Imagine having the power to create a fresh bowl of your favorite Strawberry and Mango ice cream, made out of fresh strawberries, mangoes and cream; or a delightful chocolate and mint gelato; or even a raspberry sorbet made out of fresh raspberries. Imagine indulging in a huge bowl of ice cream without ever feeling guilty about all the calories that you had just consumed. All this and more is possible with your very own ice cream maker. An ice cream maker makes the perfect gift for any occasion, whether it is for your friend, your officemate, or even yourself.

There are different ice cream makers to choose from, considering how much you are willing to spend on an ice cream maker, what type or model you want, and how long you are willing to wait for your ice cream. When choosing an ice cream maker for yourself or for that lucky person, you have to keep in mind that there are two types of ice cream machines for home use out in the market today. One is the manual type and the other, the electric type.

The manual machine is obviously harder to use compared to the electric type. It is a lot cheaper than the electric ice cream maker, but it requires a whole lot of elbow grease. It consists of two bowls, an inner bowl and an outer bowl, and a hand-cranked mechanism that turns a paddle, which in turn, goes through the ice cream mixture. The difficult part about using the manual ice cream maker is that you have to constantly turn the hand-cranked mechanism in order to achieve your desired ice cream consistency. A mixture of salt and ice contained in between the inner and outer bowls freezes the ice cream mixture. After a short period of time, the ice melts and you end up with salty water that you have to replace with another batch of salt and ice. In short, a manual ice cream machine is time consuming, messy, and not to mention difficult to operate.

If you want to enjoy hassle-free ice cream, the best thing to do, other than buying ice cream from the store, is to get yourself an electric ice cream maker. All you have to do is plug the machine in an outlet, press a few buttons (depending on the model) and in a few minutes, you have delicious ice cream. When you do decide to buy an electric ice cream maker, you have the option of choosing one of three types of electric ice cream makers. One is a counter-top machine, which requires the machine's bowl to be placed in a freezer prior to use. Another, a freezer-unit machine, which is placed inside your refrigerator's freezer as it operates. Lastly, a bigger, more expensive machine that has a built-in freezing mechanism that doesn't require its bowl to be pre-chilled and does not have to be placed in your refrigerator's freezer.

If you can afford it, an electric ice cream maker is the best choice. But if you don't have the luxury of splurging on an electric model, a manual machine works just as well. You'll just have to develop the skills to operate it.