I Can't Stop Making Ice Cream—And My Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Is To Blame

Just a casual trip to the strawberry farm, that's how this whole thing started. Two buckets of berries later and a quick online search for what to do with them and I soon found myself en route to pick up what would soon become my new favorite kitchen appliance: a Cuisinart Ice 22 Ice Cream Maker.

This purchase was not made lightly. To know me is to know that I am a review reader—as in, I will read dozens of reviews until I'm sure I've gathered the necessary information for a purchase. Luckily it was a long drive out to the farm and back. What I gathered in the nearly two-hour trek was that the Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Ice Cream is second to none, and a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker is the right appliance for the job.

Through my research I found that a good ice-cream maker is kind of like a good neck cream—it's hard to find and mostly left up to preference. But one machine with just one review (a five-star, at that) caught my eye and just felt right. Forget all the hundreds of reviews touting the benefits and drawbacks of other machines, I was drawn to the Cuisinart Ice 22 with its solo review for reasons that can't be defined other than the price was right at $79.95 (regularly priced for $145) and it looked nice. Trust me, I was even more startled than you at the superficial reasoning behind this impulse purchase.

The thing to know about this Cuisinart model is that it's basically foolproof once you have the ice-cream mixture ready to go. All you need to do is hit the ON switch when you're ready to get shaking. It has a 1 ½ quart capacity, which is substantial, though you will need to have the second double-insulated freezer bowl waiting in the freezer for any leftovers. The recipe I used made a lot of ice cream, but I was still able to make all of it in just two batches.

After prepping the recipe, I pulled the first bowl from the freezer, dropped it onto the machine, and secured the lid. The mixture will need to be completely ready to go ahead of time as your bowl will immediately begin to thaw when it comes out of the freezer. Turn the machine on (the inner bowl will begin to spin) before gently pouring the ice-cream mixture through the mouth of the machine. Then you simply let it go to work, spinning and freezing your sorbet, sherbet, custard, ice cream, or yogurt for the next 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your desired consistency. Don't worry if it still seems a little soft when you turn off the machine, all it needs is a little time in the freezer before serving.

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Peach ice cream is definitely next on my list, with requests like blueberry and an out-of-season peppermint stick coming from other members of the family. I'm game for all of them.