Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[blue_dolphin]

Hetty Lui McKinnon's book, Tenderheart, has a recipe for a no-churn Fennel and Black Pepper Ice Cream. It uses both fennel seeds and chopped fresh fennel which get blended with sweetened condensed milk, cream, ground black pepper and a little olive oil. It just gets frozen and scooped. I found my Blendtec did a good job on the fennel but I didn't care for the texture of the seed particles.  I could have put it through a sieve but decided to just freeze it in a Creami container and give it a spin to take care of those seedy bits and I thought it worked well. 

It's supposed to get a drizzle of olive oil but I forgot.  The flavors make for an appealing, almost palate-cleansing effect. 

[palo]

For an edited version of this recipe:

 

https://www.cuisine.co.nz/recipe/fennel-black-pepper-ice-cream/

 

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[jedovaty]

Hi: I tried a couple more recipes from Salt and Straw book that was gifted to me: strawberry balsamic and black pepper, and strawberry sorbet.  For SBB, I swapped out the milk base for coconut base, and replaced honey with sugar.  It tasted like the strawberry push pops I had as a kid in the 1980s omg what a blast to the past!  The Strawberry Sorbet calls for cilantro/coriander essence/extract, which I have no clue what this is so I added a few twigs of natural organic fresh home grown urban raised evil sourced unfair wage [free labor] non-d.o.p. cilantro.  This was delicious.. a variation of strawberry with mint!

 

The book itself is poorly written.  They don't list all the ingredients in the ingredients side bar of each recipe, and they are inconsistent with when they include parts of a recipe or move it out into its own paragraph.  It's like we have to read and comprehend the recipe, can't just skim and know what to do.  Bah.

 

That said, results are tasty, and they all keep a soft-serve texture after undergoing the ninja treament, maybe from all the corn syrup.

 

No pictures, sorry, I just ate each straight out of the cream-i jar and it's ugly.  If you can use your imagination, SBB was light pink with streaks of jam, the other was dark pink, borderline maroon.

[fledflew]

The Ninja Creami Deluxe is on sale today at Kohls for $158 with free shipping - deal is good for today only (5/27/24).  Posted price is $230, then use TAKE10, HOME15, and CATCH15OFF on Kohls.com.  I'm super close to buying one at this price.  I'm going to think about it for a few hours and if it's not sold out when I check back, I'll pull the trigger on one.  I will also post this in the "sales., deals, and bargains" thread.  

[Kerry Beal]

On 5/27/2024 at 5:34 PM, fledflew said:

The Ninja Creami Deluxe is on sale today at Kohls for $158 with free shipping - deal is good for today only (5/27/24).  Posted price is $230, then use TAKE10, HOME15, and CATCH15OFF on Kohls.com.  I'm super close to buying one at this price.  I'm going to think about it for a few hours and if it's not sold out when I check back, I'll pull the trigger on one.  I will also post this in the "sales., deals, and bargains" thread.  

Did you buy it?

[ElsieD]

I recently bought some of this at Costco and we quite liked it.   It is in looks and tastes like DQ soft serve.  I churned it in my Breville.  Today I bought some more.  I'd like to use my Creami to churn it (not sure if that is the right word) so I plan to freeze 1/2 cup amounts in the Creami pints and take it for a spin.  Once I get the right spin, I'd like to start adding things such as fruit puree, caramel sauce, dulce de leche etc.  Any advice?  I'm thinking adding caramel sauce won't be a problem bur fruit purees could be. Any suggestions?

[fledflew]

On 5/28/2024 at 5:54 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Did you buy it?

I did end up buying one and it arrived about a week ago.  I unboxed it, washed everything, and then read through the entire 52 page thread here (I had only skimmed it before).  

Like many, my first attempt was the "can of fruit" sorbet - I went with pineapple.  I just spun it this morning for the first run and am very pleased after letting it temper to a slightly warmer serving temperature.  My only gripe is the 2-3mm of unprocessed product around the edge of the container that others have warned me of.  Ultimately, it's not a huge deal.  The pineapple sorbet was very refreshing after coming in from doing several hours of yardwork in the heat this morning.  

I must confess that I don't have huge sweet tooth and was hoping to use it for more savory applications, but from what I've gleaned from this thread is that frozen soups and stocks may pose a problem if the freezing point isn't lowered enough with the addition of a minimum amount of salt (or sugar).  I'll continue to experiment and discover the limits of the machine and will report any notable findings.  Although I'm not a huge dessert person, I do enjoy fruit-based treats, so I foresee a lot of sorbets in my future, probably some frozen drinks, and maybe some ice cream now and then for the neighborhood kids.  

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, fledflew said:

I did end up buying one and it arrived about a week ago.  I unboxed it, washed everything, and then read through the entire 52 page thread here (I had only skimmed it before).  

Like many, my first attempt was the "can of fruit" sorbet - I went with pineapple.  I just spun it this morning for the first run and am very pleased after letting it temper to a slightly warmer serving temperature.  My only gripe is the 2-3mm of unprocessed product around the edge of the container that others have warned me of.  Ultimately, it's not a huge deal.  The pineapple sorbet was very refreshing after coming in from doing several hours of yardwork in the heat this morning.  

I must confess that I don't have huge sweet tooth and was hoping to use it for more savory applications, but from what I've gleaned from this thread is that frozen soups and stocks may pose a problem if the freezing point isn't lowered enough with the addition of a minimum amount of salt (or sugar).  I'll continue to experiment and discover the limits of the machine and will report any notable findings.  Although I'm not a huge dessert person, I do enjoy fruit-based treats, so I foresee a lot of sorbets in my future, probably some frozen drinks, and maybe some ice cream now and then for the neighborhood kids.  

Back when I was using the iCreami instead of the Pacojet I found running one of my bone handled knives around the edge after the first spin solved that problem.