andrewk512

Fennel oil. Color is more vibrant in real life. There was a bit left on the walls but not much. I would've liked a darker green but partly my fault as I didn't fully pack in the fronds and I used some other bits from my end of the season plant. We'll see how it looks and tastes when it thaws

400g cooked peach puree [90% of pre-cook weight], 64g dextrose, 34g sucrose, 1.5g cremodan 64, malic & citric acid to taste. Needs to be frozen to -26C though. I am in the process of reworking all my recipes to be able to process out of a -18C freezer, will post when done. I actually wonder if the prior comments about it not effectively pureeing everything were from products that weren't frozen cold enough. Watching my machine a lot it seems the warmer the product gets the less effective the blending is. I think maybe freezing to -20C or -22C everything might blend in nicely. Or maybe that's me trying to convince myself that I need to buy a deep freezer.... was looking at them all last night (and dipping cabinets but I'm hearing these aren't good for long term storage) I wasn't able to process my fennel oil yet. I woke up this morning and the oil had gone below the level of the fennel so I had to top it up. It's not frozen enough yet

Just tried it with these 2 sorbets so far but I think I will be using it for all ice creams too. Eventually I'd like to test the differences since the only thing the manual says is that the sorbet button spins faster/longer than ice cream but I'll probably need more containers first

https://www.facebook.com/groups/366957831711451 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1228781500908535 Someone on FB also called QVC and confirmed that the 1000watts was an error, only thing different is the color I did two sorbets today - a prickly pear sorbet and a new watermelon recipe. I am pretty happy with how these turned out and I think I am getting the hang of the machine. Processed at -16c and came out at ~-11c. I left them in the freezer for a bit to reharden to -16C. Ideally I'd process colder but I think I was opening my freezer too much. They were still nice and soft despite ideal serving temp being calculated to -12C. There is a small amount of ice crystals but overall I'm very satisfied considering these are both very high water low solids ingredients. Much better than my freezer bowl machine and much easier; not as good as my peach sorbet I did on the initial run though. I am going to purchase some inulin and start experimenting to see if I can get an even denser creamier texture with watery fruit sorbets. Oh also I am processing with the sorbet button now. I realized the manual suggests this has a much faster blade RPM and longer process time. I now have 4 sorbets in my freezer and an ice cream so I think this is the part where I start eating things before making any more.

Haven't seen any mention of it on twitter, I think his original post about evaluating the machine was Aug 1 I am going to do my first savory test on the machine in 24hrs. Fennel oil - roughly equal parts fennel and canola oil, the fennel was blanched first. Into the freezer it goes. I see this being beneficial over a blender because you could easier process a small volume like 250ml

Good point. They are listing the machine as 5lbs heavier too although I wouldn't be surprised if all the packaging weighed that much

https://www.qvc.com/Ninja-Foodi-Creami-Frozen-Treat-Maker-with-Extra-Pint-Ice-Cream-Bowls.product.K55255.html?sc=SRCH Looks like we bought too early - 1000W version for sale with 5 containers at the ?same price (current machine is 800W). They don't sell to Canada though, returning my current machine internationally and coordinating cross border shipping seems too onerous. I'm gonna wait this out... will upgrade later in winter if reviews show its worth it and then I'll sell my current machine locally or give it to my mom

Interestingly it notes 5 but lists 6

There is an unreleased cheaper model that doesn't have gelato or smoothie bowl functions. I am still trying to figure out what exactly all the different buttons do

Low res photo but I did a passion fruit sorbet and another white chocolate snow in the Creami today, based on standard freezer temps, snow from Under Pressure, sorbet from EMP. Texture of both was perfect. Served with a basil lime gel and braised pineapple

buy itttttttttttt

Re-ran at -26C Perfect white chocolate snow. Preprocess -26C. Post process -13C. This thing melts incredibly fast. Use the original recipe and you should be able to do it in a very cold home freezer, or deep freezer ideal. Work quickly. This really shows that we can replicate pacojet recipes though. This is a -18C serving temp watermelon sorbet I did. Preprocess -26c, postprocess -18c. I've never made it so I have no reference standard. It was a bit more icy than my other products, but watermelon is a hard ingredient to sorbet. At the request of a facebook friend I did it with no stabilizer. 397g watermelon, 90g dextrose, 30g sugar, citric and malic acid to taste. 1/2 tsp of powdered gelatin (hydrated in the usual fashion) And finally I re-ran a failed Grapefruit Hops recipe (tried it in liquid nitro last week). I had about 200ml to run. It processed from -26c to -16c. The smaller volumes warm more with processing, unsurprising. It had similar iciness but grapefruit has similar recipe based setbacks to watermelon. Take aways: 1) Snows are possible 2) I have to return to standard recipes and not recipes with ridiculous freezing depressions 3) As good as it is it still cannot work magic. However, I think by using ingredients with lower freezing depression I will accomplish a smoother texture. The Ninja seems to have a sweet point - too watery and its not strong enough to blend, too solid and it makes snow. I suspect this sweet point will be more optimal at a warmer temp than my very cold processing temps just due to the efficiency of the machine 4) I think my watermelon and grapefruit recipes are not good representative recipes if considering to purchase the machine, they were very experimental, made by fooling around in the Ice Cream Calculator

Today's experiments: 1) Watermelon sorbet with ideal serving temp -18C, no stabilizer (request from a FB group I am in). Freezer temp -16C, post processing temp -12C. Complete failure, chunky, unable to reprocess cause it is too soft. 2) Grapefruit sorbet with ideal serving temp -18C, this was a failed experiment from leftover liquid nitro I had last week (volume too small to freeze properly and incorporate enough air). Freezer temp -16C, post processing temp -12C. An even looser textured failure (probably cause it was stabilized) 3) Half recipe Under Pressure's White Chocolate Snow with ideal serving temp adjusted to -6C (I was scared to overstress the machine by processing a "snow"). Initial temp -12C. Post-process temp -4C. Too smooth to be snow. All are going into the blast chiller to ideally get them to -26C to re-attempt processing. I think the problem is the freezing point depression of my typical recipes is TOO high, usually people have the other problem. I will need to try more conventional recipes with more standard ideal serving temps. Hopefully the snow works on time because I am having some friends over for dinner tomorrow - I am wanting to serve white chocolate snow with passionfruit sorbet (will use EMP's standard recipe after today's lessons).

Love it - really makes me reflect when, despite all our tinkering, recipes, and intervention to make the best food, we can just throw a can in a machine and make a great product

I have not had to try the re-process button yet. I would test it but I think it would actually melt a bunch of these ice creams I did the Philadelphia style vanilla just now. This one sat in my conventional freezer overnight. There was actually no hardening on the walls. I think maybe the hardening on the walls might have been cause the exterior of my blast-chilled containers was too cold for the machine to process. It was also quieter today than when processing my blast chilled containers last night I actually do not mind the noise it's just that I live in a poorly insulated townhome and don't want my neighbours to wonder why im running power tools inside all day every day Dana Cree's HMNIIC Philadelphia base with vanilla & cremodan 30. Her recipes have incorrect conversion between the grams and cups measurements. My gf made this base so she used the cups measurements cause she hates weighing things... Pre process temp -18C. Post-process -10C. There was a faint hint of ice crystals right at the end if i grinded my teeth, very subtle. The overall texture was very dense and creamy. I personally prefer ice cream a little harder than this, but that could've also been impacted by the hot spoon I used to quenelle. Maybe the Pacojet recommendations for prefreezing to -22C is the way to go. Ideally I would blast chill this now to stop further ice crystal formation but I will see how it does cooling back to -18C in my regular freezer. Oh also for this one I pressed the Gelato button, hoping for a denser product as recommended. I unfortunately have no reference of comparison to comment on any differences

Wow, I am super impressed with this machine! I processed the lychee and peach base this evening. I was targeting a frozen temp of around -15C in my blast chiller but because I wasn't paying attention I ended up pulling the peach at -26C and the lychee at -19C (temp difference cause the lychee was started at room temp) The machine is extremely loud, louder than a vitamix on max. It has two steps to the processing, first, for what felt like 2 minutes, the blade shaves each layer of the frozen product. After completion it more slowly climbs back to the top, I suspect to aid in emulsifying everything and helping it cream up. My peach sorbet went from -26C to -20C after processing. It is designed to be served around -18C so this worked well It was incredibly smooth after just one process. There was actually no perceptible ice crystals. This far surpasses my cheap cuisinart ice-30. I am incredibly happy with the final product. I have no doubt it will be fine in my -18C freezer considering the texture at -20C. Now, for the tinned lychees. The lychees had 15.7 brix. I preblended but did not pass through a fine mesh strainer. They were processed at -19C and came out at -12C after a single process, which was a good serving temp considering the composition. The texture was very smooth but there was a few small perceptible ice crystals, comparable to what I get when I make sorbets in Cuisinart Ice 30. I suspect it might harden up a bit once it chills in my home freezer to -18C. Overall, it is very passable, I would serve this to anyone anywhere. The only downsides of the machine are: 1) Very loud, I might have to put it in the garage 2) The walls and base of the pint containers are not processed, you have to avoid them when scooping out so that you do not get ice. There is about a 2mm wall of ice around the whole thing. Considering the price of this machine compared to a pacojet I have 0 complaints. 3) There is a good bit of air incorporated into the base, probably about 20%, some may like this, some may not. There are a few pockets of air so depending on how refined you want your serving presentation to be you may want to push everything down a bit first so there's no holes in your scoops I think this machine has serious potential to take over the home ice cream market Finally, I have no idea what the difference between the ice cream, sorbet, and gelato buttons is. Can anyone help me with this? I processed the peach on ice cream and lychee on sorbet, sorbet might have been a bit faster blade spinning? I would have to do a side by side of the same flavor to actually figure it out

My Ninja Creami finally arrived, after being sent to the wrong location twice! First thoughts: larger than expected, but not too heavy. The blade is oddly loose, although the packing says this is standard. I am actually going to set it up in my basement, where I run my auxiliary cooking equipment, after this first round of testing. It is just a little taller than a standard vitamix container I believe. Bases freezing in the Vesta Frysta blast chiller cause I'm impatient. Left: Dana Cree's phildelphia ice cream base, with vanilla, using cremodan 30 to stabilize; Middle: a tin of lychee, pureed and added a bit of rose water and cremodan 64; Right: the peach sorbet recipe I described in my earlier posts

Not too familiar with that area, sorry. I don't actually live in the GTA just used to have to go there a lot to get ingredients. Gusta is the only place I know in Markham but it's Boiron

There is Goya passion fruit puree at many Nations in the GTA as well as the Yuan Ming supermarket in Mississauga and America Latina in kitchener. Qualifirst and Gusta sell boiron puree

Sorry, you are right. I meant that you cannot spin only a portion of the container, like the Pacojet which will let you spin 1/4th of it at a time etc.

Correct, Ninja won't do partial portions

You don't have to wait or re-freeze. The respin button is primarily designed to mix in solid chunks after the churned texture is achieved. There is some lighter blending action but since it isn't the same intensity it can't be used on the solid frozen product. You can press it right after spinning. I suspect that its function in making things creamier is primarily by warming up the ice cream

My original expected arrival date of Sept 7, which got updated to an expected arrival date of today, is still several thousand kilometers away. The Ninja Creami is listed on the BBB Canada site now though but they have none in person for me to pick up. I had a lot of peaches leftover in my fridge so I mixed up some sorbet base to be ready to go when it arrives - (400g cooked peach puree [90% of pre-cook weight], 64g dextrose, 34g sucrose, 1.5g cremodan 64, malic & citric acid to taste). Also have a can of lychees in syrup lying around so I'm thinking I'll try that too. @Yiannos - a teardown would be nice if you are interested in the product. I feel like the Chefsteps & Dave Arnold collaboration could be a few months away

@mgaretzYour peanut butter salted caramel looks wonderful and very smooth. Thanks for posting! Your other one might be crumbly because you do not have enough freezing point depression. I suspect the re-spin in part helps because it warms up the mixture. There might be some substance on the sides because the re-spin function is not actually a repeat of the spinning process (manual says you cannot use the "re-spin" button on a fully frozen product). I think letting it thaw ever so slightly in the fridge, or lowering freezer temp (not ideal) might help with this as well if you did not want to change your recipe up. My Ninja had it's shipment updated and arrives tomorrow - I am more and more convinced this is going to be awesome @rotuts there is no antifreeze chemical in the walls of the processing container, the ice cream maintains a cold temp solely by being pre-frozen

Tuna ice cream for the first test? 😛