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While you can buy an electric ice cream maker that cuts down on effort, a manual model has its benefits. You can take it anywhere - on the patio, camping or to the tailgate party. The Donvier® Ice Cream Maker is a popular model and I was curious to see why. Keep reading to see how my test went.

Product Despcription

• Donvier® Ice Cream Maker sold by Cuisipro®, item #83-7409W
• Manual operation; requires no salt, electricity or ice

• Freezer bowl and paddle do the work
• Patented Chillfast® cylinder, plus a double-walled freezer cylinder holder for extra insulation
• Simply freeze the Chillfast cylinder overnight, add your favorite ingredients and turn the handle occasionally; makes ice cream in about 20 minutes
• Makes 1 quart/1 L of ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt
• Easy to use and clean
• One year limited manufacturer warranty
• Dimensions: 11"x 10-3/4"x 8"
• Find Donvier Recipes; read tips & ideas; read instructions
• Learn more from the manufacturer
• Retails around $60

How the Donvier Ice Cream Maker Performed

July 22nd, 2013
I was pleasantly surprised with the Donvier® ice cream maker. Not only is it easy to use, but it needs no salt or ice, just freeze the insert beforehand. And, it does a pretty good job of turning an ice cream recipe or bought yogurt into soft serve desserts.

I froze the Chillfast insert in the chest freezer because the temperature there is maintained at a lower level for a deeper constant (manual defrost) freeze, compared to the refrigerator freezer.

But note that too low a freezing temperature can make the paddle hard to turn, so you may have to experiment with freezer temperatures.

I'd recommend freezing this part at least overnight or preferably 24 hours ahead of use. If keeping it handy in the refrigerator freezer, lower the freezer temperature slightly. After using this maker, I washed and dried it completely, bagged and returned it to the freezer to store till needed. That way, it's always ready.

Setting up for making ice cream required another look at the illustrations in the product manual to confirm that the rubber ring is applied to the frozen liner before inserting into the plastic housing. The rubber gasket can be fidgety to keep on and sometimes we had to reposition it after the insert was in the machine, but we did get better and quicker the more we used this ice cream maker. The rest of the set up was pretty quick.

With no electricity required, you simply give the handle two or three turns clockwise, every couple of minutes. While an electric model would turn the paddle with no interaction needed, I like the idea of letting the mixture 'set' that few minutes between rotations. That definitely works better than the constant movement of the average electric models. The mixture chills more quickly, in roughly about 20 minutes.

As mentioned in the manual, you can chose to do this occasional turning (it's not hard), while you're preparing dinner so you don't even notice the time and little effort required. I also took it along to my desk and gave it the occasional churn while I was working online. I love the manual aspect; there's no tether and you can take it anywhere with you. You could even give it the occasional turn while watching TV or visiting, since there's no noise.

You can tell when it reaches a frozen serve state - it gets harder to turn, and can eat it then or transfer the ice cream to a container and freeze till required. We especially enjoyed just being able to turn a ready made yogurt into frozen serve in just a few minutes. There are lots of possibilities when it comes to your choice of additives like chopped fruit, flavors, nuts or chocolate chips.

The capacity was excellent for serving four or five desserts - which is what we needed during this test, but a large family might want two of these ice cream makers. That would also allow for some frozen dessert variety. We enjoyed the French Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (page 6) that required a few hours of refrigeration before turning into ice cream and also tried our own creative blends. And frozen yogurt was extremely popular and refreshing.

Overall Impression and Related Resources

I now understand why this manual ice cream maker gets such nice reviews - it works. But it's also very portable - you can take it anywhere with you, and it's user friendly - simple and basic. Since there are no electrics, kids can use it too. And, with proper care to the freezer insert (no metal utensils) and safeguarding other parts, it should last a long time. When it comes to cleaning, that's pretty quick too, plus it's reasonably compact to store.

For those who have never used an ice cream maker, this makes 'soft serve' desserts as do ice cream makers in general. If you like your ice cream firmer, you must freeze the finished dessert for a few minutes or till ready to serve.

What I like about this Donvier® Ice Cream Maker is the fact that when you give it a few minutes between hand cranks, the milk/cream mixture sets better and faster, than when using the average electric model that continuously turns. The hand effort is not difficult; a preteen can turn it. Unlike the traditional hand crank ice cream makers I grew up with that needed rock salt, ice and were difficult to turn, the Chillfast® insert is so much easier to use.

I highly recommend this Donvier® Ice Cream Maker. It was a pleasure to test. But do expect a soft serve consistency - that's typical of ice cream makers. That said, this model made a little firmer soft serve than some electric models I've tested which I believe, is due to the wait time between hand turns. That seems to give the mixture time to partially set before being disturbed again. This is an affordable treat maker everyone can use and enjoy and being able to make preservative-free ice cream and custom blends cheaper at home, is a great treat and dessert option.

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Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.