Yummy!

My mum bought this for me & I am just about to buy one for my in-Laws for Christmas. It makes gorgeous ice cream of just the right amount for 4-6 people. We love the frozen yoghurt ones, they are so healthy if you use low fat yoghurt & made with fresh strawberries it is to die for! They recommend that you use full fat milk & cream etc but I have experimented with semi skimmed & low fat & actually prefer the lower fat ice creams which can only be good!I like the fact that you only have to freeze the disc, not the whole bowl like some other makers & it only takes 30 - 45 mins to make. I don't normally 'do' Ice cream (unless I am in Italy!) but this makes a fab quick desert & my children love it.

delicious ice cream

I will never buy readymade ice cream again! I was going to buy one of those big machines with the built in freezer, this takes up much less room, I have a big freezer so keep it frozen all the time, I wash mine up as soon as it's empty and pop it back into the freezer before it defrosts. My kids love the ice cream and no additives to send them crazy! Read instructions and don't overfill. At this price buy them for friends and family as christmas presents. Highly recommended.

Straightforward, but not perfect

This machine is easy to assemble and use, but as Emma Parry says, the resulting frozen dessert is still a bit slushy. I have yet to make a really terrific ice cream. The instructions for recipes are adequate but brief, so I recommend reading up on the topic if you are not experienced already.

5 star recommendation

Like others, I did much research before purchasing. After all it would be an expensive appliance purchase to 'get wrong'. I was within seconds of purchasing the Magimix competitor product but after looking at a YouTube demonstration I realised I did not like the requirement to place a saline or alcohol liquid between the bowls mentioned here and buried in the product's online manual AND I did not like how the arm 'looked' that was to turn the paddle... it looked flimsy.

All the positive recommendations here swayed me. After all I already had a Cuisinart US voltage ice cream maker for some time.

Bottom Line: I could not be more pleased with how this product makes ice cream! I am an experienced ice cream maker and have used any number of freezer insert type models over the years. Ice cream can now be made 'on a whim' all that is required is to make the mix, pour it in and turn it on. At first I thought the 40-60 minute churn time would be a negative of the product but the resulting ice cream texture is so good that it is worth the wait. And yes it is a bit noisy while in action but still the time and noise issues are minor given the quality of the outcome. Hence my 5 star recommendation.

Cool

This is a great piece of kit. I bought it in January 06 to replace an old, smaller Magimix ice-cream maker with a coated insider (like a non-stick surface) which was starting to peel off. This one has no coating and it just a pure and rather stylish stainless steel. I chose this one so it could double up as a ice bucket, which is does well as there is no branding on the main tub.

Oh, and the ice-cream is very nice too. The paddle is nice and large and works well, getting all the way to the edge of the tub. The mixture usually doubles in size (which is not something you can easily achieve without a machine, so you get more servings too. The recipe book is useful and reliable and like all Magimix products, it's tough and good quality.

Good value

I bought two of these for the kids much cheaper than buying lolly's. I give it 5 stars for the value, the quality not brilliant i think the plastic sticks may break over time. I say follow the instructions run under warm water first then pull out dont try pulling out when frozen. Look after them they could last a wile, dont let the kids try getting them out themselves cant be bad for £2.75!!!

Good looking teapot for soaking the table!

On the plus side this teapot looks great, the colour is lovely and it is a good size. On the down side, the lid is very loose and rattles about on top of the pot and more significantly the spout does not pour well at all. The shape of the spout makes it difficult to see the tea coming out and even if the tea makes it into the cup without spilling all over the table first, once you tilt the pot upright the spout continues to dribble tea down the side of the pot. There's no point in having a good looking teapot if it can't pour so unless you are happy to spend your time wiping up the puddles from this teapot - don't bother! This is probably the worst item I have ever bought from Amazon.

just did not work

i scoured the pages of ice cream makers for sale and this one seemed the best. I wanted to buy the 1litre one but thought that the 1.5 litre one seemed better for my family of five. I love my kitchen and have all the latest kitchen gadgets. i was so plased when my ice maker arrived i made some the next day after freezing the bowl all night and most of the next day but to my horror the first lot i made did not freeze. i made a second batch of something different and this again did not freeze. while it was still churning after one hour in desperation i rang my friend who arrived within minutes with her pre frozen phillips ice cream maker. we poured the mixture from my ice cream maker to hers and within 5 minutes it started to thicken and within 20 minutes it was perfect ice cream. needless to say the magimix went straight back in the box to be returned and i was straight on the amazon website to purchase my new phillips one.i was very dissapointed with the magimix and would not buy this make again.

Completely fabulous!

I bought my first Nigella whisk about 3 years ago and we use it so much I've now added a second. Perfect for getting lumps out of gravy, custard and batter mixes - with brilliant results every time. Both my whisks are in and out of the dishwasher all the time and always come out good as new. Cannot recommend this highly enough!!

fantastic

brilliant...went halves with a friend to buy this and have used it two or three times a week since it arrived...it's great, for making 'spur of the moment' ice cream or sorbet...simple to use and easy to clean and wonderful not to have to store any parts in the freezer, especially if you're short of room. The ice cream it makes is of a fabuloous texture and in only twenty minutes you're eating your dreams...keep a jug of sugar syrup ready made in the fridge so you can make sorbets straight from picking the fruit..Mmmmmm.... If youre looking for an ice cream book to go with it, then I recommend Caroline Liddell's 'Ices'...no fancy photographs, but a wealth of recipes and a wonderful history and technology section...

Excellent product - but still some room for improvement

Firstly, this product is great, we love it. Having fresh ice cream for our family in minutes is a joy. How often do you walk past the discounted section in tescos and see piles of cream reduced to clear? Quite often if our store is anything to go by, and now we have a use for it. My daughter is also wheat intollerant and lactose intollerant. If you buy the chocolate soya milkshake and use that instead of cream, the results are fab.

So it works, but what are the improvements required?

1) The inner bowl is made from aluminium. We are probably supposed to wash it by hand, but it goes in the dishwasher and has a black tint to it now. I would have expected it to be stainless steel.

2) The bowl has a plastic tube in the middle. Again, I worry that this will not age well. The forces that the machine creates are strong and the bowl is kept still by a plastic lug touching a plastic lug. Again, stainless steel would make it feel longer lasting.

3) The machine is not as easy to clean as I’d hoped. There are 4 phillips screws close to the bowl which it’s easy to get splashes into, but not so easy to wipe out. I would have thought that the whole area would have been a single smooth moulding.

4) The lid has square corners and these have little mini lugs on the machine. Again these are possible dirt traps and mean what should be a quick wipe clear takes a good deal longer.

5) The lid has a handle that is held on by a screw. The lid can get quite sticky as the ice cream rises as the air folds in and needs to go in the dishwasher. A single piece dishwasher safe design would be better.

6) If you use the inner bowl (which makes cleaning much easier) you need to give it a shot of vodka/gin. This allows the cold to transfer into the bowl. I suppose I could use meths or denatured alcohol, but these are not suitable for human consumption so I avoid. I tend to find that a shot is required every time, which means quite a bit of vodka is required if you use the machine.

7) Space - this is a machine that needs space. It’s about the size of an A3 poster and 30cm high. Once out, it stays out as if you move it, you have to wait 24 hours for the refrigerants to settle (just like a fridge then). It’s also weighty. It is also quite noisy - I am trying to think of an analog - perhaps it’s as noisy as my dishwasher - but the sound is more mechanical.

8) You need a mixer/blender to blend up the ingredients before putting in the machine. Why? The machine is like a slow food processor. Why not give it a 30 second fast mix function so everything goes straight into the bowl. The result is more washing up at present and more mess.

We’ve had ours now for about 4 months and we use it 2 or 3 times a week. The best time to show off is when you have guests round for dinner. You pre-load the machine and as you sit down to your starters, you turn it on. By the time everyone is ready for desert, it is ready. Our favourite recipes are chocolate and raspberry - use fresh frozen rasperries as they are cheap and just stir in pure cocoa powder (it converts automatically into milk chocolate).

Gallons of ice cream!

This ice-cream maker is really easy to use. It is true that the parts are a little clumsy, but with only 5 components it really isn't difficult to put together. If I was buying again I would purchase the larger version, though obviously this would take up more room in the freezer. We have made literally gallons and gallons of ice cream and visitors are never disappointed- it's the easiest dessert to make with a little prior organisation. The important thing is to get your freezer cold enough (we freeze the bowl for at least 12 hours at -25C.) The recipes that come with it are not very good- get the Ben & Jerry's ice-cream book.

Nigella Lawson Blue Tea Pot

This is a charming little Tea Pot, it looks a bit like BaBa the elephant! It pours beautifully, and matches the other Duck Egg Blue items in the range. Very nice indeed!

Very nice :)

I have bought the bread bin, calendar and salt pig from this range and wanted something else and these little egg cups were suprisingly sweet and good as, well, egg cups! The inside is smooth and shiny and the outside is matt - a nice little detail. I recommend you adding these to your Nigella collection.

this is for Philips HR2304

Rather than having a thin bowl Hr2304 has a flat cylindrical pre frozen disk. So this is the spare part for that machine. I've not used it- I'm still researching for a replacement machine- however this system looks intriguing.

This information is available on Philips' website!

Too noisy to use

The ice cream it makes is great. I have had no issues with the spindle or parts breaking, but like another reviewer I found it difficult to clean, so I use the separate bowl - but that means the ice cream takes about an hour to make. BUT I hardly use the machine because of the noise it makes when churning. It is far louder than my washing machine on full spin and I find it difficult to stay in the kitchen when it's running.

Completely fabulous!

I bought my first Nigella whisk about 3 years ago and we use it so much I've now added a second. Perfect for getting lumps out of gravy, custard and batter mixes - with brilliant results every time. Both my whisks are in and out of the dishwasher all the time and always come out good as new. Cannot recommend this highly enough!!

BEST ICECREAM I'VE EVER EATEN

IT MADE THE TASTIEST ICECREAM EVER. THE CHOCOLATE RECIPE IS GREAT, THE HEALTHIER BANANA RECIPE IS GREAT - RECIPES FOR HEALTHY SORBET ARE IN THE BOOK NOT TRIED THEM YET THOUGH - I LOVE THIS ITEM ITS FUN AND A LITTLE BIT OF LUXURY