Ice cream

Two kinds of machine make the ice cream in this category, and only one of them is ready when you are.

A compressor machine, the Smart Scoop pattern, freezes while it churns. You pour in a cold mix and wait. A bowl machine is cheaper and needs its bowl in the freezer overnight, usually longer. A bowl that is only chilly, not solidly frosted, gives you soup.

The mix should be cold before it goes in, fridge-cold, not warm from the stove. A custard that goes in hot melts the bowl's stored cold and never sets. Sugar and alcohol both keep the finished ice cream softer. A mix with a lot of either will not go brick-hard in the machine, and it should not. It firms up in the freezer afterwards.

Do not fill past the max line. The mix grows as air is beaten in, and the extra comes over the rim onto the paddle housing. Switch off and scrape a batch that has climbed, rather than adding more mix to "use up the cream".

The paddle and the bowl want washing before the film of cream dries. A dishwasher claim on the bowl does not always cover the paddle. Read the line for that part.

Waffles to go with it are a different appliance: waffle makers.