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.