Ice cream maker help, please?

sollas, Mar 31, 7:52am
What could be wrong if the ice cream doesn't get hard enough? It's a Sunbeam Ice cream maker and the recipe has been followed exactly but the stirrer doesn't go into reverse and keeps churning forever and the consistency doesn't get harder than a runny soft ice texture :-(
TIA

rogergayle, Mar 31, 8:37am
Hi we have same maker and have no probs but I use a recipe I found in a book :
.warm 300ml milk and 300ml cream add dash of vanilla if you like
. in separate bowl mix 1/2 cup of brown sugar to 3 egg yolks
. mix altogether and leave in fridge overnight
. this is your base and you can add anything you want to next put in machine if adding alcohol baileys or rum for rum and raisin I add in final minutes of the machine stirring. Our machine reverses after about 40minsgood luck this recipe always works for us

rosathemad, Mar 31, 9:30am
There are several factors that could be causing this:
- your freezer may not be cold enough. When I first tried making ice-cream I had the same problem. Our freezer was a bit iced up and defrosting helped - if yours is modern and has its own temperature control you can just turn it down. If it doesn't have its own control the fridge control will also change the freezer temperature, so if you can cope with the fridge being a couple of degrees colder turn that down
- make sure that your custard is chilled at least overnight before trying to churn it. Even when it feels cool to the touch it often isn't cold enough
- always freeze the cannister for at least 24 hours before churning
- if after 40 minutes of churning the blade doesn't reverse, scoop the ice-cream into a container and freese. It's likely that it will still freeze up fairly well, but continuing to churn won't do any good. Some recipes are just runnier than others - the blades don't always reverse.

I hope something here helps - we have the same ice-cream maker and use it often. :-) Good luck!

sollas, Mar 31, 6:21pm
Many thanks for your help!