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Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker
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Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker
1.5 Quart Ice Cream Maker
Model 68120

Reviewed by Simone Bonim

General Overview

The Hamilton Beach 1.5 quart Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker, model 68120 is an automatic ice cream maker. With this machine, you can easily make ice cream, frozen yoghurt, icies, sorbet, and other frozen deserts quickly. This ice cream maker consists of a bowl, lid, motor, drive shave, and mixing paddle (churn). Making ice cream with this machine does not require any salt, ice, or long tedious hours cranking a handle, as with old-fashion ice cream makers.

The 'trick' to the Hamilton Beach Ice Cream Maker is the bowl. This cylindrical shaped bowl is placed in the freezer for about 24 hours (the first time you use it) in order to freeze the fluid trapped in a sleeve that encases the bowl. If you shake the bowl, you can hear the fluid slosh about when it is not frozen. Once the bowl has frozen, you're ready to make ice cream. Simply take the bowl out of the freezer, slide the motor onto the lid, position the drive shaft, and pop on the mixing paddle, then snap the lid onto the top of the bowl, and turn the on/off switch to on to start the paddle turning. This should take you less than a minute. Next, simply pour the ingredients you want to use, into the bowl via a small hole located in the lid, and wait from 20-45 minutes for your frozen treat to mix properly. When done, the frozen treats tend to have a soft consistency. If you want your product harder, simply put in another container and place in the freezer until sufficiently frozen.

Clean up is a snap. The lid, paddle, and drive shaft are all made of plastic and can be quickly washed by hand and the freezing cylinder bowl, which as a non-stick coating, can be easily rinsed or wiped clean. Simply dry the bowl and replace it in the freezer so that it will be ready to use next time you want to make a frozen treat. To help get you started, the Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker comes with a little booklet that explains how to use and care for the machine, and it includes a selection of tempting recipes. Additional recipes are easy to come by, either via regular cookbooks or the Internet.

Evaluation

In writing this review, I put the Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker through its paces. During the evaluation process I used the machine more than 100 times making a variety of items such as Italian Ices, Ice Cream, and Sauces. Some of the recipes I tried where a little more time consuming than other, mostly because they required cooking the ingredients, and then cooling them before mixing.

Price wise, the Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker is in the lower range for automatic ice cream makers. For its price, I was generally pleased with the machine. It is easy and quick to use. The three main problems that I encountered while using the machine were:
  1. Mixing Paddle/Churn not fitting tightly onto the drive shaft after multiple uses. The drive shaft is a small plastic piece. The mixing paddle is coupled to the drive shaft simply by sliding onto it - i.e., the mixing paddle has the female connector and the drive shaft the male connector. After about thirty uses they ceased to fit snugly together and the mixing paddle began to slip up and down during mixing. This problem was easily fixed by wrapping a piece of transparent tape around the male end of the drive shaft, making the connection tight again.

  2. Non-stick coating scratching - the directions that comes with this machine warn that you should only use plastic utensils when removing treats from the bowl in order not to scratch the non-stick coating. This I did religiously, however the coating was repeatedly scratched by the ingredients used in making the various dishes. This happened when milk, cream, or juice froze on the paddle and scrapped the sides as the paddle turned. While the bowl in question now has several noticeable scratches they are not very deep and I've not noticed any problems in regard to how the machine works or added difficulty in cleaning the bowl.

  3. Lid not locking into place. The lid had two small locks that you press to lock the lid in place. You have to line the locks up with raised protuberances on the freezing bowl, and I often found that even after I thought that the lid was locked down - it wasn't. This would result in the lid spinning around, and I'd have to try again. While more of an inconvenience than anything else, I would have liked to have seen the lid easier to lock into place.
Despite these three minor problems, I found the machine to be quite adequate for the use to which it was intended. And, I must warn you, once you get an automatic ice cream maker, whether it is this one or another brand, you'll never want to be without one again.

In addition, if you or someone in your family has food allergies that have kept them from eating store-bought ice cream - are they in for a treat. Making ice cream or other frozen treats at home allows you to maintain control over what goes into the mix. For example, if you are lactose intolerant, you can make ice cream with soy milk. If you are allergic to eggs (an ingredient called for in many ice cream recipes) just leave them out. It may take some trial and error to figure out how best to alter a recipe to compliment your food allergy or other food related medical requirements, but that is half the fun in having one of these machines as even mistakes can be quite tasty!

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