My Dave does like his premium ice cream but it can be very expensive to buy at around £5 for a 500ml tub. Even when it is on offer at half price, it is still very expensive. I decided that we should use some of our Amazon dooyoo vouchers to purchase an ice cream maker so we could have a go at making our own flavours while cutting back a little bit on the cost.

We had a look at a variety of ice cream makers and this one seemed to be the best value for money. It was not the cheapest available but it was the cheapest that appeared to offer an acceptable standard of quality. The RRP for this product is £27.99 and we bought it on offer at £23.81.

When I first received my ice cream maker I was eager to have a try. Unfortunately, I had to wash all of the items and then freeze the bowl overnight before I could attempt my first batch! This is apparently typical of all ice cream makers in this price range (under £200) so it is no individual fault of this specific product. Washing the lid and spatula was very simple and only took two minutes. I was pleased to note that there are very few components to deal with and that this basically comprises of just a lid, removable rotating spatula (churner) and the freezing bowl.

To make my first batch of ice cream I followed one of the recipes included in the instruction booklet, Mint Choc Chip. I found it a little time consuming waiting for the milk and sugar to cool down as this took a few hours. I remedied this for a later batch by replacing the milk and sugar with milk and pre-chilled condensed milk.

Apart from that, this was quick and easy to use once the ingredients and bowl were ready to go. I took the bowl from the freezer, put the lid on with the spatula loaded in ready and pressed the on button. I then proceeded to pour the ice cream mixture into the chute as instructed and went away for fifteen minutes.

After about twenty minutes, the ice cream began freeze. It looked a little like a Mr Whippy going around and at this stage I was able to add the chocolate chips. The ice cream continued to freeze and reached maximum consistency after about half an hour. Note that the ice cream is really very soft and slushy when it comes out of this ice cream maker and that it really needs standing in the freezer for an hour before serving if you prefer your ice cream firm.

Although it was a bit fiddly to get things started, once I got into the habit of washing and re-freezing the bowl after each use, I found it was ready and waiting for me in the freezer whenever I wanted to make some ice cream. Also, if you do not mind eating soft ice cream, you can put the ice cream maker on to make a portion while you get on with the family dinner and it will be ready by the time you are finished.

The quality of the ice cream that this produces is obviously far superior to supermarket soft scoop brands because homemade ice cream recipes call for real ingredients (like double cream). We have not quite mastered the art of reproducing Ben & Jerrys just yet, but I believe that this machine certainly has the capability to do so. We just need to purchase the Ben & Jerry ice cream recipe book first!