Scoops of various ice creams.
Things You Had No Idea Your Ice Cream Maker Could Do

NEWS

By KATIE MELYNN

Scoops of frozen berry sorbet.

Frozen Sorbet

To make sorbet in your ice cream maker, churn ice, sugar, and flavorings like chocolate or pureed fruit in the machine. Serve directly or freeze for a firmer result.
Red and blue frozen slushies in two different glasses.

Slushies

To make a slushie, combine fresh fruit or flavorings, sugar, and hot water, and freeze the mix. Then, add water or juice and run the machine on the slushie setting.
Glass of apple cider slushie next to apple slices.
If there's no such setting, use a low speed, adding more liquid to thin the mixture out if needed. Use the frozen drink setting and re-spin it if it freezes to the basin’s sides.
Hand holding strawberry popsicle.

Chill Popsicles

Many ice cream makers have a removable, double-walled, insulated tumbler that you can use as a cooler to keep your store-bought ice creams and popsicles frozen.
Ice cream bars scattered on a dark surface.
You can either freeze the basin to keep the insides cool or simply remove the basin and put your popsicles, ice cream bars, or ice cream sandwiches inside along with ice.
Wedge and pieces of blue cheese.

Cold Dips

To make cold dips for appetizers, add savory ingredients, like buffalo sauce and blue cheese, to your ice cream mixture, and churn using the regular ice cream setting.
Bowl of spinach dip.
If your ice cream maker has a special mix-in setting that slows the paddle when larger pieces are included, use it at the very end after the rest of the mixture is frozen.
Glass of frozen margarita with a salted rim.

Frozen Cocktails

Your ice cream maker can efficiently make frozen cocktails. It can handle both dairy and water or juice-based drinks, be it frozen margaritas or boozy milkshakes.
Glass of frozen gin and tonic.
A machine with a frozen drink setting is ideal, but you can also add more liquid or re-spin the ice cream maker if you want to tweak the consistency of your frozen cocktail.