Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[Shelby]

29 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Shelby 

 

im not so sure you should start w something so precious

 

later

 

after you get the hang of this

 

fine

 

those peaches have been waiting 

 

and can wait  a bi moe.

I have a serious craving for peach sorbet.......

[randomwalk]

1 hour ago, andrewk512 said:

I steep the pits in balsamic vinegar

Oh!  Very interesting!  Any additional sugar or just the vinegar?  I'll have to try that next time.

[andrewk512]

On 1/15/2022 at 7:12 PM, randomwalk said:

Oh!  Very interesting!  Any additional sugar or just the vinegar?  I'll have to try that next time.

Pits from 1lb of cherries, pour over 3/4C balsamic vinegar brought to a simmer, marinate for 1 hr then drain (from Ad Hoc at Home)

[Kerry Beal]

 

Made 3 containers of butter pecan - stirred in the pecans instead of using the mix-in option as it tends to break up the nuts. 

[randomwalk]

I made the cinnamon ice cream from Perfect Scoop, primarily because husband *loves* cinnamon ice cream.  I guess I shouldn't say I made the version from PS -- since I actually more followed the quantities in Hello My Name is Ice Cream (without any additional "texture agents") but then followed the steps for the cinnamon ice cream in PS.  I wanted a less rich ice cream than I found the vanilla from PS to be. 

 

It was a success!  Well -- husband said it was the best yet.  It was again astonishingly smooth.  Very nice cinnamon flavor.  Very creamy.  Neither daughter cared for it.  (they made do with leftover vanilla ice cream, cherry sorbet and/or lemon sorbet).  I found the cinnamon delicious but a little monolithic to have just on its own, so I dug out some of that cherry sorbet to go with, without much hope.  I was happy to be proven wrong, it was actually a really nice combo.  Husband had a double serving without any counterpoint, although those who know him would not be surprised. 

 

I still find myself wanting to go less rich, less cream more milk, so maybe my next step is to do a deeper dive into the ratios chapter in Hello My Name is....but that might wait for next weekend!  Maybe between now and then, I can experiment more with frozen yogurt or sherbet. 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Couple of containers of the Likkerland Chocolate - ripening a bit before scooping into my little Tovoli containers.

 

 

[ElsieD]

On 1/15/2022 at 11:40 AM, blue_dolphin said:

Two spins. Tangerine sorbet from a recipe in David Lebovitz's newsletter and berry ice cream from a recipe in Baking with Dorie. Both recipes contain a bit of alcohol and both were soft directly after spinning. 

I used TJ's frozen Very Cherry Berry mix (cherries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries) and strained before freezing but still had some tiny seedy bits. 

And even though I vowed not to make a high fat ice cream in an uncooked base to avoid micro butter bits, this seems fine from that respect.   Maybe I'll try her vanilla. 

 

The sorbet contains tangerine zest but as with other recipes I've made, the Creami pretty much obliterates it.  Zest fragments remain detectable only in the thin layer on the bottom that the blade doesn't contact. If you give it a stir with a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom and then a re-spin, the zest will be entirely gone. 

 

 

I meant to ask you this before.  Is the berry ice cream you made the same one as is in the NYT?  It includes powdered milk and buttermilk.

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

I meant to ask you this before.  Is the berry ice cream you made the same one as is in the NYT?  It includes powdered milk and buttermilk.

That sounds right. There's a recipe in the NYT for a raspberry ice cream with chocolate flake that is very much the same except the book recipe has no chocolate or freeze-dried fruit and says to use any berries. I must say the raspberry/chocolate combo sounds excellent. 

[Shelby]

Sooooooo I realize this is waaaaay below what you guys have been doing but OH MY!!!!!!!

 

Just did the peaches

 

AMAZING

 

 

I  love sorbet...ice cream too, but sorbet equals that.

 

We've been sitting here talking---this summer--cantaloupe...watermelon....sooooo many possibilities.  

 

Plus.  Ice cream.

[ElsieD]

9 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Sooooooo I realize this is waaaaay below what you guys have been doing but OH MY!!!!!!!

 

Just did the peaches

 

AMAZING

 

 

I  love sorbet...ice cream too, but sorbet equals that.

 

We've been sitting here talking---this summer--cantaloupe...watermelon....sooooo many possibilities.  

 

Plus.  Ice cream.

 

That looks great, nice and creamy.  Can you tell what you did?

[Shelby]

4 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

That looks great, nice and creamy.  Can you tell what you did?

Absolutely...and it wasn't much lol.

 

When I canned the peaches I put sugar in already...soooooo, I picked the peaches out of the jar and filled the cup up to the line and then dumped remaining juice in until it again, hit the max fill line.  Froze--it was for 2 days but my freezer is set at -2.  Then just followed the steps to Creami-fy .

 

Couldn't be easier.

[blue_dolphin]

Upthread, I mentioned that I'd prepped a batch of the Philly-style vanilla ice cream from Baking with Dorie.  It's nice but there's just a faint touch of that spoon-coating butterfat thing that I've observed with other high-fat but uncooked Ninja preps.  Nothing awful, and barely noticeable when served with...say....hot fudge sauce but not quite perfect either.  Here it is with some of the first strawberries of the season from Harry's Berries that I picked up at the farmers market and a drizzle of extra vecchio balsamic vinegar.  Great berries and great vinegar!

 

Focusing on those berries, I decided to try a sorbet and went with the recipe in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. So simple and built around the berries.  Purée and strain the berries.  Add sugar to taste.  The recipe calls for 1-3 T sugar for a cup of strained purée.  I used 2T.  Judy suggests testing to see if a pinch of salt helps elevate the flavor.  I thought it did.  It can be frozen here or you can add 1/2 - 3/4 t balsamic vinegar and a little more sugar if necessary.  I added the balsamic but no additional sugar.  At this point, the recommendation is to freeze a small amount to test the flavor.  I put it in the coldest part of the fridge and tasted than I went ahead and froze it in one of the Ninja containers and scraped a bit off the top to taste before spinning.  I figured I could always thaw it out if it needed adjusting but it was good.  

Here is it with a scoop of the vanilla:

It's as perfect as the berries.  The balsamic vinegar doesn't stand out, it just enhances the flavor of the berries.

[ElsieD]

@blue_dolphin  I still have fresh frozen strawberries from last summer.  I should give this a try.  What was the quantity of strawberries needed per 1 cup of puree?

[blue_dolphin]

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

@blue_dolphin  I still have fresh frozen strawberries from last summer.  I should give this a try.  What was the quantity of strawberries needed per 1 cup of puree?

 

She estimates half a pound of berries for a cup of purée.  That's what I used and it seems about right. 

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

She estimates half a pound of berries for a cup of purée.  That's what I used and it seems about right. 

 

Thanks.  Using one cup of purse in the Creami worked okay?

[blue_dolphin]

Just now, ElsieD said:

 

Thanks.  Using one cup of purse in the Creami worked okay?

Yes.  Someone on one of the Creami Facebook groups asked the company about a minimum volume and was told that it should be fine down to around a quarter full. 

[ElsieD]

15 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Yes.  Someone on one of the Creami Facebook groups asked the company about a minimum volume and was told that it should be fine down to around a quarter full. 

 

I have strawberries thawing and since I also have beautiful ripe peaches from last summer, albeit frozen ones, I took some of those out to thaw too.  I have a strawberry flavored balsamic that I may use and an apricot one for the peach.  I have no peach balsamic but I plan to remedy that next time I'm out.

[andrewk512]

Pear sorbet

 

430g cooked pears (I mixed diced pears with a bit of ascorbic acid and a touch of water and softened in a pot, about 10% reduction in weight after cooking)

66g sugar

56g glucose powder

1.64g cremodan 64

citric and malic acid to taste (about 1g total)

 

Blended then strained, frozen, and processed on lite. Made a great full textured sorbet! Next time I think I'd cook the pears in a bit of white wine

 

 

I did a black sesame ice cream earlier this week adapting the pistachio recipe in the Frozen Desserts book too. Flavor was really nice but I had some separation during freezing. The top portion was a bit darker and icier while the lower portion creamier but lighter. Have noticed this with a few different preparations, unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how to prevent it. I saw someone recommended mixing their base partway through freezing but the timing of that seems pretty impractical to me.

[ElsieD]

Here is some strawberry sorbet made as per @blue_dolphin as well as a peach one.  They are both very tasty.   Next up will be a gelato or an ice cream.

Edited February 1, 2022 by ElsieD
Added picture (log)

[Smithy]

That is beautiful, @ElsieD! We're still carrying around the reworked persimmon puree / cream / etc from last fall, but haven't had occasion to fire up the machine because it hasn't been warm enough. I need posts like yours and @blue_dolphin's (and many others, sorry for leaving you out) to convince me to give the machine a whirl!

[andrewk512]

Playing around with different flavors and textures

 

1) Coca cola sorbet - great flavor, dense ice cream like texture, but I don't think I can disentangle the sensation of carbonation from the flavor of cola, it kept feeling like something was missing because the carbonation was gone

 

2) Sour citrus & quinine sorbet - I used the Morgenthaler tonic syrup recipe to make this sorbet, had a really nice punchy balance of sour and bitter, but turned out a bit gummy due to some of the additives probably, I'm gonna see how it fares when it hardens up in the freezer

[blue_dolphin]

On 2/1/2022 at 8:51 PM, Smithy said:

That is beautiful, @ElsieD! We're still carrying around the reworked persimmon puree / cream / etc from last fall, but haven't had occasion to fire up the machine because it hasn't been warm enough. I need posts like yours and @blue_dolphin's (and many others, sorry for leaving you out) to convince me to give the machine a whirl!

I’m not sure exactly where the Princessmobile is encamped but we have warm daytime temps in the forecast for next week so you might have a chance to try out  your machine. If you’ve got the freezer space, I recommend making two flavors as they’re fun to compare.  

I've got a mango lassi frozen yogurt mix (from Hello My Name Is Ice Cream) in the works and need to pick something else. 

[blue_dolphin]

On 2/4/2022 at 4:00 PM, andrewk512 said:

2) Sour citrus & quinine sorbet - I used the Morgenthaler tonic syrup recipe to make this sorbet, had a really nice punchy balance of sour and bitter, but turned out a bit gummy due to some of the additives probably, I'm gonna see how it fares when it hardens up in the freezer

 

How did this do?  Sounds like a very refreshing combination!

 

The other day, David Lebovitz shared a recipe for a white chocolate sorbet adapted from Gale Gand's book Chocolate & Vanilla and I decided to give it a try. Here it is with dark chocolate shaved over the top. It's nice.  Lighter than an ice cream but still rich from the cocoa butter in the chocolate. 

I've also enjoyed it with scoop of strawberry sorbet and separately with a scoop of tangerine sorbet and I'd say it works really well with fruit flavors.   On its own, it's fairly subtle.  

 

It's not truly a sorbet as it contains milk so maybe more of an ice milk?  The recipe is here in his newsletter or here in a blog post from 2006. He gives a yield of 2 cups in the newsletter.  I got closer to 3.5 cups.

I used Weiss Anëo 34% white chocolate as its what I had on hand.  For the alcohol, I added a tablespoon of homemade, unsweetened creme de cacao (vodka steeped with cacao nibs for several weeks.)  Kinda wish I'd split it up and made half with Green Chartreuse. 

Edited to add that I also added about 1 tsp of Avacream along with the sugar.  

 

This made me wonder what a ruby chocolate ice cream would be like.  Callebaut has a recipe for one that adds raspberry purée.  Maybe I'll try a small batch. 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by blue_dolphin
to add stabilizer (log)

[andrewk512]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

How did this do?  Sounds like a very refreshing combination!

 

 

 

It was still too gummy, flavor was great though. I am thinking the acid is creating invert syrup when boiled with the sugar so it was throwing off all my calculations. One day I will try it again

 

White chocolate sorbet looks delicious! I am glad there were no texture issues. In the EMP cookbook they suggest that if you let white chocolate bases chill thoroughly before freezing that you get graininess. Maybe the processing technique of the Creami prevents that

Edited February 10, 2022 by andrewk512 (log)

[blue_dolphin]

30 minutes ago, andrewk512 said:

White chocolate sorbet looks delicious! I am glad there were no texture issues. In the EMP cookbook they suggest that if you let white chocolate bases chill thoroughly before freezing that you get graininess. Maybe the processing technique of the Creami prevents that

Yeah, Lebovitz cautions that if the mixture is chilled overnight in the fridge that the chocolate may separate.  I did add a teaspoon of Avacream along with the sugar.  I chilled the mix down to ~ 45°F in the ice bath then put it into the freezer. Not sure if it was the stabilizer or the rapid chill but I did not note any separation nor do I detect any graininess.