After testing 13 ice-cream makers during the hottest days of the year, our reviewer emerged with a deeper appreciation for frozen desserts—and a few milk-related mishaps. She cracked more than three dozen eggs, zested 30 lemons, and made an unplanned trip for emergency pints of milk after accidentally churning butter twice.
The Testing Process: From Eggs to Butter
The reviewer faced the first challenge of gathering enough ingredients for all 13 machines. Her food delivery driver showed visible confusion when she ordered bags filled exclusively with eggs, lemons, milk, cream, and sugar—twice in one week.
She then made batches of Felicity Cloake's perfect vanilla ice-cream and lemon sorbet recipes in each machine, plus a standard recipe of double cream, sugar, and milk. Each batch was tasted for flavour and consistency, then left in the freezer for a few days to assess how well it held up.
The Caso Design compressor IceCreamer emerged as the overall favourite, while the original Ninja Creami was praised for its ease of use as a freeze-first option.
Milk-Fuelled Madness and Butter Disasters
The testing wasn't all sweet. The reviewer accidentally made butter twice when a recipe from one machine's booklet took too long to churn, turning the high-fat mixture into butter before it could freeze. She spent 45 minutes scraping butter from every nook, spout, and corner of the soft-serve machine.
Her partner also complained that the "whole house stinks of milk" during the testing period, though he did get to eat a lot of ice-cream as compensation.
Space, Weight, and the Final Verdict
The testing revealed that some of the best models require significant counter space. Compact versions like the Nutribullet Chill and Cuisinart Solo Scoops were excellent space-savers, but complex models like the GreenPan Frost demand all available space and attention. The machines are also heavy, though the reviewer noted her partner did much of the heavy lifting.
Despite the chaos, the reviewer gained a real appreciation for homemade ice-cream. However, she plans to stick to Ben & Jerry's for the rest of the summer—or at least until the house stops smelling of milk.
