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Ice cream making machines are the latest must-have kitchen tool. But is this Lakeland ice cream maker up to the task?
The only thing better than a refreshing scoop of ice cream on a hot summer day is knowing that you made it yourself. But if you’ve ever tried to make ice cream by hand, you’ll know that it can be quite the slog.
Having to stir your mixture every 30 minutes for three or four hours may give your arms a good workout, but it’s far from the most efficient (or enjoyable) way of making the world’s favourite frozen treat.
Today, appliances such as Lakeland’s Digital Ice Cream Maker promise to replace this once-laborious task by creating fantastically smooth desserts in minimal time and at an affordable price.
To see if it lived up to it’s promise, we put the Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker to the test. Read on for our thoughts…
Read more: Everyone's talking about the Ninja Air Fryer AF100UK — and we put it to the test
Dimensions: H23.5 x D21cm
The first thing we noticed after unboxing the ice cream maker was its sleek appearance.
In a stylish grey colour, the machine’s cool exterior complemented our kitchen decor, and is sure to look fantastic no matter your interior style. No garish fluorescents here.
It’s a small-to-medium sized appliance that fit easily into our kitchen cupboard. That said, it’s a little weighty so we would recommend taking care when transporting it and ensuring you store it on a sturdy shelf.
The digital display is touchscreen which makes using it a complete breeze. You just tap the arrows left or right to adjust the timer and then press the centre button to start or stop the appliance. We found the see-through plastic top really handy for keeping an eye on the ice cream as it was churning.
The appliance also has a removable bowl that needs to be placed in the freezer before use. Being quite a large bowl, we had to clear out the better part of a freezer draw to fit the bowl in, so if you have limited freezer space you may struggle with this.
The Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker instruction booklet features several ice cream recipes to get you started. As big mint-choc-chip fans, we we thrilled to see there was a recipe included and decided to give it a whirl (pun intended).
The instructions say to leave the removable bowl in the freezer for a minimum of 12 hours, so we popped ours in the night before we wanted to make our ice cream.
As we were making 500ml of ice cream, we set the timer to the suggested 25 minutes. The Lakeland fits up to 1.8L, so bear in mind if you wanted to make a larger volume, adjust the timer to suit your needs.
We were impressed by how well the ice cream turned out after only churning for 25 minutes - wayyy less time than it would normally take if mixing by hand.
It was luxuriously smooth and creamy, and really easy to spoon out into professional looking scoops. We added the chocolate chips to the mixture as it was churning, and we found the machine evenly distributed them throughout the ice cream.
We have tried (and failed) to make sorbet many, many times. So we were particularly excited to see if we could find any success using the Lakeland. We followed the included recipe for lemon sorbet, which uses only three ingredients that we (conveniently) had at home already.
The result was a sorbet that was smooth and firm enough to scoop.
It needed longer in the appliance than the ice cream did — the full 40 minutes — and the instructions advised to put the bowl back into the freezer for a little while after churning, which we think helped the sorbet to firm up further.
At the 25 minute mark the sorbet had the consistency of a frozen drink, so this machine could also be great for making slushies or frozen cocktails (daiquiri, anyone?).
In our opinion, the Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker 1.8L is a fantastic appliance. In fact, we’re starting to wonder why we didn’t get one sooner.
It produces frozen desserts that have the perfect texture and consistency in a fraction of the time it would take to make them by hand. It has a large capacity so you can make a big batch of ice cream, sorbet or frozen yoghurt to last you a while.
However, we would have liked for it to be a bit quieter. This isn’t the kind of machine you can leave whirring away whilst watching TV.
It also states in the instruction booklet that no part of the ice cream maker can be placed in the dishwasher despite the website saying the lid and paddle can. Albeit a little annoying, to be safe we’d recommend washing the appliance using a soft cloth and warm water which we found to be easy and effective.
Whilst we’ve been totally won over by the Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker 1.8L, if you’re looking for something a bit different Lakeland make a variety of other options to suit any need and budget.
This machine is similar to the Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker 1.8L, but it’s made from durable stainless steel (so is dishwasher safe). It has a 1.5L capacity and reviewers say it is almost completely silent when running.
If you’re after something a bit more advanced, this ice cream maker is the perfect option. It’s fully automatic, which means you don’t have to worry about pre-freezing the bowl. It also has an extended cooling function that keeps your finished ice cream cool for up to an hour, ready to enjoy at your leisure.
Whether you go for the Lakeland or a different model, investing in an ice cream maker means you can whip up the perfect cone whenever you want.
Unlike when purchasing from a store, by creating your own ice cream, sorbets and frozen yoghurts from scratch you’re in control and can ensure you’re putting fresh, healthy ingredients into every batch. Plus, these machines are huge time savers, producing delicious ice cream in as little as 25 minutes.
Prices updated on 24/06/22. We are not responsible for any changes made to the prices listed.
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