Getting the scoop: more off-beat ice cream flavours such as pistachio can be harder to find in supermarkets, and making your own is increasingly popular. Photograph: AlamyThe first hint of summer offers the perfect excuse to think about ice cream. While the supermarkets are getting better at stocking luxury brands, if you want your strawberry ice cream to contain real lumps of fruit or you crave slightly off-beat flavours like brown bread or pistachio, you might have to resort to making it yourself.
And in this respect the temperature is not the only thing on the rise. "With the great weather last week, sales of ice cream makers were up 113% versus the same period last year," says Wendy Miranda of Lakeland. Making your own need not be expensive, she says – you can buy fruits on their last legs in the reduced section, and if you want to batch freeze you can purchase ingredients in bulk to save cash. For a custard-based ice cream using eggs, cream, sugar and some ripe fruit you could make a litre of frozen dessert tailored to your taste buds for about ￡2 – a quarter of the price of many premium products.
Bowled over: you can make a litre of ice cream for about ￡2. Photograph: Lisa Romerein/Getty Images When you freeze ice cream there is invariably air between the lid and the ice cream, so to avoid crystals forming on top Miranda suggests decanting the dessert into freezer tubs and gently pressing a piece of cling film to the surface of the ice cream.
Many machines can make other frozen deserts including sorbet and frozen yoghurt, but prices range from around ￡25 to more than ￡300, so why the huge difference?
You can go basic with just a bowl, thermometer and a whisk, but if you want to let the machine take the strain you have two main options:
Machines with a freezer bowl There are two elements to this kind of maker – an insulated bowl, which you freeze before you start, and a motorised mixer, which sits on top and churns your mixture with a panel.
Pre-planning is required as you need to put the bowl into the freezer between eight and 24 hours prior to making the ice cream, but the cost saving compared to machines with a built-in freezer element makes this worthwhile.
Machines with a built-in-freezer A built-in element cools the bowl to the optimum temperature in a matter of minutes as the ingredients are being churned. Some of the machines have different settings depending on how you want the texture of your ice cream.
It's worth noting the size of the bowl is not an indication of the amount of ice cream you can make, as it does not account for the paddle and the ability to churn the ingredients. Check in the specifications to see if it says how much ice cream you can make in one go.
Making a lot of ice cream is a much slower process if you buy a model with a freezer bowl, as you need to refreeze the bowl between batches – although additional bowls are available for some models.
A built-in freezer mechanism is great for making batches as you have little time to wait before you can make your next tub.
We have picked some popular models and found the best prices, but these change rapidly so please put any better deals you spot in the comments section below.
Motorised with a freezer bowl
Kenwood Ice Cream Maker IM200 The Kenwood Ice Cream Maker IM200 has a 1.1 litre capacity (0.8 litre usable) and comes in a sturdy bowl. Some retailers are selling it for as much as ￡39.99, but Currys has it for ￡24.99 (with free P&P if you are prepared to wait), and John Lewis is charging the same, plus ￡3 for delivery, although in-store collection is free.
The Andrew James Ice Cream Maker is a Which? Best Buy – it says the machine "churns excellent ice cream quickly and without too much noise". On average it takes around 18 minutes to make a batch of ice cream in its 1.45 litre bowl. It comes with a 128-page recipe book and can be bought from Andrew James for ￡27.90 including postage.
The Magimix Le Glacier makes around 0.85 litres of ice cream, frozen yoghurt or sorbet and gets good reviews on many websites. You can pay ￡44.99 at one major retailer price, but Debenhams is among a few charging ￡35 – and, up until Sunday, if you order online and input the code KB47 and collect in store the price reduces to ￡31.50.
Lakeland's My Kitchen Ice Cream Maker makes 750ml of ice cream and ingredients can be added during churning. The machine has ￡10 off in July and is currently selling for ￡29.99, and you can buy additional bowls for ￡19.99 each if you want to make multiple batches in one go.
Built-in freezer ice cream makers
Magimix 2200 Gelato Chef The Magimix 2200 Gelato Chef produces 1.5 litres of ice cream in 30 minutes. You can make two batches, one with a detachable inner bowl and a paddle, and another one in the fixed bowl. Because this machine is capable of gently churning and freezing simultaneously, all the flavours of your ingredients are retained. Some large retailers have this on the market for about ￡280, but Go Electrical is selling it at ￡249.90.
The Cuisinart Professional Ice Cream Maker produces fresh ice cream in 40 minutes. It also makes sorbet, frozen yoghurts and gelato. When the cycle is complete the machine will turn itself off and keep the frozen desert cool for up to 10 minutes. Paddles, lid and bowl are removable for easy cleaning. Although John Lewis is 4p cheaper at ￡249.95, if you buy this from Lakeland for ￡249.99 you get a ￡10 voucher off your next spend.
The Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker by Heston Blumenthal from Sage could melt your credit card. The Smart Scoop has a 1 litre bowl and automatically senses the hardness of the mixture based on your selection, and keeps it at the right consistency for up to three hours. It has 12 hardness settings and a manual selection dial. How do you know when the ice cream is ready? It plays the ice cream van tune. You can save 4p by shopping elsewhere, but the ￡349.99 price tag offered by Lakeland gives you a guarantee of satisfaction or your money back at any time, plus a ￡10 voucher.
Do you have any tips of which machine to use, or any great recipes to recommend? If so, leave your ideas below.
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