Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[Amy D.]

I will do tomorrow, will keep you updated as to what they say.

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, Amy D. said:

I will do tomorrow, will keep you updated as to what they say.

I'm with @blue_dolphinon this.  I had the same thing happen to me.  Before I found out it was out-of-warranty, they offered to send me the new 500 series Creami along with a couple of pints.  Here is a picture of mine.  Please let us know what happens.

[curls]

7 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

 

The Dana Cree book, Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream is really an excellent one for learning about ice cream and she uses interesting flavors.  While I wouldn't say the recipes are particularly time consuming, it's not a book of "superquick prep ideas," either so I don't want you to be disappointed. 

To give you an idea, her "Blank Slate Frozen Yogurt" that you can adapt with your own flavors, contains Greek yogurt, cream, milk or water, sugar, glucose and a texture agent of your choice (commercial stabilizer, guar or xanthan gum, tapioca starch or cornflour) and she adds the step of warming the dairy and sweeteners (you definitely want that heating step with cornflour or tapioca starch and some commercial stabilizers), before cooling and mixing in the yogurt.  She strains the mixture through a sieve at this point, but that's not necessary for the Creami.

 

One of the recipes in the book uses that Blank Slate Frozen Yogurt and mixes in chopped Amarena cherries and chocolate chunks so I'm going to try that one next!

 

 

 

Enabler! Couldn’t resist this time; I ordered Dana Cree’s book. 😉

[blue_dolphin]

2 minutes ago, curls said:

Enabler! Couldn’t resist this time; I ordered Dana Cree’s book. 😉

I think you will like it. It has chapters for custard ice cream, Philadelphia-style, sherbet and frozen yogurt.  I haven’t used too many of her mix-ins, some would get too pulverized by the Creami, but her method of melting chocolate with a little coconut oil makes a great melt-in-your mouth chocolate chip addition. 

[curls]

3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I think you will like it. It has chapters for custard ice cream, Philadelphia-style, sherbet and frozen yogurt.  I haven’t used too many of her mix-ins, some would get too pulverized by the Creami, but her method of melting chocolate with a little coconut oil makes a great melt-in-your mouth chocolate chip addition. 

Yes, I checked the book preview and book index on Amazon, looking forward to reading the book. Couldn’t you add the mixins using the Creami’s mix in cycle?

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, curls said:

Yes, I checked the book preview and book index on Amazon, looking forward to reading the book. Couldn’t you add the mixins using the Creami’s mix in cycle?

Yes, you can, although it works better with some things than others as the blades not only mix but also chop things to smithereens!

[Amy D.]

Well they are sending out four new tubs and a new paddle, and told me to contact again if any more problems. 

[jedovaty]

A friend asked me to try to make a frozen treat with Yakult.  Quick search online shows others have used this ingredient wit a custard or cream base, and traditional ice cream makers but no ninja.  I thought I'd try it straight up 😁  The ingredients did me a concern, since it's water, couple types of sugar, skim milk, cultures, and some flavor - i.e. this is going to be very close to ice, and I think the instructions state not to blend pure water.  😇  But.. I had to try, so in went several of those plastic bottles to fill up the container and froze it for 24 hours.

 

The first spin made so much noise, so so much.  Four spins later, it was still somewhat powdery, but a spoon mixed it up well.  It had a citrus-like flavor, gave me a searing brain freeze almost instantly, and a very thin mouthfeel (actually, it was very close to snow, though I haven't seen or tasted snow in over 10 years). 

 

 

Not recommended.

 

I am not sure if it makes sense to pursue this further.. I can add some inulin, fat, emulsifiers, gums, different sugars, maybe follow the Underbelly strawberry sorbet example, or I can do a little custard or mix with some heavy cream, but I think the latter will take away from the yakult flavor.  Worth a pursuit?  Thoughts?

 

My next idea is to freeze some greek yogurt.  Or, maybe mix some jam into greek yogurt (or euro-style yogurt) and see what happens.  I'm enthusiastic about testing things, though generally slow, so if someone beats me to it, please share results

 

Edited August 19, 2024 by jedovaty (log)

[Laurentius]

I saw yesterday that my local Costco is selling the Creami.  I think it's priced at $179.

[rob1234]

Is anyone with a Creami still also using a regular style ice cream maker? I have a Lello 4080 that I haven't used since getting the Creami that I'm debating about selling, wondering if there's anything it would still do better making it worth hanging onto.

[mgaretz]

48 minutes ago, rob1234 said:

Is anyone with a Creami still also using a regular style ice cream maker? I have a Lello 4080 that I haven't used since getting the Creami that I'm debating about selling, wondering if there's anything it would still do better making it worth hanging onto.

 

I have the freezer bowl style attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer and I haven't used it since I got the Creami.

[ElsieD]

I stumbled across this today, a video by Chris Young, that explain the difference between a Pacojet and a Ninja Creami.  I found it very interesting.

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I hadn't visited @Ruben Porto's site in a while, but I see he has a review of the Creami with interesting observations about the recipes:

 

https://www.icecreamscience.com/blog/ninja-creami-ice-cream-maker-a-comprehensive-review

 

[sverreef]

I've posted my attempt to recreate the flavour of restaurant Maaemo's Brown Butter ice cream before, but here's an improved version:

 

 

As usual, I've used the Chefsteps Creme Fraiche ice cream recipe as a guideline, but with a few major changes to accommodate for the fat in the browned butter.

 

45g Sucrose

51g Glucose powder 33DE

22,5g Skim milk powder

263g Water

54g Brown butter (heated to 130 Celsius with added skim milk powder)

1,1g Locust bean gum

1,5g Salt

150g Creme Fraiche 5% fat

 

LBG was hydrated with water, butter and the other dry ingredients sous vide, then blended with the creme fraiche.

 

The flavour of the brown butter in combination with the tang from the creme fraiche is absolutely amazing by itself, but the pairing with the roasted hazelnut "crumble" (hazelnuts, golden syrup and salt) really takes it to another level 😀

 

Disclaimer: I didn't actually spin this in the Creami, since I decided to give myself a PJ4 as an early Christmas gift about a month ago 😁 but the result in the Creami should be more or less identical...

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Ninja Swirl by Creami Soft Serve and Ice Cream Maker

 

A bit pricey....but it looks interesting.  I quickly googled and I don't see it for sale anywhere but at Crate and Barrel.  

 

 

[rotuts]

@Shelby

 

Oooooo!

 

Ooooooooo!

 

good for Ninja , coming up w new suff

 

that's really different.

 

hope its well made 

 

and at a discount somewere 

 

does not have to be soon.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I made a recipe of Modernist Pistachio Peanut Butter Gelato:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

I spun a portion of the mix in the Creami on the Ice Cream setting.  The result was a powder.  A lovely tasting powder, but a powder.  I spun a second container on the Lite Ice Cream setting and it came out exactly as one would expect, perfect texture.

 

Has anyone else experienced such outcomes?

 

[OlyveOyl]

@JoNorvelleWalker
Two thoughts regarding the peanut butter ice cream.  The powdery crumble can usually be rectified by adding a tablespoon or two of liquid to the ice cream and then respin.

The lite ice cream mode has more revolutions and a longer duration than the ice cream mode, so it effectively is making a finer “ purée” of the mix. 

Edited February 12 by OlyveOyl (log)

[sverreef]

On 2/12/2025 at 4:36 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I made a recipe of Modernist Pistachio Peanut Butter Gelato:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

I spun a portion of the mix in the Creami on the Ice Cream setting.  The result was a powder.  A lovely tasting powder, but a powder.  I spun a second container on the Lite Ice Cream setting and it came out exactly as one would expect, perfect texture.

 

Has anyone else experienced such outcomes?

 

 

My go to ice cream base, the Chefstep Creme Fraiche ice cream, also comes out a bit crumbly after one spin in the Creami. Even at the light Ice cream program.

 

The main reason is that one spin isn't enough to raise the temperature to the recipe's ideal serving temperature. Interestingly, the Pacojet (4) seems to emulsify the same ice cream base at a slightly lower temperature than the Creami, bur I have not done the measurements to document this, so it's just based on conjecture at the moment. For the sake of better scoopability, I usually spin the Creme Fraiche ice cream base twice in the PJ4 also. In the PJ, the number of portions you spin also affects the post spin temperature. Similarly, a recipe which requires two light Ice cream cycles for the perfect result with a full pint in the Creami, might need three spins if you only have the pint half full 

 

I actually made the modernist pistachio gelato about a week ago. I used the Chefstep version however to take advantage of their recipe scaling tool, but that is practically identical:

 

 

I only spun 3.2 portions in the PJ. Slightly powdery after one spin. Two spins was probably enough to make it scoopable, but in order to mimic the flat surface seen post spin here:

 

 

I opted for a third spin. The result was excellent, but ideally, it could probably go back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to stabilize the temperature before scooping/plating.

[EnriqueB]

On 2/12/2025 at 4:36 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I made a recipe of Modernist Pistachio Peanut Butter Gelato:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

I spun a portion of the mix in the Creami on the Ice Cream setting.  The result was a powder.  A lovely tasting powder, but a powder.  I spun a second container on the Lite Ice Cream setting and it came out exactly as one would expect, perfect texture.

 

Has anyone else experienced such outcomes?

 

 

Crumbly texture on the Creami is most often due to a too high recipe serving temp, higher than the actual temp of your cream after one standard processing cycle (ice cream or gelato modes, which are actually identical), as I explained in a message above.

People usually respin, even add some liquid, which works because it ancreases the temp of the cream and solves the problem.  Or use the light ice cream setting as it's longer and increases the temp more. But properly balancing the recipe on the first place always gets you perfect results after just one processing cycle. Formulate to get a recipe serving temperature of around your freezer temp plus 10ºC (the increase in temp of your base after one processing cycle) and voilà!

 

This is my adaptation of the "Modernist Peanut" gelato for the Creami (500 ml container):

• 320 g Water
• 72 g Sugar
• 12 g Dextrose
• 3 g Salt
• 2 g Cremodan SE30 Neutro (40% stabilizers, locust bean gum, guar gum, sodium alginate and carragean; and 60% emulsifiers, mono and biglicerides of fatty accids)
• 38 g Peanut oil
• 95 g 100% Peanut paste 
   

Edited Friday at 04:44 PM by EnriqueB (log)