Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker - 2 Quart ICE-30BC Review

I received the Cuisinart ICE-30BC 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker at my bridal shower a couple of months ago.  My husband was the one who told me to add it to the registry... interestingly enough I am the one who decided to try it out the past two weekends.  After two attempts at making a frozen dessert, I'm not yet impressed with this machine. 

I guess I was expecting this to be something like a bread-maker where you just dumped all of the ingredients into it and walked away for a couple of hours.  Wrong.  You need to juice fruit, create simple syrup, puree berries, etc. to get the mix ready for the Cuisinart ICE-30BC 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker.  The first recipe that I tried required simple syrup which took about 30 minutes to make and then another couple of hours to completely chill in the fridge.  You need to really read the recipe carefully so you can budget enough time to make the ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet and have it ready for dessert.

The first time I tried to use this thing, my grapefruit sorbet looked more like a grapefruit slushie.  After consulting the instruction manual, I realized that I had misread the directions for freezing the bowl.  I thought it only needed 2 hours in the freezer when, in fact, it needed up to 22 hours to completely freeze.  Oops.  I dumped the sorbet slushie and tried again the following weekend.  Even after freezing the bejeezus out of the bowl, my mixed berry frozen yogurt was way too loose and watery for my taste.  I dumped everything into a bowl and put it into the freezer for a few hours.  Sure, the frozen yogurt was solid and tasty but it felt very grainy and gritty in my mouth.  I would have preferred something smoother.

I haven't tried using it for ice cream yet, but based on the results I've had thus far, I don't have high hopes.  For about $80, the Cuisinart ICE-30BC 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker should be easier to use and produce a better quality finished product.  I wouldn't recommend this unit.