Before I ever opened its box, the new KitchenAid shaved ice attachment sent me on a real emotional rollercoaster. As I waited for my gadget—an accessory that attaches to the power hub on the front of any KitchenAid stand mixer, a la KitchenAid’s pasta roller or meat grinder—to arrive, I dreamed of all the boozy snow cones I’d make this summer. Limeade and mezcal. Strawberries and limoncello. Whiskey with a basil-mint syrup. I could go on. But when I opened the box, my heart sank a little. There were lots of parts—most notably four dark gray, plastic disk-shaped ice molds with lids. And according to the manual, all the ice must be shaved from pucks made in those molds. That meant I had to fill and freeze them, and that I was still a day away from my first icy treat of the season. Each mold, said the manual, would take 12 to 24 hours to freeze and require 10 minutes to “temper” on the counter. If that sounds like a hassle to you, it sounded like one to me too, but I was determined to give this thing a chance, so I filled the molds with water and waited a while longer.

The ice pucks from the molds fit into one of two ice cup bases that come with the device. One cup has a blade that makes fine, fluffy shaved ice and the other has a blade for slightly coarser pieces (think super-tiny crushed ice for a tiki drink or mint julep). The ice cup latches onto the bottom of the attachment that spins the puck over the blade with the power of the mixer’s motor, shooting shaved ice out of the bottom.

While I was waiting for my first four molds to get good and frozen, I opened up the Summer issue of Bon Appetit and found Epicurious editor Genevieve Yam’s recipe for Milky Shaved Ice With Strawberries. It looked like an excellent addition to this whole shaving project so I popped my par-frozen pucks into a freezer bag, refilled the molds with milk, and kept waiting, thinking I’d make everything at one time. This turned out to be a good bit of shaved ice strategy.

A kamado cookout on a blisteringly-hot Sunday afternoon provided the perfect opportunity to finally test my KitchenAid Shave Ice Attachment so I hooked it up to my mixer, added a tempered ice puck, and turned the speed all the way up to 10. By this point, my excitement about the whole thing had waned, but I was delighted when I saw it in action. It was so fast! The ice was so fluffy! And just one eight-ounce puck made enough for a few kid-size snow cones. I worked my way through the remaining “plain” pucks before moving onto Genevieve’s Milky Shaved Ice recipe (which I even managed to make boozy by topping off with a shot of milk punch).

As I added more pucks and passed more boozy and kid-friendly snow cones around my little patio party, I almost forgot about all of the annoying prep and waiting that went into using the shaved ice maker for the first time. A reserve of ice pucks in the freezer meant no waiting on the day of, and when I eventually did run out of pucks, I added a handful of random freezer ice and that worked, too, though not as quickly as the pucks. So I take back all of my initial eye-rolling about the molds—especially because you can put just about anything in them and stockpile pucks in the freezer. In addition to water and milk, you can freeze juice, coffee (with cream and sugar if you want), tea, and soda. I have yet to try freezing and shaving yogurt, but I bet that would be great, too. And cleanup is easy since the molds and ice cups are dishwasher safe.

Because I’d never used a shaved ice maker before (and not everyone has a KitchenAid stand mixer) I wanted to see how the attachment compared to a more affordable manual shaved ice machine, the Manba Shaved Ice Maker. The Manba made pretty nice shaved ice, too, but it wasn’t quite as fluffy—and it certainly wasn’t as fast or fun to watch as the KitchenAid attachment—so if you already have a KitchenAid stand mixer and want to enjoy fun, icy drinks all summer long, the Shave Ice Attachment is definitely worth the investment.

Now you can make snow cones at home!

No nicks, no problem. Originally Appeared on Glamour

Whatever your needs and budget, you'll soon be whipping up something amazing with these KitchenAid stand mixers. On sale for a limited time.

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