Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[blue_dolphin]

On 8/4/2022 at 7:12 AM, curls said:

I would like more orange flavor. Might be interesting to add some orange juice concentrate (just the frozen stuff from the grocery store). If that doesn't do it I can start using specialized pastry ingredients. Just not sure how much I'm going to play with mandarin oranges. I am thinking of lemon sorbet with a swirl of lemon curd for another experiment. 

As others have said, citrus zest works well. The blades make it undetectable post-spin except in that thin layer on the bottom & sides that they don’t reach. If that’s an issue, use a spatula to scrape the sides & bottom, level the mix and run a respin. 
 

A while back, I made a lemon ice cream with a lemon curd swirl and really liked the contrast of creamy ice cream and tangy curd. Will be curious to hear how it works with sorbet!

 

This AM, I mixed up two more sherbets from Hello, My Name is Ice Cream: Avocado-Grapefruit and Grape and Rosemary.  That second one is supposed to be made with Concord grapes which don’t grow locally but I got some nice Thomcords (Concord-Thompson seedless hybrid) at the farmers market yesterday and figured I’d give them a try. Won’t be as flavorful, but we’ll see. 
I'm also trying a grapefruit & shiso ice cream based on a recipe for grapefruit & basil ice cream from a Diana Henry book. 

[cdh]

Is your grapefruit/shiso going to be electric magenta?  My shiso shrub stuff is a wild color straight out of the bottle.  What are you using for the grapefruit base, hand processed fresh grapefruits, or canned stuff, or juice?

[blue_dolphin]

26 minutes ago, cdh said:

Is your grapefruit/shiso going to be electric magenta?  My shiso shrub stuff is a wild color straight out of the bottle.  What are you using for the grapefruit base, hand processed fresh grapefruits, or canned stuff, or juice?

Ooooh - shiso shrub!  I gotta look into that!

Per the recipe I'm using as a guide, the grapefruit zest gets pulverized with the sugar before combining with the milk and heating, then the leaves go in to steep for “a couple of hours” then get strained out before using it to make the custard with egg yolks. The grapefruit juice gets stirred in just before freezing. 
I'm using red shiso leaves from a friend’s garden but I don’t see any color being imparted. Maybe I’ll try infusing some into the grapefruit juice. 

[weinoo]

 

Raspberry Framboise (brandy) on the left; Campari grapefruit on the right. Pretty much right out of the Ninja.  So smooth and creami - and delicious, too. We're quite surprised at how good these are. I cut back to .75 grams each on the Modernist Pantry Perfect Sorbet, and like 2 teaspoons each on the boozes.

[blue_dolphin]

Here are the 3 mixes I posted about yesterday, now spun and all pretty pastels.

At top left is grapefruit & shiso ice cream based on a recipe for grapefruit & basil ice cream from a Diana Henry book.  I used red shiso leaves but just steeping in the milk did not infuse the bright color that @cdh asked about.  I also put some leaves in grapefruit juice with the same result.  I got a tiny bit of color with lemon juice.  I think you really need vinegar and/or heat to pull out the color.  That said, the herbal flavor does come through. 

At top right is avocado-grapefruit sherbet from Hello, My Name is Ice Cream and at the bottom is grape and rosemary sherbet from the same book. 

All good.  The two grapefruit recipes used similar amounts of grapefruit and zest but the flavor is more pronounced in the one where the zest was bashed up with the sugar with a mortar & pestle before going in with the dairy so I'll keep that in mind. I need to pick up some more grapefruit as I'd like to try it with the shiso in a sorbet. 

The Thomcord grapes that I subbed for Concords aren't as punchy but there's still a nice grape flavor and the combo with rosemary is nice. 

[ElsieD]

We tried the passionfruit sorbet just now.   Nice and scoopable, but found the flavour very strong.  I had never had passionfruit before so didn't know what to expect.  I won't make this again but if you are fond of passionfruit, you' love this.

Edited August 6, 2022 by ElsieD
Deleted a couple of words (log)

[tikidoc]

Just got my Creami (Woot, thanks Kerry and Curls!) earlier in the week, and gave it a try. I had some jarred mango in light syrup from Costco and some fresh peaches that were starting to get too soft. Peeled the peaches, added mango to get to the fill line, then mango syrup to cover. It was really delicious. I topped with a little syrup from a jar of Fabbri Amarena wild cherries in syrup, and it was even better. My husband, who is usually not much of a fruit eater said he would rather eat that than ice cream.

 

I have some fresh cherries in the fridge that need to be eaten, so I’m going to try them in the Creami next. And another batch of the mango/peach.

 

I can’t remember who got the frozen mamey- did you ever do anything with it? When I lived in Central America, I used to make a simple sorbet with fresh mamey and other fruits. I was a poor grad student, so I would just mix up fresh fruit in the blender, freeze, and re-blend. Mamey has a sort of creamy texture - kind of like a firmer and less fatty avocado. It sort of looks like a dark magenta-colored avocado on the inside when fresh. It definitely needs acid - I would either mix with a more acidic fruit, or add lime juice (since lime was the easiest citrus to get). One of the things I miss the most about Panama is the fruit and vegetable market. Probably 1/3 of my diet was fresh fruit from the market.

 

Regarding the passion fruit, how did you make it? It is VERY intense unless you dilute it, and very tart. I really like it. Again, back to living in the tropics, they sold passion fruit juice (maracuya) in the grocery, just like we drink OJ here in the US. I think it was sweetened and diluted fruit pulp. You might want to try mixing it with a less intense fruit like peach or mango next time. Both of those combine well with maracuya.

[tikidoc]

Also, I noted that the max capacity for the Ninja smoothie maker, which I got a while back so I can drink a relatively healthy breakfast on the way to work, is 16 oz, same as the Creami. So if using fruit or something else that benefits from a quick blend before freezing, it’s just the right size to blend a batch, it serves as a measuring cup, and it’s much faster and easier to clean than the full sized blender.

[Shelby]

I had some Georgia peaches and some strawberries that were going south so I peeled the peaches, diced both fruits, added some sugar and simmered on the stove for a bit.  I was going to make a syrup to pour over vanilla ice cream, but life got in the way so ice cream didn't get made.  DUH, Shelby, make a sorbet!  So I did that this morning.  Really creamy and good.

 

[rotuts]

my iC  is resting comfortably 

 

however , I have some ideas 

 

on how to move this along.

 

I have a place for it , and then can move it

 

easily enough , to the Work Area .

 

I wonder if watermelon , ripe ripened to perfection

 

locally , ie your yard .

 

might be worth Vac'ing , as a few slabs 

 

the Fz for later .

 

id bet Watermelon sherbert , even ice cream 

 

once the iC folks here 

 

get to working with it .

 

it has Water , more than cantaloupe 

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, rotuts said:

my iC  is resting comfortably 

 

however , I have some ideas 

 

on how to move this along.

 

I have a place for it , and then can move it

 

easily enough , to the Work Area .

 

I wonder if watermelon , ripe ripened to perfection

 

locally , ie your yard .

 

might be worth Vac'ing , as a few slabs 

 

the Fz for later .

 

id bet Watermelon sherbert , even ice cream 

 

once the iC folks here 

 

get to working with it .

 

it has Water , more than cantaloupe 

We gave our first watermelon away but got rave reviews on how good it was, so we picked one for us today.  I will definitely be making sorbet.  I froze the cantaloupe mixture, too, so I'll have some for this winter.

[lindag]

Keep  an eye on Chum.

[ElsieD]

12 hours ago, tikidoc said:

 

Regarding the passion fruit, how did you make it? It is VERY intense unless you dilute it, and very tart. I really like it. Again, back to living in the tropics, they sold passion fruit juice (maracuya) in the grocery, just like we drink OJ here in the US. I think it was sweetened and diluted fruit pulp. You might want to try mixing it with a less intense fruit like peach or mango next time. Both of those combine well with maracuya.

 

These arre the directions I followed for the passionfruit sorbet.  It was, to put it mildly, mouth puckering tart.  I even put extra sugar in it.

 

it was I who mentioned the mamey.  I haven't done anything with it yet, but I plan to make sorbet.  I'll keep your advice in mind when I do.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/07/15/any-fruit-sorbet-recipe/

[kayb]

20 hours ago, rotuts said:

my iC  is resting comfortably 

 

however , I have some ideas 

 

on how to move this along.

 

I have a place for it , and then can move it

 

easily enough , to the Work Area .

 

I wonder if watermelon , ripe ripened to perfection

 

locally , ie your yard .

 

might be worth Vac'ing , as a few slabs 

 

the Fz for later .

 

id bet Watermelon sherbert , even ice cream 

 

once the iC folks here 

 

get to working with it .

 

it has Water , more than cantaloupe 

 

I've made watermelon ice cream (sadly, I don't have a Creami, just a Cuisinart that you put the bowl in the freezer). I just blended up watermelon pulp with some heavy cream. Luscious.

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

 

I've made watermelon ice cream (sadly, I don't have a Creami, just a Cuisinart that you put the bowl in the freezer). I just blended up watermelon pulp with some heavy cream. Luscious.

 

I wouldn't mind trying this.  What ratio did you use?

[blue_dolphin]

Coffee maven James Hoffman dives in

Edited to add that you can follow the YouTube link and read the recipe in the comments if you’d rather not watch:

https://youtu.be/CHPn77jpt2w

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by blue_dolphin (log)

[sverreef]

On 6/8/2022 at 10:24 PM, gilbertlevine said:

The sour rhubarb sorbet from modernist cuisine is worth a look it’s a lot of work but I think worth it 

 

I haven't had much time to experiment with the Creami yet, but I've made a few versions of the sour rhubarb sorbet since I got the machine. I really need to work on my scooping technique, but both flavour and texture have been great 

 

 

I may have deviated from the original recipe by straining the mixture after the blending step instead of before, which frankly sounded weird to me, so I'm not 100% sure it's meant to be so creamy. I guess I'll have to do a comparison once the rhubarb is back in season next year...

 

 

 

 

[mgaretz]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

Coffee maven James Hoffman dives in

 

Interesting.  He ends up with the identical sugar content I did (120 grams) and virtually the same fat content (although I use powdered coconut oil) and very similar stabilizers.  I am going to have to try the cherry juice and cocoa powder. 

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, mgaretz said:

 

Interesting.  He ends up with the identical sugar content I did (120 grams) and virtually the same fat content (although I use powdered coconut oil) and very similar stabilizers.  I am going to have to try the cherry juice and cocoa powder. 

I haven’t tried it, but I remember reading @paulraphael's coffee ice cream that uses a bit of PX sherry vinegar to accentuate the coffee's fruit notes. I’d guess that without dairy, the cherry syrup might be a softer choice. 

[kayb]

7 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

I wouldn't mind trying this.  What ratio did you use?

Oh, hell. I didn’t use a recipe. Best guess, it was about 2 1/2 cups puréed melon and 1/2 cup heavy cream.

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

Oh, hell. I didn’t use a recipe. Best guess, it was about 2 1/2 cups puréed melon and 1/2 cup heavy cream.

A woman after my own heart  

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

Oh, hell. I didn’t use a recipe. Best guess, it was about 2 1/2 cups puréed melon and 1/2 cup heavy cream.

 

It's not so much that we don't use recipes; it's that we don't write shit down so we have it for next time, if something comes out particularly great!

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

 

It's not so much that we don't use recipes; it's that we don't write shit down so we have it for next time, if something comes out particularly great!

I hate to put every "recipe" i cook in my black spiral bound book.

 

But a big post-it with a note or two isn't such a commitment. If the dish sucks it can disappear. If it doesn't it gets stuck in the book for future repetition and  perhaps eventual inclusion in the Book.

[mgaretz]

3 hours ago, weinoo said:

It's not so much that we don't use recipes; it's that we don't write shit down so we have it for next time, if something comes out particularly great!

 

Because we think we will remember what we did...

[weinoo]

7 hours ago, mgaretz said:

 

Because we think we will remember what we did...

I’m always hoping that by posting here, I’ll have some idea of what I did.  
 

But then I don’t remember when, where or what it was I posted about!