Ninja Creami recipes pleasy
September 15, 2024 9:36 AM   Subscribe

I was given this year's trendy kitchen appliance: a Ninja Creami! Now what?

The recipes I've found so far usually have ingredients like low-calorie flavored syrups, or artificially sweetened pudding mix, or coffee creamers. That's fine for those who like such things, but I would much rather use plain old sugar.

Is there some website or forum where people are posting Creami recipes that aren't low-fat, low-calorie, and/or non-dairy? Preferably in written form, not videos.
posted by The corpse in the library to Food & Drink (11 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
After getting a Ninja Creami last year, I too was baffled by the way it did not appear to actually be able to make conventional ice cream. Sorbets? Sure. Gelato? Kinda. But conventional ice cream seemed to be entirely outside of its wheelhouse, and after several attempts that ended up icy, grainy or excessively cream-cheesy, in addition to many attempts to track down recipes that were to my liking, I donated it to a local thrift store. I look forward to seeing if others here have better solutions, but you may just be experiencing a limitation of the device.

This was in direct opposition to the Cuisinart ice cream maker we got many years ago. I was able to make such delicious conventional ice cream with it, and so frequently, we had to relegate it to storage out of concerns regarding our excessive full-fat ice cream consumption. One day I will get it out again.
posted by eschatfische at 1:26 PM on September 15


The blade machines don't make churned ice cream, they make iced desserts. I don't have specific recipes (sorry) but...

Try mashed bananas with cocoa powder (and maybe add sugar to taste), freeze black coffee for granita-like dessert, freeze some custard and blade it into gelato ... there's a bunch of things to freeze and shave.
posted by k3ninho at 2:38 PM on September 15


Some kind of milk + fruit. Freeze it into a brick.

Mango + soymilk is my fave. Mandarin oranges + coconut milk. Banana + soymilk + cocoa powder is a good one. You have to experiment to figure out what you like. Luckily it’s pretty low effort.
posted by stoneandstar at 3:16 PM on September 15


Oh, a can or two of pineapple: Dole Whip. Yum.

I think the machine should have come with a recipe book?
posted by stoneandstar at 3:17 PM on September 15


Response by poster: It did come with a book, which I hadn’t noticed until just now — problem sorted! I am still interested in seeing more recipes, though.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:25 PM on September 15 [1 favorite]


Long eGullet thread about the Ninja Creami with lots of personal experiences and recipe recs
posted by Daily Alice at 3:42 PM on September 15 [1 favorite]


Looking at the thread, might be better to start at the end and go backwards, the thread started when it was announced and the first few pages are anticipating its arrival.
posted by Daily Alice at 3:46 PM on September 15 [1 favorite]


Abby in the Galley is a very likeable Instagram Private Chef On A Yacht, who does a lot of "Can it Creami videos". To find them, browse through her reels (especially scroll back to 2023) and look for images of her holding up the Creami cannister. She did use pudding powder a lot- but you could use sugar-sweetened pudding powder!

And here's a written recipe that uses sweetened condensed milk, looks delish.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:35 PM on September 15


Creami is better at making denser styles of ice cream because what it struggles with is achieving overrun. This is because pacojet style ice creams use a pre-frozen custard that is then blended, so little air is mixed in to make it fluffy.

One thing you can do with a creami to get higher overrun is only fill 3/4 to the line in the container with your base custard. Then make as usual, but do a re-spin and add a high-fat cream (Whipping cream, heavy cream, greek yogurt, etc) for the remaining 1/4 or so.

As for recipes... honestly, most standard custard bases work just fine. I usually use David Lebovitz's recipes as a starting point. You really don't need creami specific recipes.

General tips:

- Make sure your sugar is fully dissolved into the custard before freezing. If your ice creams are gritty while having a high fat content this is probably the reason why.

- If you find a recipe melts too quickly then you can add xantham gum or similar to the custard. You can also replace some of the dairy for cream cheese, although too much will give it a softer texture and may make it a cheesecakey.

- Do not sleep on coconut cream as a dairy alternative. Coconut base ice creams made with these are significantly better than store bought. Check the coconut milk/cream and ensure it has a high fat content.

- The creami can make boozy ice cream, which you can't really do with a churner. It will come out more like soft serve/will melt very quickly, but a scoop or two will stick around long enough to eat out of a bowl or glass. You can get away with about 1-2 shots per pint, liqueurs work best. Obviously, blended drinks can also be prepared in advance this way should you like frozen margaritas or similar.

- clean the blender lid immediately. You do not want ice cream melting and getting inside. Also, don't let it sit in water or run through a dishwasher. It's a huge pain to get water out of it.

- You can use the creami for a lot more than ice cream. It's essentially a consumer grade pacojet. Check out the pacojet website for ideas and recipes. Most will work with a creami with minimal adjustments.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:23 PM on September 15 [5 favorites]


Response by poster: The pacojet website is insane and just what I needed, thank you! I made lime and Mexican sour cream ice cream, which turned out to be delicious. I am inspired to attempt smoked salmon ice cream with capers as a mix-in (this will probably never actually happen).

> pacojet style ice creams use a pre-frozen custard that is then blended, so little air is mixed in to make it fluffy

Is that why my batches so far have a sort of dippin' dots texture before I re-mix them?
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:13 AM on October 3


Response by poster: For anyone else looking at the egullet thread Daily Alice linked: the recipes really start on page 15 (there are a few before then but mostly people talking about shopping).
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:19 AM on October 3


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