Product Description

With the unique Mega Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker, you can make ice cream anywhere! You don't need electricity, just add ice and rock salt in one end and ice cream mix in the other end then have a ball as you shake it, pass it or roll it! The ice cream mix can be as simple as cream, sugar and vanilla. Try flavors from our recipe list included or make up your own. Made of durable polycarbonate, it's lightweight, portable and easy to clean. It's ideal for Camping, Boating, Picnics, Parties, Travel...anywhere!

Product Details

• Size: Quart
• Color: Green
• Brand: UCO
• Model: f-iceq-Green
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds

Features

• NEW!!! Makes TWICE the ice cream of the Original Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker!
• It's ideal for Camping, Boating, Picnics, Parties, Travel...anywhere!
• The ball is approximately 9" in diameter and makes a quart of ice cream in about 30 minutes. It weighs about 3 lbs when empty and 9 lbs when full.
• The ice cream mix can be as simple as cream, sugar and vanilla. Recipes included.

Customer Reviews

Works, but ouch & are we done yet?
A family member bought the large size for a summer get-together. It worked and the ice cream was great, but there are drawbacks. We found we wanted gloves to protect ourselves from the cold of the ball and from the hard edges of its outer structure. The kids (ages 7 & younger) quickly gave up & the adults were left to suffer through it. I suppose pre-teen boys might enjoy it despite the drawbacks.

Pros: Makes homemade ice cream
Keeps the kids busy for a while

Cons: Pain & cold
Kids give up before it's done

Alternative: Cuisinart automatic. Benefit: Let the machine do the work.

I'm not unreasonable, but this sucks.
I'm not unreasonable, but I'm apparently the only one who thought this ice cream ball was crummy. I bought it for my three young children and I to make ice cream, and found it to be a pain. First, the capacity is only 2 cups, which is not a lot. Second, ice cubes from a standard ice cube tray are too large to fit into the opening for the ice and salt. You either have to have a crushed ice ice maker, purchase comercial ice or spend 15 minutes crushing the ice with a meat tenderizer mallet, like I did. I hoped that 5 ice trays of ice would be enough ice, but you need at least twice that much to keep the ball filled for the time required.

The instructions for the ball say that after ten minutes of mixing, to stir the ice cream. Sounds easy, but after you pry the lid off (with a special wrench they include with the ball so the ice cream mix can splatter everywhere) you have less than a 3 inch diameter to stir ice cream which is liquid on the inside core and frozen solid on the metal wall of the chamber six or seven inches deep. But wait, don't use anything metal to chip the rock hard stuff into the liqid stuff! I tried a silicon spatulta, a wooden spoon, and eventually took the silicone head off the first spatula and scraped the sides with the wooden handle wedge. (My neighbor and I both tried making ice cream and stiring every 5 minutes instead, didn't help to hard ice cream mixing very much.)

Of course, you get ice cream dripping down the sides, but the ball has little raised decorative ledges that catch the drips and funnel them into tight angled crevices that you need to use a mashed up paper towel corner, or a sharp knife tip with a dishcloth stretched over it to get out so you don't end up rolling sticky ice cream batter into what ever surface you are playing with the ball on. There are mini chocolate chips stuck in some of those grooves I haven't been able to get out after multiple washings, as well.

If you get this far, the end result is not very creamy or very smooth. We tried rolling, shaking, tossing, in many different combos and still couldn't get smooth textured ice cream. The recipes enclosed that I tried tasted cheap and not like any ice cream I'd pay for twice. I tried my own recipes, but the inability to mix adequately through the small opening into the deep canister made for hard crystal type lumps.

Overall, it may be a fun novelty for children, but it is a pain in the rump to use. You can do the same thing for a lot less with the same 2 cup capacity with a gallon and quart ziplock bag and just squishing it. I wish we had put the thirty bucks towards a hand crank or electric freezer, instead.

Have a Ball!! (and make ice cream)
I received the Ice Cream Ball (in Green) for Mother's Day after I mentioned it would be fun to have when I saw it on the Food Network. Even though it does not make a large amount of ice cream, it makes enough to satisfy one's cravings without going to all the trouble of a normal ice cream maker. You put ice and rock salt in one end and the ice cream mix in the other. I made vanilla the first time. Then my family and I went outside and rolled the ball, tossed it short distances to one another (it is much too heavy with all the ice to throw far,) and generally shook the heck out of it. I did have to drain the melted ice once and refill with more ice and rock salt. After 20-25 minutes I opened the ice cream container and ice cream had been made. It was a little soupy in the middle, but I had to scrape the sides to get the solid portion out. If I would have "played" with the ball a little more all of the mix would have been solid. This method of making home-made ice cream definately would not work for a large number of people or a b-day party. But it works to satisfy a craving for 1-3 people. I guess you could say that you burned enough calories making the ice cream, that you should not feel guilty eating it!!