Someone has said, “Life is like ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts!” So true! Life is too short to not take the time to relish your favourite ice-cream. When we feel low, many of us crave for ice-cream. One down and we’re ready for anything! The soft and sweet melting swirls of countless flavours like vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch, mango, pistachio, not to forget irresistible sundaes, make you forget all your troubles! Whether it’s Europe, Asia, Australia or America, everyone loves ice-cream. Be it children or adults, young or old, man or woman.

Benefits of eating ice-cream

Though cold and sugary, you may be surprised to know ice-cream has its share of health benefits too. Of course, it may not be as healthy as sprouts, but it’s healthier than we like to think.

So first of all, ice-cream is an excellent and tasty source of energy. It has carbohydrates, fat and proteins, making it an energy-rich food. It’s also a source of 2 important minerals, calcium and phosphorous. Both these account for stronger, healthier bones. Though not a major source of these minerals, at least we needn’t feel guilty about having ice-cream. You can also find small amounts of vitamin A, D and riboflavin. Dark chocolate contains anti-oxidants and flavonoids. Not only that, ice-cream may increase the dopamine level in our body, making us feel happy, reducing stress levels.

With all these amazing health benefits, no wonder our body gravitates towards ice-cream!

Store-bought Ice-cream

Since the main ingredients of ice-cream are milk, sugar and fruits or flavors, what good you get out of the ice-cream depends on what goes into making it. This means, the delicious ice-cream you get in the stores may or may not be healthy, since many of them use milk powder combines with synthetic flavours and chemicals. More often than not, they’re made of water, milk solids, sugars, starch, stabilizing and emulsifying agents. Clearly none of these can do us much good!

Therefore, the solution is to prepare ice-cream at home, with our own choice of quality ingredients.

Problems with home-made ice-cream

But the trouble is that making ice-cream at home is a tall order. Making ice-cream is not just art, but also a science. To get the right balance of texture, temperature and taste can be trickier than we think.

But thankfully, help is at hand. Now, with modern day advanced and easy to use ice-cream makers, it’s become not just easy, but also enjoyable to make your own ice-cream at home. With n ice-cream making machine like Cuisinart by your side, you can make a variety of yummy ice-creams.

How ice-cream makers help

With an ice-cream maker in your kitchen you can make ice-cream more easily, faster and better. The main reason is that the ice cream base needs to be frozen quickly in order get a good texture. This is accomplished more effectively by machines like Cuisinart. The crystals formed in such ice cream are smaller, resulting in a smoother finish. You can also make a wide variety of ice creams with Cuisinart, experiment, innovate and have fun in the process!

So if you like to eat ice-cream on a regular basis, it’s worth investing in Cuisinart for top-notch ice-cream.

How to use Ice-cream maker (Cuisinart)

Cuisinart Ice-cream maker is fun and easy to use. It has a simple structure consisting of a stainless steel motorized base with an on/off dial, a cord that can be tucked away, a freezing bowl of about 2 liter capacity, a mixing arm and an easy-lock lid. Cuisinart comes with an instruction manual and a recipe book too.

Making your favourite ice-cream recipes is very easy. Here, we’ll walk you through how to make a simple vanilla ice-cream, to which you can add further ingredients of your choice, or make a tempting sundae with it.

How to make Vanilla Ice-cream with Cuisinart

With ice-cream makers, the freezing bowl needs to be put in the freezer at least the night before. For best results, it’s recommended to be kept for 24 hours, covered with a poly bag. This step is really important to get the right texture in the end result. To check whether the bowl is ready for use, shake it well after taking it out of the freezer. If you hear any liquid moving around, the bowl isn’t ready and should be put back in the freezer for some more time. The same goes for your ice-cream mixture. It should be refrigerated or chilled for best results.

Once your ice-cream mixture is ready, plug in the unit, place the frozen bowl on to the base, put in the mixing arm, fix the lid and turn on the unit. Pour in your mixture and let it get churned for 25 minutes.

In other ice-cream makers, it’s normally the mixing arm that rotates, but in Cuisinart, the base rotates the freezing bowl around the mixing arm. The advantage is that this prevents the mixing arm from getting stuck in the mixtures as it thickens. It starts doing so about 12 minutes into the mixing. If you wish to add in some more ingredients to your ice-cream like chocolate chips or fruit bits, do so in the last 5 mins of churning. If you find the ice-cream is too soft and falling off the mixing arm, you can continue to churn it for another 5-10 minutes.

Once done, the ice-cream will have a soft, thick, creamy texture. If you wish to have a firmer texture, transfer the ice-cream contents into an air-tight plastic container and put it in the freezer for 2 hours. Remove it 15 mins before serving.

There you are! Now just sit back and enjoy your own home made ice-cream, that’s not just tasty like store-bought ice-cream, but healthier too!

Here are some variations you can try:

• Chocolate ice-cream

• Chocolate chip ice-cream

• Oreo vanilla ice-cream

• Mango Ice-cream

• (You can also try litchi or strawberry)

• Blueberry ice-cream

• Coffee ice-cream

• Nutty Vanilla Ice-cream (with roasted almonds/cashews and raisins)

• Vanilla Tutti-frutti ice-cream.

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