Cuisinart ice cream maker ICE30BCU

How easy is the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker to use?

Assembling this ice cream maker is pretty straightforward, it’s easy to see where everything goes. We were a little thrown by the fact that the bowl sits a couple of centimetres above the main unit – we thought we’d done something wrong at first.

The plastic lid is clear, meaning you can check on the progress of your ice cream as it churns. The feeding chute on top of the lid is wide and large, eliminating the risk of dripping ice cream mix onto the plastic, and makes dropping in handful of nuts or chocolate simple.

There is only one control to worry about: an on/off dial. It doesn’t have a timer, so heed the advice in the manual about how long ice cream and sorbet takes to churn.

Cuisinart advise freezing the bowl for at least 12 hours. We were a little worried it wouldn't fit in our freezer, but after some Tetris-like reshuffling, we managed to get it in. Just.

Whilst none of the components are dishwasher-safe, there are no nooks and crannies for dairy to hide, so it’s easy to hand-wash.

Results

This model excelled in our tests. We made our ultimate vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet, and the results were fantastic.

The manual says ice cream should take around 25 minutes to churn. It was spot on. The alloted time heralded soft, creamy and whipped ice cream. It was so rich and milky it resembled clotted cream. We noticed a very slight graininess, but it lingered on the tongue and didn’t melt immediately.

Lemon sorbet took 30 minutes to churn. It was perfectly opaque, smooth and had no large ice crystals. It was very smooth and almost sherbet-y in texture: smooth with a slight fizz.

Both the ice cream and sorbet needed to be served immediately as they were both quite soft. Putting them in the freezer had no effect on the taste or texture.

Conclusion

If you don’t have the space for a freeze-first model but are looking to make a couple of tubs of ice cream at a time, this Cuisinart model is the perfect choice.

It’s quick and the manual accurate when it comes to timings. The paddle scrapes closely to the bowl, so there’s little to no wastage. There’s a comprehensive manual with lots of recipe inspiration, plus advice on how to make your own ice cream.

This is a good-looking piece of kit, too, so if you’re a fan of keeping your appliances on the counter, this is sure to get people talking.

Specifications

Wattage: 25W
Pre-freeze or self-freezing: pre-freeze
Accessories: N/A
Pre-set functions: none
Dimensions (cm): H: 29 x W: 20.5 x D: 22.5
Bowl capacity: 2L

Ice cream recipes

Ultimate vanilla ice cream
Strawberry ice cream
Vegan vanilla ice cream
Buttermilk, brown sugar and rye bread ice cream
Malt chocolate ice cream
Cranachan ripple ice cream
Gooseberry ice cream

Sorbet recipes

Mango sorbet
Raspberry sorbet
Elderflower sorbet
Lemon sorbet
Rhubarb and star anise sorbet
Gooseberry, elderflower and sauvignon sorbet
Refreshing lychee and lime sorbet

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This review was last updated in April 2021. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk