Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[mgaretz]

Tonight it was the correct consistency but a tad grainy/icy.  I spun it again in the ice cream cycle, we'll see if that fixes it.  I figured out the problem with sweetness - it wasn't the sweetness.  It was salt!  I must have spaced out and added salt twice.

[mgaretz]

Well after the second spin on the ice cream cycle it was still a tad icy/grainy but better.  I couldn't take the salt any more so I ditched it and made a new batch.  We'll see how it is tomorrow.

 

[Smithy]

We tried the CREAMi again last Sunday night when friends were here. The first batch was from the recipe booklet: dairy-free coffee ice cream, using cashew milk as the base and an espresso powder for the coffee. We all liked it. By the end of that batch it was starting to separate a bit, with water appearing from what had probably been fine ice crystals. The peach I'd spun up wasn't as good as my usual peach ice cream, but that could easily have been because I'd put it in the freezer over a year ago without all the necessary ingredients. (My label notes were sketchy.) No complaints about the texture, though.

 

No pictures, either. Sorry.

[ElsieD]

@Smithy  Was the peach ice cream made from the recipe in The Perfect Scoop?

[blue_dolphin]

I made a half batch of this Kabocha Vanilla Chai Ice Cream.  Very happy with the flavor and texture. Perfectly scoopable right out of the machine. 

According to the recipe, it's based on a Jeni's ice cream base.  My only modifications were to use canned pumpkin instead of the kabocha squash and I used the full amount of tea and spices to infuse the milk even though I halved everything else.  

 

Here's a scoop on top of a bread pudding-like thing from Dishoom:

Edited October 19, 2021 by blue_dolphin (log)

[mgaretz]

22 hours ago, mgaretz said:

Well after the second spin on the ice cream cycle it was still a tad icy/grainy but better.  I couldn't take the salt any more so I ditched it and made a new batch.  We'll see how it is tomorrow.

 

 

The second batch tasted perfect (with the right amount of salt) but after spinning on lite ice cream it was very soft, milkshake like.  I'm freezing and will spin again tomorrow.  I am thinking my kitchen freezer doesn't get as cold as my upright freezer.  This and the previous batch were frozen in the kitchen freezer, all other have been in the upright.

[Smithy]

12 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@Smithy  Was the peach ice cream made from the recipe in The Perfect Scoop?

 

No. It was from our family recipe,  but I can't even say for sure whether the mix I spun was from the final ready-to-churn batch or from an intermediate stage. Durned labels fell off in the freezer. No doubt I'll find them, disassociated from their containers, next time I defrost.

[ElsieD]

I made Rose Levy Bernabaum's raspberry ice cream and froze it for about 36 hours.  I spun it today on ice cream and what I got was this gloopy stuff.  It is back in the freezer.  I also had trouble getting the outer bowl and the pint within  along with the lid to separate from the machine.  I finally got the outer bowl off, but the lid stayed on the machine.  I managed to finally get it off and this spiral thing is sticking out.  What do I do about that?  On the other hand, the maple gelato that I posted about upthread was just fine and perfectly scoopable.  PS I've since cleaned the gunk out of that spiral thing.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by ElsieD
Added a sentence (log)

[blue_dolphin]

4 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I also had trouble getting the outer bowl and the pint within  along with the lid to separate from the machine.  I finally got the outer bowl off, but the lid stayed on the machine.  I managed to finally get it off and this spiral thing is sticking out.  What do I do about that?

 

The spiral thing looks the same on mine and I believe it always has. 

 

[ElsieD]

5 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

The spiral thing looks the same on mine and I believe it always has. 

 

 

I've never noticed it sticking down before.  Is that normal?  If it is, I need to be sure to always clean it between spins.

[blue_dolphin]

4 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

I've never noticed it sticking down before.  Is that normal?  If it is, I need to be sure to always clean it between spins.

 

I assumed it was normal. I see photos on the ninja website that show it sticking out.   I do always wipe it clean after using.  Sometimes it seems to pick up more of the mix than others. 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

I made Rose Levy Bernabaum's raspberry ice cream and froze it for about 36 hours.  I spun it today on ice cream and what I got was this gloopy stuff.  It is back in the freezer.  I also had trouble getting the outer bowl and the pint within  along with the lid to separate from the machine.  I finally got the outer bowl off, but the lid stayed on the machine.  I managed to finally get it off and this spiral thing is sticking out.  What do I do about that?  On the other hand, the maple gelato that I posted about upthread was just fine and perfectly scoopable.  PS I've since cleaned the gunk out of that spiral thing.

 

 

Yup - spiral thing looks like that all the time - I give it a good wash each time. My lid stuck on the spiral thing this morning - I realized that when i was washing the lid I wasn't taking it apart each time and there was some guck between the blade and the lid that was probably the cause. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I don't see any spiral thing on mine?

 

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I don't see any spiral thing on mine?

 

I believe you are very tall.  Perhaps you need to sit down to bring it into view.

[Kerry Beal]

29 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I don't see any spiral thing on mine?

 

You got the fancy colored one!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

I believe you are very tall.  Perhaps you need to sit down to bring it into view.

 

Yes, but my Ninja sits on a very high counter!

 

I turned the unit over on its side.  I still don't see any spiral thing.  Could it be with the packaging material?  I did notice some strawberry on the shaft, so I guess I need to clean better.

 

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Yes, but my Ninja sits on a very high counter!

 

I turned the unit over on its side.  I still don't see any spiral thing.  Could it be with the packaging material?  I did notice some strawberry on the shaft, so I guess I need to clean better.

 

 

Spiral thing = the lowest portion of the shaft

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Spiral thing = the lowest portion of the shaft

 

Duh.  I thought it was the large thing in the lower left of @ElsieD's picture.

 

[mgaretz]

23 hours ago, mgaretz said:

 

The second batch tasted perfect (with the right amount of salt) but after spinning on lite ice cream it was very soft, milkshake like.  I'm freezing and will spin again tomorrow.  I am thinking my kitchen freezer doesn't get as cold as my upright freezer.  This and the previous batch were frozen in the kitchen freezer, all other have been in the upright.

 

After freezing but not respinning, the hardness was right, but a teensy bit icy.  I ate some but did a respin (on the actual respin cycle, a first for me) and it seemed better.  Back in the freezer and will report again tomorrow.

[weinoo]

I don't know that I'm fully sold, with all the spinning, respinning, shafting, little bit of iciness, etc. etc.

 

Last night our ice cream was very good. 

 

 

and...

 

 

Hey, I'm lazy, what can I say?

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

I don't know that I'm fully sold, with all the spinning, respinning, shafting, little bit of iciness, etc. etc.

 

Last night our ice cream was very good. 

 

 

and...

 

 

Hey, I'm lazy, what can I say?

 

If we kept ice cream around the house regularly, or if we lived within easy walking distance of good suppliers, I might not have jumped either. (There is a wonderful small ice creamery in Duluth. During the tourist season I can't get near it.) 

 

Still...the Shiny New Toy syndrome is powerful around here. I justified it by thinking I could customize ice cream in small batches to my own specifications.

 

Yesterday I finally, after thinking about it all summer and probably the summer before, defrosted our chest freezer. To borrow a phrase from @kayb, some of the stuff at the bottom wasn't of drinking age, quite, but it was old enough to vote. That stuff at the bottom? Frozen pitted cherries; nectarine and peach purees; even some persimmon puree I hadn't realized I'd gotten as far back as 2003. Beautiful color. Flavor still identifiable.

 

 

I thawed some of the persimmon puree - I had to, to find out what it was - and then mixed it with pureed cherries to balance the flavor more to my liking. Sugar and lemon added some brightness to the mix; a little half-and-half went in to make it more like ice cream or at least sherbet. I'll spin it in the next few days and report back. If the texture or flavor aren't satisfactory, then I'm not out much from the experiment. If we like it, why then - I'll have a dessert that even Love's Creamery hasn't dreamed up yet!

[weinoo]

17 minutes ago, Smithy said:

If we kept ice cream around the house regularly, or if we lived within easy walking distance of good suppliers, I might not have jumped either.

 

I was surprised last night, when visiting one of my "good suppliers," that they now carry McConnel's!  I'm just waiting for Straus Creamery stuff to show up.

 

Of course, if I want to walk more than 3 minutes (like maybe 10 if I walk at my usual pace), then we're talking ice cream shops, from Morgenstern's, to Van Leeuwen, to my favorite, Il Laboratorio del Gelato.

[Kerry Beal]

14 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

I was surprised last night, when visiting one of my "good suppliers," that they now carry McConnel's!  I'm just waiting for Straus Creamery stuff to show up.

 

Of course, if I want to walk more than 3 minutes (like maybe 10 if I walk at my usual pace), then we're talking ice cream shops, from Morgenstern's, to Van Leeuwen, to my favorite, Il Laboratorio del Gelato.

You live in an enviable place!

[weinoo]

3 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

You live in an enviable place!

 

If you can make it here...

[Margaret Pilgrim]

McConnels’ sweet cream is my go-to fresh fruit dessert base.   Like a little sponge cake, McC, hibiscus syrup.  Or lemon curd.   Corner store has Straus’ on sale at $4.99, month of October.