How to create the ice cream of your dreams, from churning to mix-ins

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to making ice cream at home is the machine. You can make no-churn ice cream — and we have several recipes for it! — but a machine is easy to use, and nothing beats the texture and versatility of what comes out of it.

An ice cream machine doesn’t have to cost a lot or take up a lot of room. The simple Cuisinart ICE-21 is one popular choice. There is just one button to turn on and four easily assembled pieces, and it will only set you back around $40. It’s also America’s Test Kitchen’s top-rated maker.

When picking this or any other model, there are inevitable trade-offs. The ICE-21 canister must be frozen a day in advance, taking up room in your freezer and eliminating the possibility of consecutive batches unless you buy an extra one. As to how it works, Bauer explains, the ice cream freezes around the very cold walls of the canister. Those thin layers are constantly scraped off the sides and into the center as the dasher (or paddle) turns, until all the ice cream has been through the process and sufficiently whipped with air.

There are self-refrigerating models (ATK recommends the Breville Smart Scoop) with compressors that let you churn a batch whenever and as often as you want, but they cost several hundred dollars and take up a much larger footprint. KitchenAid offers an attachment for its stand mixer, though ATK did not recommend it for a number of reasons.

You can find other models, too, whether it’s a rock salt machine or ball you kick around, but they’re not ideal for the ice cream enthusiast who’s ready to make the plunge into creating custom flavors with a minimal amount of fuss.

The rest of the equipment you’ll need to get started — and for more advanced ice cream wizardry — is either already in your decently stocked kitchen or easily acquired. Think mixing bowls (small, medium and large), measuring cups (dry and 2- and 4-cup glass ones for liquid), a heatproof spatula, a large saucepan (4- to 5-quart) and whisks. A fine-mesh strainer and food processor or immersion blender are handy, too.

If you’re going to invest the time, money and effort into making ice cream, you might as well have a good scoop. Bauer and ATK recommend the Zeroll model that conducts heat from your hand, but at home I really like the company’s dishers that sport a mechanism that sweeps across the bowl for a beautifully shaped scoop of ice cream. I also own the very effective Oxo scoop.

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