A Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Review: It's End Game and I Will Die on This Hill

• Functionality: 20/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Ice Cream Texture: 20/20
• Aesthetics: 15/20
• Value: 20/20

Total: 95/100

My favorite dessert is ice cream. One a hot summer day, you can 100 percent find me with a pint of Van Leeuwen Earl Grey. However, the $10 price tag gives me pause. I’ve always loved to cook, and last year made about ten quarts of homemade ice cream during a summer heat-induced psychosis. After discovering that I could make Earl Grey ice cream for a fraction of the cost…there was no going back.

As for how I did it? With my trusty Cuisinart ice cream maker (from $90) that I’ve had on-and-off for over a decade. While appliances like the Ninja Swirl soft serve machine and CREAMi Deluxe offer a bevy of buttons and features, I’m convinced that Cuisinart’s humble contraption will always be my ride-or-die. Below, my review after having made dozens of batches of my favorite dessert.

The PureWow100 is a scale our editors use to vet new products and services, so you know what’s worth the spend—and what’s total hype. Learn more about our process here.

Cuisinart has an entire line of ice cream and frozen yogurt machines, but for the purposes of this review, I’ll be talking about the Cuisinart 2-Quart Frozen Yogurt - Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker ($80).

I’ve had both the 1.5- and 2- quart version of this machine on-and-off for the last decade. I’m particularly proud of this acquisition, because it was sustainable: Both iterations were a hand-me-down from my epicurean aunt. While I’ve made ice cream in the past, last summer I basically ran a small factory from my apartment, making about a dozen quarts from scratch. I plan to do the same this summer, and recently whipped up batches of chocolate and Earl Grey.

When evaluating the Cuisinart ice cream maker, I graded it on the PureWow100 scale, taking into account factors like functionality, ease of use, ice cream texture, aesthetics and value for a total score out of 100 points.

The Cuisinart ice cream maker is the epitome of simplicity, and it comes in under $100. It’s durable and reliable, even after years of use. (My aunt, who gave it to me, is an avid cook as well.) While it’s not the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, it’s sleek, fairly compact and easy to store, even in my little New York kitchen. In general, I think ice cream is an incredibly convenient dessert. It requires a little planning ahead, but the actual prep is about 20 minutes, and once made, it has a great shelf life. I never have to panic about it drying out or going soggy in a short time frame. You can make this days, weeks, even months in advance. To all those fancier ice cream machines, you’re beautiful. But I know what’s carrying me through this sticky New York summer.