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9 best ice cream makers

Ice ice baby: the ice cream makers worth investing in  - Andrew Crowley
Ice ice baby: the ice cream makers worth investing in - Andrew Crowley

Everybody loves a big bowl of ice cream - and what could be better than homemade? Ice cream makers have grown increasingly popular over the last few years.

Not only do the results often taste better than ordinary shop-bought ice cream, but they allow you to control exactly what goes into your dessert: important for those who want to avoid additives, or are watching their calorie intake.

The machines range in cost from as little as £20 to hundreds of pounds, and come in two main versions. The first churns the ice cream in a "freezer bowl", which you have to chill for around 24 hours before using. They are the cheapest type, but do require some pre-planning. Alternatively, you can buy an ice cream maker with an in-built freezer. These cool your ingredients as they're being mixed, but are much more expensive.

Cuisinart ice cream maker

£69.99, John Lewis

Cuisinart ice cream maker 
Cuisinart ice cream maker

Unlike most machines, this one turns the pre-frozen bowl, while the paddle stays still, which makes it much easier to taste the ice cream while it’s freezing and chuck in “add-ins” – nuts or biscuits, say. It has twice the capacity of the other machines too, at 2 litres, but it’s bulkier than any of the mid-range models.

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Sage by Heston Blumenthal ice cream maker

£278, John Lewis

Sage by Heston Blumenthal Smart Scoop gelato and ice cream maker
Sage by Heston Blumenthal Smart Scoop gelato and ice cream maker

A proper self-freezing machine, the all-singing, all-churning model designed by Heston Blumenthal. Comes down to temperature in less than ten minutes and I churned four batches on the trot without a problem, so great for serious ice-cream heads.

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Andrew James Ice Cream Maker

£27.98, Amazon

Andrew James ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt maker
Andrew James ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt maker

The only ice cream maker awarded a “Best Buy” title by Which?, this bargain machine is a favourite of ours. Creating your own delicious frozen treat takes as little as 20 minutes, and it also comes with a handy 128-page recipe book. At 1.45 litres, the machine is slightly bigger than many others available.

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Shake n Make

£12.58, Amazon

Shake n Make
Shake n Make

Pile ice cubes sprinkled with salt into the cup, then add the ice cream mixture to the bowl on top, fix the lid and shake! Our testers report that you need to be ruthlessly exact with the ingredient quantities to make this nifty-looking idea work, but if you follow the recipe to the letter this is a great way to entertain children and make soft ice-cream in minutes.

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Magimix's 2200 Gelato Chef

£279.95, John Lewis

Magimix's 2200 Gelato Chef
Magimix's 2200 Gelato Chef

Magimix's Gelato Chef is an ice cream maker with an in-built freezer , so you won’t need to chill the bowl for hours in advance. It’s rather noisy, but the resulting ice cream is excellent.

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Cuisinart gelato and ice cream professional

£213.43, Amazon

Cuisinart gelato and ice cream professional
Cuisinart gelato and ice cream professional

A robust ice cream maker that is quiet, easy to use and clean and has several smart features – including a lid that you can easily open during churning to add extra ingredients. Like the Magimix, it has an in-built freezer, so you can make frozen treats whenever you like.

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Gaggia RI9101/08 Gelatiera ice cream maker

£299, Amazon

Gaggia RI9101/08 Gelatiera ice cream maker
Gaggia RI9101/08 Gelatiera ice cream maker

Ideal for serious ice cream fiends, Gaggia’s ice cream maker has a removable bowl - making it easy to whip up multiple batches. It’s larger than you’d expect, so is perhaps best suited to a larger kitchen.

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Magimix 11047 Le Glacier

£44.99, Amazon

Magimix 11048 Le Glacier
Magimix 11048 Le Glacier

If you don’t have much space in your kitchen, the Magimix Le Glacier is the perfect choice. Slim and sturdy, it makes just over a litre of ice cream at a time and comes with a good recipe booklet. Best of all, the bowl only needs pre-freezing for 10 hours — half the time of some models.

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KitchenAid ice cream attachment

£81, John Lewis

KitchenAid ice cream attachment
KitchenAid ice cream attachment

If you're lucky enough to own a KitchenAid, think twice before splashing out on an ice cream maker – you can actually buy an ice cream attachment for your machine that produces up to 1.9 litres of ice cream or sorbet. The bowl cleverly has a double insulated wall filled with liquid, to make sure that your dessert freezes evenly.

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* Minimum price available from our recommended retailers. Other prices may be available. Latest prices supplied by Monetizer101

The Telegraph makes a small amount of money by adding affiliate links to products mentioned in this article, however all products are picked independently by our journalists.

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