We recently posted an article on ice cream (”Cookies & Cream Ice Cream“) and thought it would be a good thing to do a review of an ice cream maker for those who do not currently own one. We’ll be looking at the Cuisinart ICE-20 “Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker”. This can be purchased at all major stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Linens & Things. We bought ours at Linen’s. 
It sold for $49.99 and we used the 20% off coupon they regularly publish leaving us with a net price of about $40. Not bad. You can also purchase and read other reviews at Amazon.com.
In short, we like this thing. You can make ice cream easily and effectively without having to deal with ice and salt as in the old days. The freezing is accomplished by means of the Freezer Bowl. This is a hermetically sealed drum that you place in the freezer. It’s filled with a liquid that takes a long time to freeze and subsequently will hold a lot of cold as it were. Freezing time recommended by the manufacturer is 6-22 hours depending upon freezer temperature. We recommend you leave it in the freezer for a day and don’t worry about it.
When you’re really to make your concoction just remove the freezer bowl from the freezer. Place on the drive unit, add the mixing arm (this basically scrapes the newly frozen ice cream from the inner wall of the freezer bowl so new unfrozen ice cream can get to it and freeze), put on the clear plastic lid, turn the unit on and add your liquid ingredients to the top. And in 20-30 minutes it’s done. Nice!
By the way if you do purchase one of these this weekend also buy a good size and sturdy rubber spatula. You’ll need this when emptying the finished ice cream (you don’t want to use anything metallic on the freezer bowl surface as this could damage it).
Two other suggestions. Do not add solid ingredients as the manufacturer suggests (they say solids no bigger than a chocolate chip are alright…wrong!). These get caught up in the mixer arm’s scraper blade. Not good. The mixer arm is constructed from light duty plastic which is fine for the liquid components but you could see how it would easily get damaged from solids (it makes a heck of a noise when they wedge in there). Wait until the finished soft ice cream is in the storage container and then add in the additional solid ingredients using your rubber spatula. Second suggestion, buy a think walled ceramic or glass storage container. If it doesn’t have a lid don’t worry you can use plastic wrap. You just want something that will hold a lot of cold.
That being said, the thing you’ll have to watch out for is the finished ice cream melting. It will be soft when leaving the machine and very susceptible to this. For this reason everything from the container to the added ingredients such as nuts or cookies must be pre-chilled before they contact the ice cream. Basically toss everything you’ll be using into the freezer prior to using.
In addition to ice cream the Cuisinart ICE-20 will make sorbets, sherbets, frozen yogurts slushies and frozen drinks (if ice cream didn’t add to your decadence enough you can make “Thick and Frosty Pina Coladas and Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris”. There you go, gorge on ice cream and get drunk. This machine could ruin your life).
All in all the only thing we didn’t like, in addition to the scraper blade not being able to handle solid ingredients, is the susceptibility of the clear plastic lid to get cracked. This is a light duty plastic that cannot tolerate any dropping. But if you’re careful, which we weren’t, you should be OK. This said, all the other factors were clearly positive. Good price and good performance. We recommend this machine as a buy.
