Lucie Loves… Dessert // Tried and tested | Dunelm’s candy rose collection ice-cream maker
There’s a heatwave in town and my favourite way to cool off is with ice-cream. Whether in a bowl, cone or on a stick. You can’t beat it!
When the guys at Dunelm got in touch and asked if I’d like to put their pink little ice-cream maker to the test, I wasn’t going to say no. Although, after hearing how much other ice-cream makers usually cost, I was a little dubious at how well it would perform.
My first attempt…
After sticking the ice-cream barrel in the freezer for the stated 13 or so hours, and then preparing my ice-cream base (double cream, whole milk, sugar and vanilla essence) in a food mixer, I was a little concerned after a good 20 minutes or so of churning that my mixture wasn’t actually thickening up like it was supposed to. Argh!
I decided to Google my problematic ice-cream making experience, and after searching through some helpful comments on a forum, it appeared that I should have left the freezing barrel in the freezer for at LEAST 48-hours prior to use. Duh!
Reluctant to throw away my initial mixture, I poured it into a container and popped it in the fridge ready to have another go once the recommended 48-hour period was up. My fear was that this little beauty, having only cost so little, was too good to be true…
48-hours later…
I brought my pre-prepared ice-cream base out of the fridge and then removed the previously troublesome freezing barrel from from the freezer. Almost as soon as I poured the mixture in I could see a difference. It started sticking to the sides and, within 15 minutes of turning on the machine, had begin to stiffen and look like proper ice-cream.
Choosing a flavour…
I decided on a vanilla base and doubled the quantity of the ingredients that the instruction manual/recipe book (which actually comes with the ice-cream maker) recommended. One batch of ice-cream was going to have chopped up pieces of fudge, with dollops of chocolate ganache, and the other would have fresh raspberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Yum!
Once I’d made my two flavours of ice-cream, I spooned them into tupperware bowls and popped them in the freezer. A couple of nights later, I then scooped each flavour into bowls to enjoy as dessert after dinner. Once I’d got the freezing barrel temperature right, I was onto a winner! This is the easiest thing to make ever and, I must say, certainly impressed JMG and my friend Melly when she came over to see us. It’s really easy to clean between uses too!
I would definitely recommend buying one of these little beauties. At £29.99 it doesn’t matter if you just want to dabble with making your own ice-cream but don’t wish to fork out £70 to £100 in the process. I can’t wait to try making lemon sorbet with this thing or crumbling pieces of chocolate brownie into my next batch.
Top tips…
- If you don’t own a proper measuring cup, just use a normal size cup and be sure to use the same one when measuring out all of the ingredients.
- Blend the raspberries or fresh fruit so that they aren’t too crunchy when you take ice-cream out of the freezer.
- Keep your ice-cream barrel in the freezer at all times (if you can afford the space) this will make your impromptu ice-cream making sessions effortless!
- Experiment with weird and wonderful flavours and share them with me if they work out so that I can try them too!
Shop the Dunelm Candy Rose Collection Pink Ice Cream Maker
Photography © Lucie Kerley
Disclaimer: Thank you to Dunelm for allowing me to test out this new home kitchen appliance. I now can add ice cream making to my list of skills.