ZOKU Ice Cream Maker, Compact Make and Serve Bowl with Stainless Steel Freezer Core Creates Soft Serve, Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream and More in Minutes, BPA-free, Blue

This along with the recipe book was a gift for a friend. She was delighted.

I'm trying to eat healthier and cut calories but who can resist ice cream during a hot summer. Some people think this is a bit small but it works for me. It IS small so it doesn't take up too much room in the freezer. Mine is always there ready to be used. In addition to portion control, it allows me to experiment with different flavors, combinations and concoctions and not be stuck with a lot of something that doesn't thrill me. Right now I am experimenting with sorbets as well as cottage cheese ice creams (yesterday was peanut butter cup made with peanut powder and a crushed peanut butter cup). Next will be some fruit flavors. It doesn't take long to have a soft-serve ice cream but it can become harder and icier if you eat it at too leisurely a pace.Another use for it is to keep store-bought ice cream cold. Again keeping with portion control, I sometimes buy ice cream pops or bars. They can start to melt in the heat so I rest them in the Zoku. If I break down and buy a container of ice cream, I serve it in the Zoku.The parts of the ice cream maker come apart easily (and assemble easily) for easy cleaning. Just dry it thoroughly before putting it back in the freezer.If you have a Zoku slushy maker (as I do), I think this basically works the same way. It is just shaped differently.

So far, we've had fun with this little bowl. Make sure it's level when you freeze it and mix or blend up the ingredients so they are well chilled when you use the bowl. Beyond the few recipes included, I used simple smoothie recipes which we chilled and then "froze" in the bowl. It's neat to see the ingredients begin to freeze--reminded me of making "zip lock bag ice cream treats" with story time groups at the library.

They need to re-advertise the lack of simplicity of this item. There are a lot of requirements. Particularly freezer space is needed. All your ingredients have to be chilled before. It only shows heavy cream as an option for the milk.Some reviewers said they could make vegan ice cream or use yogurt, but I think they should put their recipe and pictures up. You have to know how to use ingredients well in order to be creative.Probably would have been fun for me. But the person I gifted it to said it was too tedious. Particularly the soft serve part.

I got this for my grandchildren, five and three years old, but they're too young to really stick with it and to understand that you have to keep scraping the sides and bottom. No problem because I can have a nice soft serve in just a matter of minutes and if I keep adding a little of my ice cream mix to the bowl I get enough for them and me as they don't generally eat a lot of sweets so a little is all they really want.I find the mixture really starts hardening up on the sides as soon as you pour it in. I pour in about a quarter cup and immediately start scraping the sides and bottom with a small stainless steel children's spoon and not with the plastic spoon thing that came with it as overall we don’t use plastic items. The spoon hasn’t scratched the surface and works great. Once the ice cream starts to thicken I then add more mixture and go at the sides and bottom again and it all combines and helps the new mixture to freeze up fast. I do this about two to four more times as I usually get a nice soft serve to dish up to the kids right away. Right away is less than ten minutes.I'd read that this won't work with different sweeteners but it works great for me with Pyrue sweetener which is an organic blend of erythritol and stevia and it works with monk fruit powder. I haven't tried sugar as I don't buy sugar. I usually have just plain vanilla ice cream but I've added cocoa for really good chocolate ice cream and cherries for cherry ice cream. It's easy to make up a mixture and to add anything you want once it starts getting a little hard. I haven’t tried a sorbet yet or frozen yogurt.I liked this enough to buy another one even though the kids aren't really into it as young as they are. It's nice to have one in the freezer ready to go while the other one dries. It's also nice to have a stainless steel method to make your homemade ice cream that can match up to many store-bought brands. A little organic cream, organic milk, organic sweetener, a dash of Himalayan salt and a little bit of scraping and mixing and I'm a happy organic grandmother.

It's so frustrating. :( Yesterday I tried it for the first time by pouring in some chocolate flavored almond milk and telling my husband to scrape. After a few minutes he said that there was a 1/4" thick frozen layer that would not be scraped off because it was stuck so fast. The little bit that he was able to scrape off was just like a chocolate slushy - was nothing like ice cream. So this evening I decided to try it with Greek yogurt. I put in some yogurt & a little honey, and immediately the exact same thing happened! About 1/4" thick frozen rock hard layer coats the inside of the bowl and I can't scrape or chip it off for the life of me. And because of that, the remaining liquid isn't able to come into contact with the metal bowl, so it doesn't freeze. Also, the little bit that I was able to chip off had the icy consistently of a slushy, not of ice cream. This thing is making me mad! What am I doing wrong??

I am following a whole food plant based way of eating, and while there are many plant based ice creams on the market, many of them are high in fat/saturated fat that I would prefer to avoid.I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to a large ice cream maker in order to make my own “nice creams.” This is a perfect compromise! I can make a serving for myself and it doesn’t take long to form into a creamy consistency at all.The only slight problem is my son thought it was cool and wanted to use it too. We have a tiny apartment freezer, so we don’t really have room to put multiple bowls in the freezer.I’m enjoying it so far!