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"  I love my job. I love testing equipment and finding out what performs well and what doesn&amp;#039;t. I love being able to report to you on what&amp;#039;s worth your hard-earned money and what isn&amp;#039;t. And while I love working with just about every piece of kitchen equipment from rolling pins to refrigerators, nothing is more fun than testing ice cream makers. Just a few months ago I had the good fortune to churn up pint after pint of vanilla ice cream and peach sorbet in quest of the best of the bunch. Now while ease of use is certainly a factor in picking our favorite ice cream makers, the most important consideration is the quality of the ice cream...something we can only evaluate, by, you guessed it...tasting the results. The top performers create the stuff of dreams--luscious clouds of smooth and creamy goodness. Taste test one spoonful per machine? No way...when it&amp;#039;s good, it&amp;#039;s just about impossible to keep from digging in again and again. I don&amp;#039;t think there&amp;#039;s much that tastes as good as just-churned vanilla ice cream. Our tests came up with 5 favorites...each one makes delicious ice cream but has distinct pros and cons that you should consider first and foremost before making a choice. For convenience at a reasonable price, you&amp;#039;ll want a machine that uses a bowl that you chill in your freezer before churning. Once you mix up your ice cream base, all you have to do is pour it in and push a button. The downsides? You have to plan ahead as the bowl needs up to 24 hours in the freezer. You could also store it in your freezer so it&amp;#039;s always ready for action. Either way, if you&amp;#039;re one of those people who can&amp;#039;t fit one more thing in your freezer, this could be a challenge. And you&amp;#039;d better make sure everyone loves cherry vanilla or butter pecan if that&amp;#039;s what you&amp;#039;re planning on churning, because once you&amp;#039;ve made one flavor, you&amp;#039;re going to have to wait another day for the bowl to refreeze. Among the offerings in this category are a freezable bowl for your KitchenAid mixer and a mini model that&amp;#039;s battery powered so you can watch it work while you relax on the patio. If you love ice cream so much you&amp;#039;re willing to invest 3 figures in an ice cream machine, consider one with a compressor...kind of a mini ice cream refrigerator. It too requires little effort on your half other than pouring in the ingredients but in addition to coughing up big bucks, you have to be willing to dedicate some space on your countertop and in your cabinet. But if you want to offer your family or guests a variety of flavors, you can mix up mint chocolate chip, followed by banana, followed by salted caramel. The purists among you are going to gravitate towards one of the old-fashioned buckets that use ice and rock salt to freeze a creamy liquid into a frozen delight. While these machines are now electric and no longer have to be hand churned, they still require the layering and replacing of the ice and salt, a messy, hands-on procedure. But for your efforts, you&amp;#039;re rewarded with a quart, not a pint, of what in this life-long ice cream lover&amp;#039;s opinion, is the best of the best. Intrigued by the plastic balls that your roll, shake, or toss? They&amp;#039;re not so much fun to throw around and what they produce is a far cry from what I&amp;#039;d call quality ice cream. Ready to read about the winners? See our story, Best Ice Cream Makers Some Tips for Success   Make sure the mixture or base is nice and cold before you pour it into your machine. I&amp;#039;ve already told you about my preference for ice cream right from the dasher, what you might call soft serve, but if you prefer a harder consistency that allows you to scoop out neat little balls, refrigerate the ice cream after churning in an airtight container for several hours before serving. Choose a container that&amp;#039;s just about the same capacity as the amount of ice cream...headroom leads to ice crystals. When we test, we use a mix that&amp;#039;s pure sugar, cream, and vanilla because we love the purity of flavor. For a more voluptuous, richer ice cream use a recipe that includes tempered eggs. Be sure to see Stacy Genovese&amp;#039;s tips for mixing up an egg-based recipe.   Want to learn how we put consumer products to the test and keep you safe? Sign up for a tour of the famous Good Housekeeping Research Institute. If you visit, be sure to say hello when you come by the Kitchen Appliances &amp;amp;amp; Technology Lab. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a21555/choosing-the-best-ice-cream-maker/>