I've been waiting to get my hands on the ice cream maker of the moment ever since I found out that you can use it to make soft serve in under 30 minutes with no pre-freezing required. The product in question? The Cuisinart Frost Fusion (£299.99 at Amazon), which I took a first look at a few weeks ago.
It's a marked departure from any of the best ice-cream makers I've tested in my time as Ideal Home's Kitchen Appliances Editor, with most, even my beloved Ninja Creami Deluxe, requiring you to prepare ingredients 24 hours in advance.
So once it was finally secured in my kitchen, there was one thing I was desperate to try out first - soft serve! Though excitingly, that's not even scratching the surface of what this machine can do, with five other functions. Here are three things I learned about this machine on my first try.
The are six modes to this machine in total: soft-serve ice cream, refreshing sorbet, icy slushies, smooth frappés, frozen cocktails and wine slushies. And none of them require anything to be prepared in advance.
1. It's seriously fast
I had read the product listing for the Frost Fusion many times, but couldn't quite work out how quickly it could dispense soft serve or slushies. After all, it's no good skipping the pre-freeze if you have to wait hours for your ice-cream to dispense anyway.
The included instruction booklet lays out the facts: most ice-creams and sorbets take 20 to 30 minutes, while slushies and frappes generally take less time, around 20 to 25 minutes. There is a note that higher alcohol content drinks can take more too, around the 30 to 35 minute mark.
That aforementioned booklet also comes with an array of recipes, which I was glad about, as this machine has a built-in compressor, so I wasn't sure how to approach my first batch. It has examples for every function, from slushies to iced coffees.
2. It's super easy to use
As a huge Ninja Slushi fan, getting to grips with this machine was easy as the mechanisms and clean up procedure are very similar.
Once you've picked your recipe out, combine the ingredients and mix them well – no lumps allowed here. Then, open up the spout at the top of the machine and pour the contents in. The opening is quite small, so I'd recommend decanting into a jug if possible.
From there, the control panel is straightforward with an icon for each setting and a 'go/pause' button. On the screen once your mix is up and running, you'll be able to see how firm it currently is. This is a very useful feature on the Ninja Slushi for frozen drinks, but also applies to soft serve.
Once the machine has finished freezing and mixing, it stays cold so that you don't need to dispense the contents all at once. This stay cold feature applies for one hour for ice cream and up to 16 hours for frozen wine, slushies, sorbet and cocktails. So plenty of time to party, if you want to host with this machine.
3. There's a clever attachment
When assembling the machine, there was one extra part that you need to slot into the machine: a star shaped attachment that creates that Mr Whippy effect we all know and love.
This is removable, so when you're dispensing sluhsies or frosé, you'll need to take it out but it's a nifty add-on that shows just how versatile this machine is.
On my first try of this machine I opted for a Simple Vanilla Soft Serve as per the recipe book and used the attachment to dispense my ice-cream.
I think my technique could do with some practice (who knew pulling a soft serve was such a skill?!), but extracting the ice-cream itself is as easy as pulling down on the lever once the machine's display shows that it's at an optimal firmness.
The whole freezing process took around 30 minutes, which I was seriously impressed with. Next up, I'll be diving into the other five functions for my full review so I can give you my star verdict. But so far, I'd have to say I'm mightily impressed.
Can you see this soft serve machine getting use in your kitchen?
