I don’t normally ask to do reviews; it’s normally the other way around. Buy, hey, who doesn’t like ice cream? Indeed, talking to a buyer from a major retailer recently, the hottest items currently are ice cream makers and slushy machines. The Tefal Dolci Rise Ice Cream Maker does what its name suggests, plus slushies and so much more.
As well as ice cream, Tefal’s $349.95 home appliance makes sorbet, frozen yogurt and slushy drinks. It doesn’t have built-in refrigeration, however. Instead, you prepare your treat, place it in one of the provided tubs, and store it in your home freezer for more than 24 hours.
The unit needs some room, measuring 18 x 31 x 39 cm and weighing 7 kg. It comes with three tubs, each with a lid and a heavy-duty plastic ice cream spoon.
As this is a brand-new product, there are not many recipes available online. However, Tefal provides 50 recipes to get you started, either on their website or in a downloadable PDF.
What can the Tefal Dolci Rise make?
Expanding on the above, Tefal’s machine has five key functions:
- Scoopable programs for ice cream, sorbet, gelato, frozen yogurt and light ice cream (if there really is such a thing). Here, all your ingredients are frozen, and the Dolci Rise churns the mixture ready for serving or refreezing.
- Drinkable programs for slushies, frappés, cocktails, and milkshakes. All but one liquid ingredient is frozen, with the last liquid added just before the churn to enable the result to be drinkable.
- Rinsing cleans the container once empty, using water to rinse all parts.
- Mix-in is for adding a last-minute ingredient to your preparation, like chocolate chips or nuts.
- Re-spin is used to ensure your treat has the right texture. Those treats low in sugar will behave differently in the process and require extra churning.
Using the machine is a pleasure, and its simplicity or complexity depends on the recipe you use. A cola slushy requires sugar to be added to the cola and then frozen. Complicated ice cream recipes often involve boiling milk to make custard, which requires multiple steps before freezing. The actual churning in the machine will happen in less than four minutes before serving. Note that the process is quite loud.
The cola slushy tastes just like a bought one, and the frozen piña coladas are magnificent. If only there were a faster way to freeze them so you could make a second or more. The promotional Nesquick milkshake mix takes me back to my childhood and is a tasty way to make ice cream. Lemon sorbet was great and delicious to me, but tart to my wife.
So far, we have tried five of the 50 suggested recipes — only 45 to go! This testing job is terrible, but someone has to do it. Frozen Yoghurt is on the menu tonight. We have found that those recipes with a lot of sugar work best. We made the raspberry and agave syrup sorbet, and the texture was a bit grainy, but that’s the compromise when you want something healthy — it still tasted great.
Following instructions
The instruction book is somewhat difficult to follow due to its numerous illustrations. For example, nowhere does it say how much water you should put in the tub to run the cleaning cycle. I also found that, in addition to wiping down the shaft inside the machine after use, you also need to wipe the inside of the enclosure, as I found some spilled milk, so to speak.
In the freezing tips, Tefal suggest freezing for at least 24 hours, but not to leave it longer than 24 hours. After Tefal provided some clarification, I believe they mean that once the mixture has frozen solid, it is best to use the mixture within the next 24 hours.
The negative aspect of the Dolci Rise is that each tub has a capacity of only 450ml, and there are only three tubs. The positive is that it does limit my intake slightly. The possibilities are an addiction!
Hopefully, Tefal will add an option to buy extra tubs so you can pre-make and store more treats in the freezer, ready to churn for consumption. To give you perspective, each tub will provide approximately two serves. For example, two serves of Pina Colada or two serves of ice cream, etc.
The Tefal Dolci Rise Ice Cream Maker is available in Australia now for an RRP of $349.95. It comes in either black or white, with three flavours of Nesquick to get your ice cream treats started.
You can also find it cheaper during promotional periods, like $239 via Tefal’s website during the recent Black Friday sales.
