Savisto Ice Cream Maker review

Savisto is a newly launched company that specialises in homeware and kitchen accessories, with a focus on modern, innovative cooking and meal prep accessories for style-conscious homeowners. They intend to stand out from the competition by offering quality products at competitive prices. That sounded good to me, so when they asked if we'd like to review something from their range, I popped over for a look and something immediately caught my eye. Over the summer, my mother-in-law regaled us with her sumptuous homemade ice creams - I must ask her for the recipes for her salted caramel, mango and coconut milk versions - so I plumped for an ice cream maker.

I had no idea where to begin with making homemade ice cream, but luckily, the ice cream maker comes with both an instruction guide and a recipe book, containing a multitude of ideas for ice creams and sorbets, but also sauces and toppings. There are some really unusual ideas alongside all the traditional flavours, so you're bound to find something that appeals to you.

The first step is putting the bowl part of the machine in the freezer overnight. It needs to be kept upright but it fits in our freezer drawer with no problem. Check the dimensions though and make sure your freezer isn't fit to bursting with frozen food when you want to use it !

I decided to start off with a very basic recipe for vanilla ice cream - the first one in the book, in fact. This required ... get ready for this ! ... FIVE egg yolks mixed in with some sugar.

The remaining ingredients should be simple - full fat milk and double cream - but I had wrongly assumed that blending the semi skimmed milk, full fat crème fraîche and marscapone that were in the fridge would do the job.

When I heated them together in a pan, rather than creating a thick, creamy base to mix with the eggs, it separated and looked horribly curdled like cottage cheese. A quick look online saved the day - some people said they made "cheat's ice cream" by mixing equal parts of milk and cream with the eggs/sugar, then the vanilla extract, without ever heating it.

I decided to give this a go and retrieved the frozen bowl from the freezer - it would have been nice to have an insulated handle to hold as I carried it back to the kitchen, rather than almost giving myself freezer burn ! The plastic paddle is easy to slot into place - it seemed a bit flimsy but it did the job perfectly - then you clip the motor/paddle unit to the top of the bowl, plug it in and you're good to go.

There are just two buttons - power and reset. It switches on with the timer automatically programmed to 40 minutes but you can press reset then add time by 5 minute increments. Twenty minutes should do it. Apparently over-churning can make your ice cream too hard so don't leave it on for the full forty minutes. There is an opening to allow you to pour in your ice cream mixture.

And that's it ! Leave it to do its stuff, not forgetting to add in any inclusions such as nuts or biscuit pieces, and when you come back twenty minutes later, you'll have ice cream !

Ours had the consistency of Mr Whippy type ice cream and was utterly delicious - really smooth and creamy with a lovely vanilla flavour. If you want a firmer texture, you could put it in the freezer for a while to firm up.

There was no way the kids were going to wait that long though ! There was plenty for five generous bowlfuls and the kids said I definitely had to make more. I can see this will be used a lot so after washing out the bowl, I'll be putting it straight back in the freezer so it's ready and waiting for the next time we want to use it.

Here's a quick video to see it in action. I love the look of the strawberry ice cream - I may have to try that next !

For the price, I think it's a great piece of kit - it is currently £34.99, was £44.95, with free UK delivery, and if you sign up to their newsletter, you are entitled to 20% off your first order. 

star rating : 4.5/5

for more information : www.savisto.com

Disclosure : I received the product in order to write an honest review.