Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, tikidoc said:

I joined a group on Facebook for fans of the Creami. There appears to be a fairly large number of people who follow low carb diets (including quite a few who have had bariatric surgery), and a favorite base for ice creams is the Fairlife brand protein shakes. My store was out of Fairlife initially, so I tried the Premier vanilla flavor - my husband likes it as ice cream when I add other flavoring (like enough some black raspberry and peach preserves that we made earlier in the summer), but I think it’s kinda nasty. Then I stumbled on some Fairlife, and they are quite good. None of the strange aftertaste that most protein drinks have. The vanilla is quite neutral, so makes a good base for fruit ice creams, coffee, etc.

 

My current favorite is a bottle of the chocolate Fairlife, a couple big spoonfuls of good cocoa, 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum, and about a TB of instant espresso powder. It’s not overly sweet, and the flavor is very much dark chocolate. I usually have to do a re-spin, and I generally add a few TB of almond milk. Is it as luxurious as a lot of the ice creams I see posted here? No, but it’s still pretty darn yummy, and I can have a bowl of it several nights a week without any guilt. The whole pint has 26-30 grams of protein, no sugar and under 200 calories.

 

Which group?  I joined one when I first got my Creami and then quit the group because the same questions were asked over and over again.  Maybe yours is a better one?

[tikidoc]

11 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

Which group?  I joined one when I first got my Creami and then quit the group because the same questions were asked over and over again.  Maybe yours is a better one?

Ninja Creami Community.

 

There IS a lot of repetition. That said, I don’t think I would have ever considered buying protein drinks to make ice cream, or specifically tried Fairlife, which, in my opinion, is dramatically better than other brands. I would say that now, probably 90% of what I make in the Creami is either all or almost all fruit, or based on a Fairlife drink, because I can enjoy them without guilt. I’ve lost a little over 30# this year (and want to lose a bit more), and this allows me to eat things that feel like cheating but aren’t. 

 

For example, I used fresh figs from the garden, a vanilla Fairlife, a splash of balsamic for acid, a pinch of xanthan gum, and a smallish chunk of chèvre, blended then frozen, and it was delicious. The kids hated it (“that’s so wrong!!!”), and I didn’t even offer it to DH because he is not a fan of goat cheese or figs. I’m sure it would have been even better with cream or half and half, but it still tasted pretty indulgent, and the only “cheat”, if you can even call it that, was a little goat cheese.

 

I would say that I use this thread on eGullet more for inspiration for flavor combinations, then adapt them to try to keep them healthier using tips I picked up on the FB group. 

 

The other thing that the FB group has been helpful for is finding sources for extra pints (Kohl’s!!).

Edited September 4, 2022 by tikidoc (log)

[DianaB]

On 8/28/2022 at 4:09 PM, blue_dolphin said:

Two spins yesterday.  

Mint-Basil Chip Ice Cream

It was not my original intent but I added a little food color to this because the deeply colored yolks from my farmers market eggs made the mix noticeably yellow.  White mint ice cream, I can get behind.  Yellow?  Not so appealing to me.  I prepped the mix-in chocolate (a dark chocolate mint bar from Aldi) per the instructions in Hello, My Name is Ice Cream: melt with a bit of coconut oil & salt, pour out into a sheet, freeze, chop and keep frozen 'til use. Nice melting mouthfeel to the chocolate and the basil adds complexity to the flavor of the ice cream. I want to compare this to the fresh mint ice cream from HMNIIC but I'm not sure if there will be any of this left by the time I get around to it. 

 

Pink grapefruit & Campari sorbet with a slice of candied pink grapefruit rind:

I used fresh grapefruit from the farmers market and used a pestle to bash the grated zest in with the sugar to release more flavor. This seems to be a popular sorbet combo here and for good reason.  Kinda like a dessert and after dinner cocktail in one!

 

Both ice creams look amazing!  I transformed a mint choc chip already made with a freeze the bowl machine using the NC, the texture was beautiful but of course we lost the texture of the choc chips having already incorporated them into the mix when it was frozen the first time.  With hindsight I should have sieved the melted sorbet and then re-incorporated the chips as a mix-in.

 

One question - how much Campari did you use with your grapefruit?  Are you able to share the recipe?  One of our first efforts was based upon a tin of grapefruit segments, that was good but I would like to try with fresh fruit.

 

So impressed with your serving and the accompaniments!  

[blue_dolphin]

4 hours ago, DianaB said:

One question - how much Campari did you use with your grapefruit?  Are you able to share the recipe?  One of our first efforts was based upon a tin of grapefruit segments, that was good but I would like to try with fresh fruit.

I used 1 Tablespoon Campari for 1 Creami container

 

For the grapefruit sorbet, I roughly halved a recipe in Deborah Madison's book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. 

 

Bash together with a mortar & pestle:

Microplaned zest from 1 grapefruit

75g granulated cane sugar 

I also added 1/8 teaspoon Modernist Pantry's Perfect Sorbet cellulose gum stuff, not called for in the original recipe.  Probably not necessary.

 

Juice enough grapefruits to yield ~ 375 ml juice

 

Put the sugar mixture into a small saucepan, add a little of the juice (~ 60 ml), warm to dissolve all the sugar and strain the syrup into the rest of the juice.  

The recipe calls for adding the juice of half a lemon.  I used about a tablespoon, plus 1 tablespoon Campari

Freeze and spin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jedovaty]

I'm still trying to get the oatmilk base down, getting close.

Meantime, I don't think I like the mix-in button/feature, or I'm expecting too much non-uniformity.  Anything gets turned into crumbs or fully incorporated and completely uniform.  Oreo cookies are obliterated such that it's just base with cookie crumbs and every spoon has the exact same amount of cookie ctumbs.  Peanut butter chunks are fully smoothed out into the mix so it turns into pb ice cream.  I want chunks and random dispersement.  Better to mix by hand then? 

Edited September 11, 2022 by jedovaty (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I’ve only used the mix-in function a few times and haven’t tried any that could very readily be reduced to crumbs.  I tend to agree they might be best mixed in by hand.
Diced candied ginger and Amarena cherries were fairly evenly dispersed. 
Chopped chocolate (that I prepared per Hello, My Name is Ice Cream) yielded some very small bits and some bigger chunks, fairly evenly dispersed. That was my desired result. See photo I posted above on August 30. 
I mixed in a swirl of lemon curd by hand as I assumed it would get completely blended. 

[andrewk512]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:54 AM, jedovaty said:

I'm still trying to get the oatmilk base down, getting close.

Meantime, I don't think I like the mix-in button/feature, or I'm expecting too much non-uniformity.  Anything gets turned into crumbs or fully incorporated and completely uniform.  Oreo cookies are obliterated such that it's just base with cookie crumbs and every spoon has the exact same amount of cookie ctumbs.  Peanut butter chunks are fully smoothed out into the mix so it turns into pb ice cream.  I want chunks and random dispersement.  Better to mix by hand then? 

 

I tried to mix in a rose gel which was a huge mistake because I ended up with it all blended into the ice cream and then the sweetness was too high (because I left the gel really sugary to keep it soft when frozen). Haven't tried any other mix ins yet. I think by hand might be better

[andrewk512]

I am working on a savory tomato sorbet, this is my second attempt. I have a lot of extra tomatoes in the garden to try a few things out. First attempt was too sweet, I had targeted around 13% sweetness because I was trying to get enough solids in for a creamy result. Another fail for the high solids ice creams, they make it too bland. This attempt goes to about 9% sweetness, using more inulin to make up for the lack of sugar. Texture was acceptable, but still a touch too sweet. I will take a look at Paul's strawberry sorbet recipe for more guidance on bringing the sweetness down further while maintaining adequate freezing point depression.

 

500g pureed and strained cherry tomatoes

21g inulin

30g dextrose

20g glucose syrup

[cdh]

Further update on my rhubarb experiments.  Have had further success in making excellent textured ice cream/sorbet using rhubarb and no other texture modifiers/stabilisers.  I made a pint of rhubarb base by bringing a pound of rhubarb, a cup of sugar and enough water to cover it to a boil, then turning off the heat.  Once that was cooled it was split evenly between 2 Creami pints. 

 

Pint 1 was topped up with canned peaches and a little bit of the syrup they came packed in.  This was frozen as is with chunks and peach slices. 

 

Pint 2 was topped up with strawberry kefir that had some heavy cream poured into it a few days prior, so fermented half and half, in essence.  This got buzzed with the stick blender to mash everything up. 

 

Both frozen for about 36 hours, then processed.  The creamy one on the ice cream setting and the all fruit one on the sorbet setting.  Both had excellent texture. 

 

I'm glad that my local Wegmans stocks rhubarb year round. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by cdh (log)

[curls]

I spun a pint of vanilla ice cream and topped it with a spoonful of Trader Joe's lemon curd. Super easy and a nice dessert.

[Gnulio]

What about the newer version of the creami?

[tikidoc]

56 minutes ago, Gnulio said:

What about the newer version of the creami?

Does not look to me like it adds much useful. Much more expensive, and uses different containers, so those of use who have several pint containers could not use them if we upgrade.

 

My recipe of the day - mango sorbet. Lidl had a special on 16 ounce cans of Alfonso mango purée, no sugar added, for $1.99. I mixed a can with 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum, and the result was delicious - no sweetener needed, and super creamy texture. Yum.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

57 minutes ago, Gnulio said:

What about the newer version of the creami?

Personally, I don’t see the 3-cup containers as a big selling feature, though the 1 pint capacity is called out as a negative in a lot of reviews. Most ice cream recipes for home cooks make around a quart. It’s so easy to make a half recipe or make a full recipe and split evenly between 2 containers. Three cups is neither here nor there. 

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, Gnulio said:

What about the newer version of the creami?

 

There's a new version?

[tikidoc]

42 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Personally, I don’t see the 3-cup containers as a big selling feature, though the 1 pint capacity is called out as a negative in a lot of reviews. Most ice cream recipes for home cooks make around a quart. It’s so easy to make a half recipe or make a full recipe and split evenly between 2 containers. Three cups is neither here nor there. 

 

3 cups is awkward. 

 

I love the 2 cup capacity. That way I can keep a bunch of different flavors in my freezer. And I always have at least 1 container of my go-to healthy chocolate (Fairlife chocolate, plus cocoa and espresso powder).

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

There's a new version?

Apparently there is - available to preorder - with this one you can process part of the container like with the Pacoject. 

[andrewk512]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

There's a new version?

I get all my news from eGullet apparently

 

Looks like power level is the same. Larger size is not for me, I live alone and like that the pints are so small that I can constantly try new things. Partial processing is very cool but probably not worth it for me.

 

Would love to see this larger device be employed in some small restaurants though

 

They advertise new functions but I am pretty sure you can do these functions in the original device. I have made a tequila slush in mine

Edited September 17, 2022 by andrewk512 (log)

[ElsieD]

17 minutes ago, andrewk512 said:

I get all my news from eGullet apparently

 

Looks like power level is the same. Larger size is not for me, I live alone and like that the pints are so small that I can constantly try new things. Partial processing is very cool but probably not worth it for me.

 

Would love to see this larger device be employed in some small restaurants though

 

They advertise new functions but I am pretty sure you can do these functions in the original device. I have made a tequila slush in mine

 

Does anyone have a link to this new machine?  I can't seem to find it.

[andrewk512]

6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Does anyone have a link to this new machine?  I can't seem to find it.

https://www.ninjakitchen.com/exclusive-offer/NC501WBKT/ninja-creami-deluxe-11-in-1-ice-cream-and-frozen-treat-maker/

[tikidoc]

https://m.ninjakitchen.com/exclusive-offer/NC501WBKT/ninja-creami-deluxe-11-in-1-ice-cream-and-frozen-treat-maker/

[cdh]

Hmmmm...new one seems to add drinkable processing options and size.... neither is a selling point for me, I don't think... 

[dtremit]

23 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Personally, I don’t see the 3-cup containers as a big selling feature, though the 1 pint capacity is called out as a negative in a lot of reviews. Most ice cream recipes for home cooks make around a quart. It’s so easy to make a half recipe or make a full recipe and split evenly between 2 containers. Three cups is neither here nor there. 

 

If you zoom in on the product image  it appears that the new one has the ability to process either the top or bottom half of the container separately, which is kind of nice. It also appears to have a countdown timer, though I question its utility given it's a single digit!

 

The drinkables don't appeal to me much (and my inner curmudgeon is irked by the words "creamiccino" and "slushi"). But I suppose if I were in the market for the first time, I might like the new one better.

[andrewk512]

1 hour ago, dtremit said:

 

If you zoom in on the product image  it appears that the new one has the ability to process either the top or bottom half of the container separately, which is kind of nice. It also appears to have a countdown timer, though I question its utility given it's a single digit!

 

The drinkables don't appeal to me much (and my inner curmudgeon is irked by the words "creamiccino" and "slushi"). But I suppose if I were in the market for the first time, I might like the new one better.

 

I just assumed that was a "how many quarters to process" indicator

The fact its a timer is hilarious

Does the ice cream take too long to process for people?

[cdh]

I've been poking around the FB Creami groups and I observe that most of the people there are obsessed with dumping "SFP" into every batch and have figured out that that means sugar free pudding mix... has anybody here played with pudding mixes in the Creami in general, or is that a hack for people with specific dietary needs that general consumers have no need to worry about?  What does a tablespoon of pudding mix do the protein drinks that are its usual companion over there?  

[tikidoc]

Quote

What does a tablespoon of pudding mix do the protein drinks that are its usual companion over there?  

My understanding is that it is supposed to improve texture. I have not tried it but I would assume a small amount of corn starch would do the same thing. They seem to add it to recipes other than protein shake ones as well.