Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[Anna N]

10 hours ago, mgaretz said:

The real test will be to see how the scoopability is tomorrow.

 Thanks very much for your report. Yes, I think this could be the make or break test. 

[ElsieD]

Great review.  Looking forward to more.  One of the reviews I read complained about how difficult it was to clean.  Did you find this to be the case?

[mgaretz]

8 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Great review.  Looking forward to more.  One of the reviews I read complained about how difficult it was to clean.  Did you find this to be the case?

Not at all.

[rotuts]

Im wondering if the ' general idea '

 

for IceCream etc  to be removed from 

 

the type of container PJ and Nija use 

 

to a ' regular '  non-thermo-chilling ontainer

 

when ' completed '

 

I used to use a manual crank Donvier .

 

if I put the ice cream back in the freezer in that container

 

I think similar to PJ and Nija

 

the ice cream was so hard the next day

 

as almost impossible to remove scoop by scoop.

 

do the instructions ( PJ or Nija )

 

say anything about this ?

 

 

[rotuts]

@mgaretz 

 

""  zero sugar almond milk chocolate ""

 

was the ' failure '  more related to the

 

sub straight  Rx rather than the ' processing ? '

[mgaretz]

The container is just clear plastic, nothing special, but I did remove the contents into other containers.  A note in the manual says that if the ice cream is too hard after being in the freezer you can just re-process in on the original setting and that would be impractical unless you kept it in the original container.

 

I am sure the failure was the substrate and not the unit.

[rotuts]

interesting

 

the processing container is not

 

one of those w ' glycol or what ever '  

 

in the walls ?

[andrewk512]

@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

[mgaretz]

Updates:

 

The peanut butter salted caramel passed the scoopability test with flying colors.  Easy to scoop right out of the freezer with a normal teaspoon.  Still tasted the same, so this recipe works well in the Creami.

 

As I suspected, the almond milk chocolate was a rock hard block of ice.  I didn't even try to scoop or thaw it for eating.  It is now history.  So that recipe is a hard (forgive the pun) fail.

 

The half and half chocolate recipe came out better.  It took two spins on the ice cream cycle, and probably could have used a re-spin or another ice cream cycle.  It tasted much better than the almond milk chocolate.  It has a pretty low sugar content and more fat than they called for, but most normal ice cream recipes have more cream than milk, while their recipes have this reversed.  It showed.  The cream cheese substitute didn't make up for it, nor did it seem to have the stabilizing effect that people surmise is the reason for it in Jeni's and these recipes.  I decided to keep this one in the Creami container so I can re-spin it if it's too hard tomorrow night.  Bottom line is that this was reminiscent of cheap ice cream, not premium and not in the same ballpark as the PBSC.  Since I can't source lactose free heavy cream here in the US, I will have to move on to substitutes.  (Does anyone have any experience with adding lactase drops to cream?)

 

 

 

I also decided to try one of their "one ingredient" desserts, one of which simply uses canned fruit pie filling to make a sorbet.  I decided on cherry (since cherry pie is one of my favorite desserts).  This is not a new idea as I have done a similar thing in the Blendtec.  I did decide to add some almond extract (which enhances the cherry flavor and the alcohol reduces the freezing point) and also my go-to vegetable glycerin.  I will spin and report tomorrow night.

 

[mgaretz]

13 hours ago, jandreas said:

Chrisophe Loeffel has two eBooks for making ice cream and sorbet in a pacojet. 

 

https://www.christopheloeffel.com/all-ebooks

 

 

Do you have them?  Are the recipes any good?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Last weekend amazon delivered a melted pint of McConnell's vanilla*

https://mcconnells.com/

 

Since the ice cream was already ruined, I decided to see how hard it would become at Ninja's recommended temperature of -7F.

 

Hard as a rock.  If the Ninja can process frozen base this hard, I'd say the Ninja has great promise.

 

 

*for which I did not pay.

 

 

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, mgaretz said:

  The cream cheese substitute didn't make up for it, nor did it seem to have the stabilizing effect that people surmise is the reason for it in Jeni's and these recipes. 

 

I don't understand this; if you used a substitute for what's called for in a recipe, and the substitute didn't work, how can you surmise that the real thing doesn't work in recipes calling for the real thing?

[btbyrd]

Kyl Haselbauer of ChefSteps has this to report after some limited testing.

"So far I am a fan of the thing for sure.  The biggest differences I have found so far [between the Ninja and the PacoJet] would be the results when you use whole fruit chunks with syrups or ice cream bases.  It just doesn't have the power to blend them Smooth, But it is still pretty dang good.   I would just recommend throwing everything through a blender before you freeze it.  I highly recommend it for $200.  I'll probably be ordering one to keep at home for sure.  I won't bash any other products directly here,  but it is 10x better than any other brands counter top ice cream machines for way less $$.  Not sure about the build quality and how long it will last, but for now I'm a fan.

[mgaretz]

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I don't understand this; if you used a substitute for what's called for in a recipe, and the substitute didn't work, how can you surmise that the real thing doesn't work in recipes calling for the real thing?

The theory is that it is the added stabilizers in the cream cheese that does the trick. They recommend Philadelphia brand which only has one stabilizer (guar gum if I’m recalling correctly).  The tofutti is loaded with them.  Also, their recipe states that you can substitute a dairy-free cream cheese. 

[Yiannos]

Any interest in me picking one of these things up and doing a complete physical breakdown with pictures? My background is in electronics/mechatronics, I spend most of my days dismantling and rebuilding things (particularly old stereos but new equipment as it comes through too), and I'm really sort of curious to know what the guts of this machine look like. Maybe after a couple of drinks on a Saturday night I might be mentally lubricated enough to click that "add to cart" button...

[rotuts]

@Yiannos 

 

interesting idea.  

 

my guess is that the Ci 's   

 

weakness   might be its motor

 

in relation to durability etc.

 

it might be fine for ' household ' use

 

vs restaurant ,

 

I hope so .

 

looking forward to the  ' canned fruit parfait '

[weinoo]

27 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

Any interest in me picking one of these things up and doing a complete physical breakdown with pictures? My background is in electronics/mechatronics, I spend most of my days dismantling and rebuilding things (particularly old stereos but new equipment as it comes through too), and I'm really sort of curious to know what the guts of this machine look like. Maybe after a couple of drinks on a Saturday night I might be mentally lubricated enough to click that "add to cart" button...

Why wait till Saturday?

[Yiannos]

6 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Why wait till Saturday?

 

Wife: Honey what are you doing it's 10AM on a Friday why is the scotch out?

 

Me: Ice cream.

 

 

[adey73]

Anyone think it would work for the techniques and temps in book 2 of Mod Cuisine… like the cheese powders?

[btbyrd]

Chris Young has committed to doing a YouTube teardown, and they say a video is worth a thousand pictures. But if you just want an idea of what the internals look like, here's a rough indication of what's going on under the hood.

 

[Yiannos]

Thanks man, that's super interesting and helps a lot. I like to do breakdowns because I want to directly see and touch and feel, I want to hold the motor in my hand and measure current draw on the bench. Pictures and videos are worth 1000 words, but there is nothing like that direct contact to really give you an idea of the quality (or lack thereof) in a machine.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Yiannos said:

Any interest in me picking one of these things up and doing a complete physical breakdown with pictures? My

I am always up for somebody taking one for the team but only when it’s a reasonable outlay of moolah Like enough for a package of potato chips or cookies. But I would be fascinated to follow along. 
edited to add: let Chris do his thing and save your money!

Edited September 3, 2021 by Anna N (log)

[MakingBagels]

Inspired by your posts, I picked up the Creami yesterday afternoon (BB&B had it in stock with coupons!) I froze most of a can of pineapple to see what would happen, also made a low calories coconut milk base that I'll try with some cookie dough later today (recipe from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0-RiyKmoOA). Took some pictures after each spin, decided to do a Sorbet run and two re-spins to see what would happen. It was smooth after the first run, but kept getting smoother and tasting slightly less sweet. It's in the freezer again now so we'll see how it scoops later, but it was perfect right out of the machine. I'll have more updates as I try more out!

 

Frozen canned pineapple + juice from the can

 

First spin:

 

Second spin (re-spin #1)

 

Third spin (re-spin #2)

 

 

 

[rotuts]

@MakingBagels 

 

oh no !

 

a coupon !

 

haven't gotten any laterly

 

from BB&B

 

but Im checking closely

 

 

[andrewk512]

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