The Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence Ice Cream Maker is a large frozen dessert maker (it produces up to 2 quarts of your dessert of choice).
It is made up of four main components – the chrome exterior (yours may come in other colors you choose), the paddle, the double insulated bowl and the clear see-through open lid for adding ingredients, at the beginning or as you make your dessert.
Features
The paddles of this machine are made of a strong, BPA free plastic. One neat feature of this machine is that the whole drum rotates AROUND the paddle and it’s not the paddle rotating in the drum. Neat, huh? This characteristic helps to ensure that your dessert of choice is well mixed together, and maintains a creamy, smooth consistency.
This Cuisinart ice cream maker comes with a bowl that is double walled and insulated. This ensures that the bowl get cold really quickly and stays cold. The bowl contains a liquid mixture between the double walls. This mixture has to be frozen solid i.e., you don’t hear it sloshing about when you pick up and shake the bowl. This can be achieved by leaving the bowl in a freezer for 12 to 24 hours.
How it works
The Pure Indulgence model is a freezer bowl – type of ice cream maker. This means that you have to place the drum in your freezer for a maximum of 24 hours, to ensure that it is cold enough to prepare perfect ice cream. As long as the drum is pre-frozen long enough, for up to 24 hours at between 0OC to 1OC , fresh ice cream can be prepared within 40 minutes, from pouring ingredients in to enjoying delicious ice cream.
Some people get the idea that the machine arrives incomplete. This is because the lid has a gap in the middle where people expect a complete cover to be. The boffins at Cuisinart understand that you may forget to add all the ingredients you want to at the beginning of the process, hence they designed this baby with an open top.
This lets you add ingredients to the mix at any time you choose, even up to the end of the process. The gap in the lid is quite large and can accommodate any extra bits you may choose to add to your dessert, from sliced oranges to chopped mangoes to pureed strawberries. The lid is also quite easy to put on and lock in place with and simple but firm twist of your wrist.
A handy timer lets you know exactly when the machine has finished preparing your favorite treats.
Uses
The many desserts you can make with this appliance, more than pay for it, over and over again. How often can you choose to have a sorbet in the morning, an ice cream at noon, yoghurt with your lunch, and a frozen daiquiri before bed, all in the comfort of your home? With this baby, you can!
Capacity
Some people choose to whip up 2 quarts of their favorite dessert every time they use this machine. Others prefer to experiment with half or 1 quart helpings when they are mixing new recipes for new flavors. The maximum the Pure Indulgence produces is 2 quarts at a time, and that is usually enough to serve 4 people.
Cleaning Your Cuisinart ICE-30BC
Cleaning up after your yummy dessert can seem like a daunting task to many of us. The Cuisinart Pure Indulgence model has 4 parts i.e. the exterior which houses the base and motor, the paddle, the double insulated bowl and the clear see-through open lid.
All you have to do is separate the parts and place them (excluding the main exterior) in warm soapy water or in a dishwasher for proper cleaning. This makes cleaning it up a breeze.
Design
This appliance is made of both stainless steel and plastic parts. The plastic is BPA free high grade plastic. Thus you don’t have to fret about exposing yourself, family and friends to harmful toxins that may leach out of plastic that contains BPA.
Whether your kitchen decor is red, white, black, blue, you can find a color of the Cuisinart Pure Indulgence to fit in. Knowing you can pick a color to match your kitchen design just sweetens the deal.
This model also has an ingenious space under the unit where you can coil up the cord for storage, leaving no unsightly, trailing power cords on your kitchen counter top.
The inclusion of a countdown timer on this appliance is a great time saver, as you can pop all ingredients in, leave it and get other tasks done. The machine shuts itself off once the set time has reached, leaving you with fresh, yummy ice cream.
Dimensions
At 16 inches high, 10.2 inches wide and 10.2 inches deep, the Cuisinart will fit comfortably on many countertops without getting in the way of your cooking. This piece of kitchen kit weighs about 9 pounds.
The motor that produces all this creamy goodness in this model is a heavy duty motor running at 50watts, which is enough to properly mix your ingredients to produce your frozen treat.
Instructions and Warranty
This appliance comes with an illustrated manual. PLEASE READ IT. Many people feel they know all about these machines, forgetting that each one may have a unique twist or two. Reading the instruction manual to familiarize yourself with how this model works won’t kill you, and hey, you may actually learn a thing or three.
The included recipe book gives you variations on frozen desserts you can make. While this should be regarded as a bonus inclusion, there are many other books you can buy for more recipes of chilled concoctions to create.
I will recommend these two: Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book and also The Best Ice Cream Maker Cookbook Ever. They approach the art of making ice cream from very basic levels and show you the exact reasons why certain steps are taken.
Cuisinart gives a 3 year warranty period. Some customers who had problems with their appliances had them replaced when they contacted Cuisinart and returned the defective units to their offices. This is proof that they stand by the product they make.
Price
As at the time of writing this review, you can get this appliance at a steal. This gizmo is much cheaper than many other machines that are not as versatile and cool as this one.
Let’s face it, you love your desserts, whether it may be ice cream, sorbets, yoghurt, this is why you even considered buying one of these appliances at home. This may be due to wanting to eat healthier, wanting to experiment with your own flavors, or simply because, you admit you are an ice cream addict and its costing too much too get your ‘ice cream fix’ from the store.
Whatever your reasons, the Cuisinart Pure Indulgence comfortably bridges the gap between being affordable and being super functional.
It provides a fun family activity to do. Some people have even used the preparation of treats as a counting aid for their children.
While some people didn’t like the level of noise that this Cuisinart model produces. Hey, would you trade in listening to a whirring, no louder than your dishwasher or blender for 20 minutes for yummy and delicious dessert? It’s your call, I know I wouldn’t.
The Cuisinart Pure Indulgence is a marketed as an ice cream maker, though those that are willing to try will find it can produce many deliciously scrumptious frozen concoctions, for you and your family to enjoy.
