Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet Maker

The Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet Maker is the new and improved version of the discontinued Cuisinart ICE-20. This newer ice cream maker features a redesigned paddle that churns the mixture more efficiently and produces ice cream about 25 percent faster than the ICE-20; reviewers who test this claim attest to its accuracy, saying the ICE-21 can whip up 1.5 quarts of creamy ice cream in 15 to 20 minutes. Owners like the easy-pour spout for adding ingredients like fruit and nuts, and a transparent lid lets users easily check on their ice cream's progress. Consumers say the Cuisinart ice cream maker is easy to use and clean, but like all canister-style ice cream makers, the freezer bowls must be frozen before use and don't remain cold long enough to mix more than one batch. However, Cuisinart does sell extra freezer bowls (*Est. $30). If you're planning to mix consecutive batches often, you might want to invest in a self-cooling ice cream machine, such as the Whynter SNO Ice Cream Maker IC-2L (*Est. $235), which can mix batch after batch with no downtime.

Because the Cuisinart ICE-21 is a newer ice cream maker, most of the professional reviews we found include its predecessor, the Cuisinart ICE-20. We did find useful reviews outlining the improvements of the newer model on SeriousEats.com and TheKitchn.com. The Cuisinart ICE-21 has accumulated more than 160 owner-written reviews on Amazon.com, and about three dozen owners post comments to Viewpoints.com.