Sage BCI600UK the Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker - Silver

Product Information

The instruction booklet has 16 great recipes and some top tips from Heston Blumenthal, although it would be nice if the parts were dishwasher-friendly, and the ice cream isn’t the easiest to remove from the machine. The bowl could be bigger, too, while the machine itself is huge. I like the Pre-cool function. Every compressor ice cream maker can be pre-cooled. You just turn it on without adding the ice cream mixture! But you'll never be sure when it's reached maximum coldness. It’s pricey, even by high-end ice cream maker standards. But it did turn out superb ice cream and the features were impressive and great fun. It even makes the sound of an ice cream van when it’s ready. For tasty ice cream, gelato, smoothie bowls and milkshakes in a flash, you can’t get much better than the Ninja Creami. This multi-functional ice cream maker flips the classic churning process on its head, by getting you to pre-freeze your mixture for 24 hours before churning. Once frozen, ice cream only takes two and a half minutes to churn, rather than the 25 to 30 minutes plus 24 hours pre-freeze time you’d expect from traditional style makers.

If you want a simpler high-end ice cream maker, look at the Cuisinart Gelato & Ice Cream Professional. For healthy frozen desserts look at the Judge Fro Fru Aand if you want something much more affordable consider the Swan Come Dine With Me Ice Cream & Gelato Maker – but note that with affordable models you must remember to pre-freeze the bowl overnight. Verdict However, the compressor in the Smart Scoop is looking for any excuse to turn itself off! And that means it's easy to make mistakes that will ruin our ice cream. If we allow the pre-cool function to end without pressing the START button, the compressor will turn off. If we pause the machine at any point, the compressor will turn off. If the timer in Manual mode reaches zero, the compressor will turn off. So if you want ice cream, why notremove it when it gets to gelato hardness and leave it to harden much more efficiently in your freezer? It shouldn't make any difference to the end product.

How to make ice cream

There are two main types of ice-cream makers. The first are manual machines that come with a freezer bowl and must be pre-frozen before you start. These types also have a paddle and motor unit, which must be attached before adding your ingredients. The second are fully automatic machines, which have a handy in-built freezer that cools the bowl to the optimum temperature in just a few minutes. Peanut butter and jam - a classic combo. Peanut butter is a great thing to mix into ice cream, as it somehow makes it even creamier. Even on the hardest ice cream setting, when the machine stops, the finished product will be more like soft serve ice cream or whipped cream than the stuff you buy in the store.

The temperature of the bowl is constantly displayed on the LCD display. This display is really useful. If the temperature is low, it re-assures you that everything is going well. And if it's not low, it's an indication that somethings not quite right! 5. Adding mix-ins is super easy!With a nostalgic nod to childhood memories, the Sage the Smart Scoop will either beep or play an ice cream van tune to let you know when your frozen treat is done. If you’re not quite ready, it has a built-in ‘keep cool’ function keeps everything at serving temperature for up to 3 hours, meaning your ice cream isn’t going to melt if you don’t eat it straight away. It’s 1L bowl means there will always be plenty to go around.

Once we've selected the hardness we're aiming for, we just press the START / PAUSE button and the machine will start to churn. As the mixture starts to harden, the segments of the bar start to fill up to show the progress towards your desired consistency. With the Ninja, things are much easier; you bung the ice cream base into one of the included storage containers, then put that straight into the freezer. If you want to add pieces of candy, nuts, chocolate, fruit (basically anything you can think of), the Smart Scoop makes it really easy. Not only does it have a flap in the lid to so you don't have to actually remove the id (and believe me, getting the lid off ice cream makers is always a bit fiddly). It will also beep to let you know the best time to add those mix-ins! This is really useful. 4 things I don't like about the Breville Smart Scoop 1. The ice cream can be icy However, unlike the Sage Smart Scoop, the Magimix isn’t a huge appliance; while it’s heavier than most of the other devices in this list, it doesn’t take up much more counter space, thanks to the fact that its internal freezing components are very neatly integrated. We had plenty of space to cook my dinner while it was quietly whirring away.However, it does absolutely everything you need an ice cream maker to do. If you need convincing that homemade ice cream is better than anything else you can buy, we'd recommend buying this. Once you’re convinced, you can move on to a more expensive model. When it actually comes down to it, there are only a couple of benefits of buying an ice cream maker. Depending on which machine and recipe you opt for and which brand you usually buy, it’s probably not much cheaper than getting it from the shop, and it’s certainly more faff. I cannot stress too much the importance of your recipe here. It has a far bigger impact on the quality of the final ice cream than the individual machine does... Rather than gradually freezing the ice cream while churning it, as you do with a traditional ice cream maker, you completely freeze your ice cream mixture before getting the Creami involved. But the Keep Cool function continues to monitor the hardness of the dessert and when it starts to soften, the compressor will turn on and the machine will start churning again to maintain that final consistency.

Again, I'll talk about how this display actually works in more detail later on in the review. For now it's enough to say that it's clear and both easy to read and understand. The removable bowl If you don't, the bowl won't fully insert and you'll be unable to get the lid on properly. And as I found out, itmight not be obvious why.Of course, if you read the manual first, you won't have this problem! The dasher The buttons and the LCD screen are top quality. The machine gives you loads of information about whats going on. There's tons of options. And loads of useful features. It’s a great option if you want a reasonably-priced ice cream maker, but are willing to fork out for something that looks a bit more sleek than the cheap white-plastic Duronic model below. Once the ice cream was made, a range of very willing participants gave their thoughts. God, our job is hard. The best ice cream makers at a glance:I think for someone just starting out making ice cream, they're definitely worth considering. And that's because if you are just starting out, they'll help to ease you into the process... However, this machine can also make a range of other cold desserts and comes with a separate paddle designed to blend soft fruits. I find the automatic Pre-Cool function very useful. It's good to see the temperature falling on the LCD display. And I like the way it alerts me when the temperature's as low as it's going to get and it's the right time to add my ice cream mixture. 3. The Keep Cool function works surprisingly well