With Ice Cream on the brain this month, many readers have been asking about ice cream makers. There are two classics that we use (see Two Great Ice Cream Makers, July 13, 2006), but recently were alerted to the fact that L.L. Bean of all places is selling something call an Ice Cream Ball ($29.95), and the thing may just work.
It's a lightweight LexanŽ plastic ball that you fill with ice and rock salt, add ice cream ingredients to the top and then "shake, pass or roll the ball around your campsite" (or your living room, or your little postage-stamp plot of grass in the park). In 20 minutes, you'll have about a pint of ice cream.
If anyone has this gadget, or wants to get one and give it a whirl, we'd love to hear a review.
I have the larger version. Works, but not as quickly as they claim. I had to drain out water and add more ice and salt a few times. The pint-sized one might by a little faster, but we ended up giving up at around the thick milkshake stage.
We have one too. Like Anna, we had to add extra ice and salt, and the process took longer than 20 minutes. We did get past the milkshake stage, though--made it to the soft ice cream stage--and while there wasn't all that much of it, it was quite delicious.
my question: those of you that own this, do you actually use it when you go camping??? It seems like way too much hassle for a camping trip, but maybe that's just me!
My mother has used this sort of method with her special ed. kids for years as a gross motor skills and tactile exercise. And because well, it makes ice cream eventually!
She uses a coffee can normally and just seals the ice cream mix inside a bag that goes inside another bag filled with ice and salt. But I may just have to buy her one of these balls instead. :)
seemed too good to be true at first site in catalogue; O mag i think featured it once; this has come up on AT b4, now we've gotta try one out; will look good on window sill at least if it fails to please - yay tranluscent orange spider webbish orb thing!
i love how u can tinker w/ ingredients
I think it would be too much of a hassle on a camping trip but it could be fun for a kid's birthday party. Given the amount of ice cream it makes, though, you might need a couple of them. At about $30 each, it might make more sense to pick up some Ben and Jerry's (unless of course it's all about keeping the kids busy for half an hour, in which case it's probably worth it).
REI also carries these in two sizes:
http://tinyurl.com/lx7fm (mega size)
this was featured on an episode of "ham on the street" he sure has a way of making everything funny and a bit ridiculous!
we use ours to make some fabulous margaritas.