The 10 Best ice-cream makers

2. Kenwood IM200

£24.99, currys.co.uk

This isn't quite as easy to assemble or clean as some machines, but the controls are well-marked and it's simple to use. It also comes with seven great recipes.

3. Buffalo

£129.99, nisbets.co.uk

If you've got a lot of mouths to feed, this machine will come in handy. With a built-in compressor and LED temperature display, there's no need to pre-freeze the bowl.

4. Cuisinart Gelato & Ice Cream Professional

£249.95, johnlewis.com

The compressor system of this machine means there's no need to pre-freeze the bowl, creating 1.5l of ice cream in just 40 minutes.

5. Andrew James

£19.95, andrewjamesworldwide.com

This churns great ice cream quietly in around 18 minutes. And unlike some machines, it deals with berries and alcohol with ease.

6. Sage Smart Scoop

£349.95, johnlewis.com

You'll have to be really serious about ice cream to buy this, but attention to detail is unsurpassed, including a sensor to tell you whether the mixture is the right consistency.

7. Cuisinart Deluxe

£69.99, amazon.co.uk

The bowl, not the paddle, rotates with this, which makes it noisy and a bit slow. But the machine is simple to use and the ice cream is second to none.

8. Lakeland My Kitchen

£39.99, lakeland.co.uk

This machine is quick, quiet and easy to operate. Handy features include the built-in timer, ice-cream scoop and base that doubles as a storage lid for the bowl.

9. Zoku Quick Pop Maker

£41.99, lakeland.co.uk

This piece of design wizardry makes nine ice lollies in minutes. Simply place the drum in the freezer for 10 hours, then insert the lolly sticks and pour in the juice.

10. Magimix Gelato Chef 2200

£259.95, hartsofstur.com

Another machine that's great for large families. As well as being fully automatic (you don't have to freeze the bowl first), it comes with one fixed bowl and a removable one.

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The 10 Best bread makers

2. Cuisinart Bread Maker

With 12 pre-programmed menu options, removable paddle, three crust colours, two loaf sizes, and over 100 recipe combinations in total, you’ve got artisan dough, cake, gluten-free and low carb options - all at the touch of a button.

£149.99, lakeland.co.uk

3. Morphy Richards Daily Loaf

Perfect for small households that don’t need a full-size loaf, this compact machine makes mini loaves just right for one or two people. The measuring equipment is all included, so you just add all your ingredients in the quantities shown, switch it on and you’r e away.

£46.99, amazon.co.uk

4. Kenwood BM450 Rapid Bake Bread Maker

This smart stainless-steel contraption features Kenwood’s patented 58-minute Rapid Bake button. It can make three sizes of loaves, has a choice of 15 programmes, with five personal settings so bread-making pros can decide on their own timings for each stage.

£99.99, johnlewis.com

5. Russell Hobbs 18036 Fast Bake Bread Maker

A great value choice with 12 programmes, from regular white to whole wheat and gluten-free as well. You also get three adjustable crust settings, an add ingredients section, 13-hour delay timer for overnight baking and a super speedy 55-minute fast bake time.

£54.99, argos.co.uk

6. Cookworks Bread Maker

This budget option has all the basics, with the standard 12 programmes taking in white, brown and various permutations thereof, and there’s an overnight timer, too. The maximum bread size is 0.7kg so families might want to choose a larger option, but while its 100-minute fast bake time may not win any races, it certainly does the job.

£39.99, homebase.co.uk

7. Panasonic Stainless-Steel Body Bread Maker

It’s pricier than most, but this machine gives a lot of bang for your buck, with 11 different settings, including those for rye, spelt and gluten-free breads as well as pizza dough. There’s a timer so you can set it to start overnight, and the loaves are good enough to impress serious bakers.

£163.99, amazon.co.uk

8. Shef Premium Bread Maker

If you’re willing to go off piste with your brands, this could be the one for you. Its programmes take in run-of-the-mill loaves to pizza dough, cakes and jams, and it comes with a measuring spoon, cup, kneading blade removal hook and a booklet of 200 recipes to get you started.

£59.99, domu.co.uk

9. Breville Custom Loaf Bread Maker

This heavy-duty stainless-steel number computes temperature and baking time when you choose a bread type and makes four different sizes so is sure to suit all your carbohydrate needs. It features an automatic fruit and nut dispenser and, in addition to a variety of breads, can also make pasta.

£99, chefscatalog.com

10. Morphy Richards White Premium Plus Bread Baker

An ergonomically designed option that boasts a whopping 19 programmes, taking in basic white to cakes and jam. It makes three different sizes of loaf and even has five crust settings from light (for crust haters) to a very dark shade that’s perfect for rye. Just set the 12-hour timer and wake up to that freshly baked aroma.

£129.99, morphyrichards.co.uk

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Whiskey Makers Court Jewish Market

An alternative arrived suddenly in the form of a new one-night event, held on the eve of WhiskyFest. Despite little time to advertise, it drew a crowd of 250 to its unlikely Manhattan location: the West Side Institutional Synagogue.

These whiskey devotees, it turned out, were Jews shut out of the big event because they observe the Sabbath. And to drive home the point of the tasting, its founder, the fledgling Jewish Whisky Company, called it Whisky Jewbilee.

Whiskey has numerous fan bases, but few are more devoted — and arguably less noticed by the press and public — than Jews, particularly observant Jews. Synagogues are increasingly organizing events around whiskey, and whiskey makers are reaching out to the Jewish market.

Retailers have long recognized Jews as valuable customers. “Jewish men are very interested in the selection of whiskey available at a wedding or bar/bat mitzvah,” said Jonathan Goldstein, vice president of Park Avenue Liquor Shop, a Manhattan store known for its whiskey selection. “They very often will pick up a special bottle to offer close friends or relatives.” Of the Friday before the Jewish holiday of Purim, last February, he said, “It was like Christmas in here.”

Part of the spirit’s appeal to many Orthodox Jews is that most whiskey is naturally kosher. In contrast, wine, owing to its long connection to Jewish tradition, must satisfy many regulations to earn a hechsher, the symbol of kosher certification.

But that hasn’t stopped prominent Scotch producers like Glenrothes, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Bowmore and Auchentoshan from courting the Jewish consumer by obtaining official kosher certification for certain bottlings.

Bourbon producers have even less to worry about, because by federal law their spirits must be aged in new casks, rather than in the sherry, port or wine barrels that some whiskey distillers use, and that give some kosher drinkers pause because of their exposure to wine. Yet the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky recently enlisted the help of the Chicago Rabbinical Council in laying down more than 1,000 barrels of three styles of whiskey, all certified kosher and set for release in five or six months.

In a smaller-scale but similar enterprise, the Royal Wine Corporation, a New York producer of kosher wine and grape juice, asked Wesley Henderson two years ago if he would be interested in making a kosher-certified version of his boutique bourbon, Angel’s Envy. “We were looking for a bourbon line in general,” said Shlomo S. Blashka, a wine and spirits educator at Royal, also the New York-area distributor of Angel’s Envy. “The Jewish community is a very big bourbon community.”

Mr. Henderson did not have to be told. “You’d have to be blind not to notice it,” he said. “I thought, if you had a kosher bourbon, that would be a great thing. It seemed a no-brainer.”

For the new whiskey, Angel’s Envy was aged for six months in barrels that had held Kedem kosher port for 20 years. The run sold quickly, Mr. Henderson said, and may become a permanent addition to the bourbon maker’s line.

In 2011, Jason Johnstone-Yellin and two partners founded the Jewish Whisky Company, which has bottled barrels from six Scotch distillers. “We had the opportunity to purchase casks, where not everybody would have that opportunity,” said Mr. Johnstone-Yellin, who was born in Scotland and whose American wife is Jewish.

During a recent trip to the Victoria Whisky Festival in British Columbia, he said, he buttonholed a representative of a well-known international whiskey distillery and asked if it would let the Jewish Whisky Company bottle one of its casks.

“The response was: ‘We’re very protective of our brand. We don’t do that,’ ” said Joshua Hatton, another partner in the business, who also founded a popular blog, Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society — now renamed Jewmalt.

Mr. Johnstone-Yellin, not giving up, gave the man his card and pointed to the word “Jewish.” “This is our market,” he said. “These are our customers and members.”

The man paused, he said, then agreed to talk to them.

The bond with whiskey goes way back. Mr. Blashka said early Jewish immigrants to America, unable to trust the provenance of local wines, turned to certain distilled liquors, including whiskey. “Because the wine was an issue, typically spirits was their avenue for drinking,” he said.

As recent decades have ushered in a revival in Scotch, bourbon and other whiskeys, Jews, like many other groups, have moved beyond the usual blends and have developed more sophisticated tastes. “Now we have many whiskeys that we know are kosher,” said Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham in Brooklyn Heights, whose preferred whiskey is the smoky Laphroaig, a single malt from Islay. “It is used to add to our joy.”

“And it helps attendance at synagogues,” he added.

Whiskey-centered events at temples are a lot more common than they used to be, said Joshua London, a lobbyist for the Zionist Organization of America who regularly writes about whiskey for Jewish publications. For the last three years, Mr. London has been asked by his Orthodox synagogue in Potomac, Md., to pull together bottles for an annual pre-Passover whiskey and barbecue night.

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