Overall, our kitchen is well equipped, this is not to say that we collect gadget over gadget over gadget – in fact we’ve been quite conservative with new acquisitions. Shelf space is a limited gift here, so I usually think twice before adding a shiny new toy that in the end may only scrape a living by collecting dusk.
One thing, however, has been missing all this time: a proper ice cream maker with a built-in compressor system. The thought of it was continuously galloping through my kitchen dreams. For the longest time, we’ve been pondering back and forth, if we really needed one and if our ice cream consumption would justify such an investment. We’ve been debating a lot… in fact over a whole year now, until I finally told Oliver I would get an ice cream machine TODAY. Stuck at work, all I got as a reply was a “Can we make our first batch include walnuts…“, which was the kind of response and affirmation I was hoping to get. 24 hours later a shiny new Gaggia Gelateria was making herself comfortable on our kitchen worktop, forcing the KitchenAid to the cheap seats in the back (for the time being).
The hardest part was waiting the required 12 hours before hitting the churn-button, because moving (tilting) it upsets the coolant in its freezing system. On the other hand it gave me ample time to grow my ice-creams-I-must-try-list rapidly. After our first weekend together I can safely say, that our new house mate isn’t only a very quiet gal – an ice cream machine with the name Gelateria has to be a she – but does prepare the most delicious desserts, too! She’s a keeper. To put her full potential to the test and thus to good use, we decided to dedicate this week to ice creams and sorbets only – ie. we will present our top 3 favorite frosty creations over the course of the next few days – stay tuned!
Jul 11th,
2007
ah, well done you! i couldn't quite bring myself to take that step and opted for a cheap kenwood. and sure enough, i have only made icecream three times in as many months, so i am in a dilemma now: is is because the machine is not good enough or would it just have been foolish to buy a good piece of equipment? not sure. but i am now certain i will try out yours when we meet in a few weeks' time and maybe my kenwood will end up in the kitchen gadget graveyard ;-)