Canister Ice Cream Makers These come with a liquid-coolant-lined bowl that must be frozen before making ice cream; freezing the bowl can take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours.

With my cheaper makers, it will often take over an hour to freeze the ice cream and I’m constantly adding more ice and salt. The instructions with this unit say it should take about 25 minutes from the time you have added the ice and salt.

Delicious Old Fashioned Ice Cream in 20 Minutes! This electric ice cream maker is a delightful appliance that is easy to use.

If the ice cream is not churned fast enough, larger ice crystals can develop, causing the ice cream to become too hard when frozen. The faster it is churned the more air that is whipped into it, which will help it from freezing as hard.

Ingredients And/Or Freezer Bowl Isn’t Chilled Enough Your ice cream may fail to freeze because your mix of ingredients or your freezer bowl are still too warm.

It’s as simple as this: If the freezer bowl that goes with your ice cream maker isn’t cold (like, really cold), your ice cream is never going to freeze. → Follow this tip: In order for the machine to freeze the ice cream as it churns, it needs to be cold — like, totally and completely, rock-hard, ice cold.

Just like sugar (and salt), alcohol reduces the freezing point of water. So if you add one or two tablespoons of vodka (or any other 40% liquor) per quart of mixture, you’ll find your ice cream stays a little softer in the freezer. Vodka is good if you don’t want to affect the flavor of the ice cream.

To help prevent the ice cream from freezing too solid, a little alcohol can be added to the mixture because alcohol does not freeze. This will help keep it from freezing so solid. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of vodka to the mixture just before starting the churning and freezing process.