Rolled Ice Cream Maker 304 Stainless Steel Instant Ice Cream Machine with Ice Cream Tray DIY Frozen Yogurt

I ordered this to make some carnivore ice cream. I don't need an ice cream maker for that, but thought I'd try this because it says it's instant. My recipe is based on heavy cream, vanilla extract, stevia, and a touch of cream cheese, so they all have different textures. and freezing points. Functionally, the machine is more like a tray filled with water (or whatever liquid it is). Before you freeze it, you can hear the water inside. Then you freeze it upside down with the ice cream surface down overnight, and the water freezes against the surface. Then when you flip it back over to make your ice cream, the cold transfers from the ice that's now frozen right below the surface into your ice cream. So, the mechanism is simple. I think I could make this by freezing one pan inside of another pan that's filled halfway with water - just weight the inside pan down a bit so it doesn't rise up when the water freezes. I started out doing what the instructions said which is to pour your stuff in and keep agitating it until it freezes. That lasted a couple of minutes. I started to feel like a pioneer woman churning butter - too much work. So, I left it sitting there and it did actually tighten up on its own even without my agitating it. That's good because, honestly, this thing would not have seen the light of day again. So, then I rolled the ice cream with the little spatulas. I saw an image of it breaking up like bricks. I'm not sure what that recipe was or whether they stuck it back in the freezer, but mine did not do that. It didn't get that hard. But, it did get hard enough to scoop it. The rolls didn't keep a hard shape. But, when I buy ice cream from the store, I usually like to let it sit out for a little while until I can easily scoop it and until it gets a little soft anyway. I love the liquid-y part of a spoonful of ice cream. This got about like that. Maybe it would have gotten harder if I did the constant agitation. But, here's why I'm giving it 4 stars. I just don't feel like it was faster, and this tray is small, you can get one bowl or 2 small bowls of ice cream out of it, Either way, it took me overnight to make this one bowl of ice cream. I still had to mix the ingredients and let something sit overnight - either my ice cream mix sits or this instant ice cream maker sits. What would work is if you just permanently housed this ice cream maker in your freezer, then you could pull it out whenever the urge for ice cream hit, which solves the waiting overnight problem. But, it's kind of fun, like an activity to do with my nieces one weekend. Read more

My wife and I love rolled ice cream so ordering this was a no brainer. The size is smaller so you can reliably get 2-3 servings out of it before it needs to be cleaned and frozen for hours again. Great value for money and is literally saving us money. Overall it works as intended. Sometimes I have used a thin metal spatula when the included plastic spades were still in the dishwasher. Its fun to use because it works. Also fun because you can chop up soft mixins with the plastic spades. Not as loud as an ice cream shop but fun to replicate the experience and chop chop sounds lol. You can turn literally any flavor and drink into rolled ice cream. Overall great for what it is. Will be ordering another to gift to a friend that also loves rolled ice cream. Read more

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I ordered this product mainly with the intention of using it for homemade ice cream or trying to do a sorbet or an Italian ice-type treat with primarily organic/high-quality ingredients. I knew that this would mean I would be paying a premium to make my own. I knew the way I would use this would not save me money or time, though it may if you are just using yogurt, sugar, and fruit. I got this to control the incorporated ingredients to my exact preference. The item is made of strong, quality material and functions just fine, but I have come to find out without any kind of a recipe book, I do not feel very confident, at least the first time trying it out to make a custard-based vanilla ice cream. The manual only mentions the actual process and instruction on how to use it and uses yogurt as an example when mentioning pouring something into the tray, but no recipes mean research for me with a hope that the recipes will work with this particular freeze fryer as intended. I looked at some custard-based (egg yolks) vanilla ice cream recipes (I should have started with something simple) and ended up with a recipe incorporating a proportion of 4 egg yolks, 1.5 cups of heavy cream and 1.5 cups whole milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar, and a tiny pinch of sea salt. The combination of them was not simple or easy, required heating, mixing, combining, and cooling, and the ingredients were expensive, as I used a quality vanilla extract, organic eggs, sugar, and cream, and regular whole milk. This turned out to be a little more than twice as much as this freezer tray could freeze at one time, in one use, so I kept the leftover to use for a second batch once the device had time to re-freeze again. The end result was a very delicious vanilla frozen custard that needed to be served immediately--about 2-3 servings as the ad claims. Cleanup was simple. Getting 'rolls' was near impossible the first time. The roll technique is all about perfect timing (the ideal state of 'frozen') for the appropriate creation and perhaps using the scraper at a very low angle. My recipe proportions probably needed to be heavier on the cream and lighter on the milk to assist with easier, thicker freezing, while also making it richer in flavor. I imagine anything I try to make on this beyond simply pouring yogurt, sugar, and fruit over it will need at least one trial to fine-tune the proportions for ideal freezing and consistency. For a device like this, this is probably about as good as it gets, and a good value--as far as performance. Without a recipe book, though, the product seems a bit incomplete and leaves a lot of extra work and trials ahead for the user to research and experiment with recipes, until they are proven. I will probably come to appreciate it more as I get more comfortable using it with established recipes, but this will be a device of trial and error for each type of product that I am confident it can help make. I feel a lot of trial and error will be required without recipes specific to this device. Read more

This is a great idea with a fun concept, and on paper it sounds awesome—like making those rolled ice creams you see at the mall, but at home. Unfortunately, the execution falls short. The biggest issue is that the metal plate isn’t thick enough to hold the cold for very long. It works for one serving, but after that, the tray warms up too much to make another batch properly. You basically have to refreeze it before using it again, which kills the momentum. Another problem is that the bottom doesn’t grip the counter very well, so it slides around while you’re using it. I had to put a wet towel underneath (like the cutting board trick) to keep it in place. That worked, but the towel ended up freezing to the tray. It does technically work, which is why I’m giving it 2 stars, but it’s not great. If they made the plate thicker so it retained cold longer and improved the base grip, this could be a much better product. As it stands, it’s fun for one serving, but frustrating for more than that. Read more