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 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.