Cuisinart ice cream maker: The more expensive option

If you want to buy a more sophisticated model of ice cream maker that does not require pre-freezing any bowls, you can check out this Cuisinart ice cream maker (Model ICE50 BC). Basically, it has its own compressor: Plug it in and it should be ready to start freezing some ice cream.

This particular model retails for S$599. It is available at Sia Huat at 7 Temple Street Singapore 058558.

Not exactly a steal, but not that pricey either, considering that it is Cuisinart after all. But I doubt you can find a better price at other retail outlets.

Just stick to whipping cream when making ice cream

There are plenty of brands of whipping cream available in the market in Singapore. You can basically stick to Greenfields and you won't go wrong. It is reasonably priced (at about $9 a pack), makes pretty darn good ice cream and pretty much readily available at any good supermarket.

However, a 1-litre pack might be too much of a good thing. Alternatively, you can stick to Emborg whipping cream. They come in nifty 200ml packs so you probably won't have too much wastage. Price-wise it is slightly steeper, at about $3.50 per 200ml pack.

What kind of full cream milk should I use?

There are many different brands of full cream milk available on the market, but the ones I favour are these two: Greenfields Full Cream Milk and Marigold Full Cream Milk.

Both are relatively cheap (less than S$2 per litre) but they are not the cheapest around. I get them because they deliver taste-wise.

I do not recommend substituting full cream milk with low-fat or skim milk. You need the butterfat from full cream milk to make ice cream. Low-fat or skim milk will deliver icy, grainy ice cream at best.

Generally, full cream milk has about 3 g to 3.5 g of fat in every 100 ml.

And if your brain is telling you that this is too much fat, here is a little nugget of information to put things in perspective:

Look, if you want to eat ice cream, it has got to have fat in it, ok? If you want to have something with less fat, you can try gelato or sorbet. The trade off is that gelato and sorbet can have more sugar in them as compared to ice cream. Pick your own poison!

To find out about butterfat, you can read this. To find out what makes ice cream, well, ice cream, you can read this.