I tested popular ice cream makers perfect for summer – the winner is just £45 and on offer right now
It must be sweet, but not sickly. Creamy, but not claggy.
My search has taken me far and wide, and the closest I ever got to perfection was on holiday in sun-soaked Sicily, but that's not really an option without winning the lottery.
So I have accepted that if I want the perfect scoop, I must make it myself.
Luckily, there is a vast array of ice-cream makers on the market.
I tested six of them – five of those cost no more than £60, though there was a huge jump to the sixth, which came with a chilling £449 price tag. I've rated them out of five for performance and value.
For my first foray into ice-cream making, I went for strawberry flavour, using the recipe below.
Read on to find out which gadget will make you want to jump on a gondola and belt out 'Just one Cornetto', and which will have you scurrying back to the supermarket freezer section.
500ml, £22.99, Amazon
THIS cute gadget costs little more than four tubs of shop-bought ice cream.
But as with all the cheaper models, you have to pre-freeze the inner ice-cream bowl for at least 12 hours, otherwise you'll end up with a strawberry milkshake.
It was easy to assemble and the mixture turned into ice cream in 15 minutes. But it lacked the airiness of the perfect scoop and had a slightly gritty texture.
Rating: 2/5
TIP: When you remove the ice-cream bowl from the freezer, hold it with a towel, or you'll end up with frozen fingers.
LAKELAND DIGITAL ICE-CREAM MAKER
1.8L, £44.99 (down from £49.99), Lakeland
THIS gadget looks solid – the sort of machine you can rely on to get a job done.
The default setting on the digital screen is 40 minutes and towards the end, I worried it had overdone the churning.
But I needn't have worried, the result was a deliciously creamy scoop that looked gorgeous on a cone, with a lovely silky sheen.
And it tasted as good as it looked, with no trace of that synthetic tang that can spoil some shop-bought ice creams.
Rating: 5/5
MAGIMIX LE GLACIER ICE-CREAM MAKER
1.1L, £60, Argos
THIS is a compact, good-looking machine that does exactly what you ask of it.
It was no slowcoach, either. After just 20 minutes, my ice cream had reached a perfect consistency.
It tasted really good and was that perfect mix of light and creamy, while still achieving an authentic ice-cream texture.
I'd recommend this one if you have limited time, plus the clever 'feed tube' feature on the lid makes adding your ingredients a doddle.
Rating: 4/5
PROCOOK ICE-CREAM MAKER
1.5L, £49, procook.co.uk
AT 1,500ml this machine has a decent capacity, but when I filled the bowl up to the top, it seemed to struggle to build up the texture.
Reducing the amount of the mixture by about a third made all the difference. After 45 minutes, the ice cream looked and tasted lovely.
But it was lighter in texture than some of the others – more along the lines of a soft serve.
If you prefer an ice cream with a little more bite, then this might not be the one for you.
Rating: 3/5
475ml, £29.99, Lakeland
MOST of the ice-cream makers I tested were easy and straightforward to use, but my stress levels started to rise with this machine.
It is quite small and fiddly, and the paddle kept falling off as I was assembling it. To be fair, once it was up and running it was fine, and after 25 minutes the ice cream looked ready.
As with the Procook, this one came out more like a soft serve in texture – too soft for my liking – but you can't argue with the great value for money.
Rating: 2/5
MAGIMIX GELATO EXPERT ICE-CREAM MAKER
2L, £448.79, John Lewis
THIS sleek machine really looks the business – but it's hard to see past that hefty price tag.
With its in-built freezer system, you don't need to bother with putting the bowl in the freezer for 12 hours beforehand.
That is, of course, a huge plus. The cycle lasted 60 minutes, but the finished product was well worth the wait.
You could see instantly that this produced a top-class dessert. The texture was beautifully smooth and, as for the taste, it was like nectar from the gods.
Rating: 4/5
AND THE WINNER IS…
LET'S hear it for the wonderful Lakeland Digital machine.
The Magimix Gelato Expert delivered equally delicious-tasting results, but for sheer value for money at a tenth of the price of that one, Lakeland's brilliant gadget takes the first prize.
It produced ice cream that was divinely creamy as well as light and airy – and gorgeously flavoursome.
One bite and I was instantly transported back to the sunshine of Sicily.
How to make strawberry ice cream
YOU NEED: Standard punnet of fresh strawberries, 200g of sugar, 500ml of cream, 250ml of milk, dash of vanilla essence, dash of lemon juice
METHOD: Depending on your machine, make sure the bowl has been pre-chilled if necessary.
First, crush the strawberries with a fork. Don't be tempted to use a blender, because the ice-cream has a better texture with little pieces of fruit running through it.
Mix in the sugar and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Chuck the mixture into a bowl filled with the cream and milk, add a dash of vanilla essence and lemon juice and put into the fridge.
The mixture will be cold after about half an hour, but I recommend leaving it for an hour or so if possible.
It will thicken up and that will give the ice-cream maker a head start.
For our tests I poured the mixture into each of the six ice-cream makers and pressed the button. It took between 15 minutes to an hour for the machines to do their thing
For me, there were clear winners and losers – all from the same mixture. But to ensure I hadn't been influenced by price or appearance, I conducted a blind taste test.
My husband, Keith, and daughter, Dulci, tasted each of the ice creams and gave their verdict.
And I can tell you the family was unanimous in its findings.
And I can now report – with happiness – I have found a machine that magically transforms a bowl of liquid into heaven-sent ice cream.
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