I HAVE made mine with 1% milk (not as good, but..).

Your bowl HAS to be REALLY frozen! I place mine in the upright freezer on the very bottom shelf and it is in there for at least 3 days before I use it. If it isn't really frozen, it isn't worth the trouble.

I don't have any other idea than you bowl isn't really, REALLY frozen.

All the reviews say to throw away the recipes that come with the machine.

I just bought Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream book for mine. All the ice cream "bases" in the book use heavy cream,half and half,condensed milk and whole milk along with eggs in one combination or another.

Other things I've read are the mixture must be very well chilled before you start. Put your ingredients in a separate bowl and chill them in your freezer for 15 minutes or so before pouring into the maker. Everything must be well chilled and the maker bowl solidly frozen. Just like when you whip cream it's best to start with a chilled bowl and beaters.

Did it say you could use half and half? I'm thinking my recipe that came with it specified heavy cream, and half and half is not that heavy.

I tried it with 1/2 and 1/2 the first time, and it didn't work...that plus my bowl was not frozen solid. When I used heavy cream and a frozen bowl, it worked great.

Sue

No I guess I wasn't clear. All those recipes are combinations of those ingredients. For example one uses 2 cups heavy cream AND 2/3 cup half and half.

Pretty sure my recipe book calls for heavy whipping cream---not Half and Half.

I've never had a problem with mine. Did you use lots of rock salt on the outside?I don't do anything special, freeze the bowl the night before and just take the ingredients out of the fridge.

I've used the recipes in my 2-qt. Cuisinart cookbook. It called for milk and heavy cream. I usually mix the ingredients quickly, turn on the machine and just pour the mixture straight into it. No chilling for the mixture and it comes out just perfectly fine every time. However, all my ingredients have been chilled prior to mixing.

Well I just went shopping and bought some heavy cream,eggbeaters and superfine sugar. This first batch of ice cream may end up costing more than the appliance. LOL

i'm not sure which cuisinart you guys got at kohls but i have 2 of the one w/ the cylinder you freeze and it makes 1-2 qts. the cylinder takes a couple days to freeeze in my stand-up and probably alot longer than that in a freezer/fridge combo because of the freeze/thaw cycle. many yrs ago i bought 1 and quickly found w/o 2 cylinders you can not make more than 1 use per week because it takes soooo long to freeze the cylinder. DH found a complete unit at a garage sale just so we could have another cylinder. this model was actually off the market for several yrs, we could not find a new one to buy (we wanted a cylinder) and now i guess it's back....365 days a yr we have atleast 1 cylinder in the stand-up freezer waiting for use.

i do have the ben & jerry's ice cream recipe book, found it long ago at a library sale. we've made some of their recipes which are very good just not worth having to workout extra hours for lol. now we LOVE cookinglight's recipes! their blueberry cheesecake ice cream recipe is to die for, even my DH who is lactose intolerant eats it lol. their website also has a rating system w/ user input on recipes. since my dh can't have dairy he makes his own soy or coconut milk ice creams. ~ liz

Liz, I've noticed something weird with me-I'm lactose intolerant and Lactaid oills don't always help. However if I exercise for an hour , I can get away with having milk or ice cream-not both (one serving of one or the other). I can't imagine why, but wow-what a difference! I don't do it too often though, but it is nice to have something containing milk a couple of times a week.

I "cheat". Junket (the custard company) makes an ice cream mix(powder in a very small box for 88 cents) that you only have to add heavy cream to make basic vanilla ice cream. Add flavorings and/or fruit to it and it makes very, very good ice cream.
I use it in my Cuisinart ice cream maker(about 10 years old).

I store the maker bowls(I have 2) in the freezer all the time, so that I can make ice cream whenever I want.

Freezer bowl must be well FROZEN. One of the first things I did when I arrived at my summer home last week was place the bowl (have the same ice cream maker that was on sale at Kohl's) in the freezer, BUT I had forgotten freezer was turned to low during the off season. My daughter checks the house but doesn't need the freezer. Well after 24 hours I went to make us ice cream; mixing instant chocolate pudding and cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of half and half. Have made this many times it's like a fudgecicle, OOPS! very cold rich chocolate "milk", but I froze the "non ice cream" anyway, did freeze well and tasted great, just not "ice cream". Yesterday with the freezer now turned up and the bowl well frozen I used 1 cup lactose free chocolate milk 1 cup heavy cream and had a very nice soft serve ice cream. Since homemade ice cream made with out alot heavy cream seems to freeze very solid, (something about this type of machine not mixing in a lot of air) I place the ice cream in single serving containers and freeze that way instead of making one large container. There are many recipes on the web for homemade ice cream. If you missplace your booklet from your Crusinart ice cream maker I also found that one on line.

Here is a site for "easy ice creams" haven't tried any yet but will be making one with orange juice today before I drink all the OJ.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade ice cream

I made ice cream just once. I used organic heavy cream because it has a hih fat content. I made tutti fruiti, a one-quart batch, adding pineapple, bana, peaches and cherries. It came out just fine. The secret is the cream, you can't substitute milk or half-n-half.

I wouldn't think it was the fat content in this case. You can even make water-based ices in an ice cream machine. It's just a very cold metal surface that freezes liquid on contact and then scrapes it off, repeatedly, until you get a bowl of frozen whatever. Sure the fat content affects the final texture but usually not it's ability to freeze (unless you used solid fat I guess).

So I think your bowl is not freezing enough. You just need to figure out if it's your bowl or the freezer.

Also keep in mind that I don't believe that when it's done, it will ever be "hard" like ice cream you buy. It's more in a soft serve mode - at least mine is anyway. To get it harder, I put it in the freezer for a few hours.

I'm not big on ice cream but my husband enjoys vanilla bean vanilla ice cream once in awhile so I will make that - but I haven't made any all year and only used it once last year and it's only four years old.

I need to donate it, it's a really *nice* machine that we simply don't use. If I really loved ice cream, it goes without saying I owuld have burned out a motor already *LOL*

When you take the bowl from the freezer, shake it. If it's still "sloshy" it's not ready yet. Tip from my BIL.

i agree w/ paula on the fat content and freezing. we usually only make low-fat ice creams and never have the issue the orig poster has. the machine does not produce ice cream at all hard thou, we always put it in a separate bowl to freeze. some recipes we use do make stiff soft-serve but still for me it's too soft and i freeze it. ~ liz