and heat and cook until thickened.
- Then we cool the mass and filter it through cheesecloth.
- Then pour the cream into some container and whisk until the mass significantly increases in volume.
- Combine the whipped cream and egg mixture, whisk again.
- Put the ice cream in a mold and put it in the freezer, pulling it out every hour in order to mix.
See also - 15 best electric waffle makers according to buyers
As you can see, the cooking process is completely different in these two recipes. But, you can choose any of them, whichever is more convenient for you and cook according to it, using certain ingredients.
Now you know how to choose an ice cream maker for your home and we really hope that our tips will be useful to you!
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