What is a Ninja Creami?
I asked, a look of utter bewilderment on my face. I know what those words meant separately, but when combined into a single phrase I worried that if I Googled it I’d end up on a list of some kind. If that’s how you’ve found us today, welcome! And yes I will explain in full detail.The Ninja Creami is a frozen dessert maker. It will take a solid base and transform it into ice cream, milkshakes, sorbets and more. What frozen base? Pretty much anything you could think of. Most people use frozen fruit, milk (both dairy and non-dairy varieties) or cream, blended with other ingredients for flavour or texture.
Why would I love a Ninja Creami?
If you’re an ice cream aficionado, a milkshake maniac or a sorbet stalwart, you’ll love the Ninja Creami. If you’re somewhat of a scientist in the kitchen, an epicurean experimentalist, you’ll love the Ninja Creami. If you love trying new things, an early adopter, a trendsetting trailblazer, an innovative iconoclast, you’ll love the Ninja Creami.
For the variety
When it comes to Ninja Creami recipes you are limited only by your imagination and bravery. Experiment to your heart’s content, you never know what will end up being delicious and what will end up being totally, irredeemably awful. Your creations could be life changing, a fusion of flavours rich and rare. They could be abominations that your family still refuses to speak of years later. How will you know unless you try?
For the dietary restrictions
Can’t eat dairy? Can’t eat Lactose, gluten, sulphites, salicylates, nuts, or FODMAPs? You know how hard it is to find non-dairy ice cream that’s actually yum. What about gluten free ice cream, sulphite free ice cream, salicylate free ice cream, nut free or FODMAPPED ice cream?
You can make a frozen dessert in the Creami with a frozen base entirely of your own creation. This means you can leave out anything you’re allergic or intolerant to easily. You know it’s safe - you made it in your own kitchen out of your own ingredients.
Vegans! Make your base with non-dairy milk and stop paying supermarket prices for the vegan ice cream you love.
The Creami is also good for those on a health or fitness journey. You can make keto-friendly ice cream, low calorie ice cream, even high protein ice cream. Some people use cream cheese in the base, personally this terrifies me but if you’ve been eating bacon and putting butter in your coffee for weeks you might appreciate the change in flavour.
Hate onions? Avoid them easily when using the Ninja Creami.
For the waste reduction
If there’s fruit or herbs in your fridge that won’t get eaten, cut and freeze them and use the Creami to make them into ice cream or sorbet. Use fruits, vegetables and herbs from your own garden and feel proud that you’ve made it fresh at home.
The Creami makes small batches (one pint) each, so you don’t have to worry about making a huge batch and half of it going bad before you can eat it. The Creami comes with three tubs, enough so you can enjoy a variety of flavours at once without being stuck with one huge batch.
For the children
I know every parent who’s had the time to read this far has immediately thought that they can use the Creami to trick their children into eating vegetables. Yes, you can. You can hide vege like riced cauliflower or avocado or lean into the veg with a carrot cake or pumpkin spice creation. Try this Sneaky Mint Chip Ice Cream recipe - with peas and spinach hidden behind the mint and chocolate flavour.
You could also make regular ice cream with milk or cream, sugar and vanilla and give your children a nice treat that’s cost effective to make and only uses a few ingredients. They’ll love being involved in choosing and freezing the base and pressing the buttons for the Creamerizer.
The actual road test
What’s in the box?
In the box is the actual unit, three hard plastic tubs with lids, the outer bowl and lid used when blending, the Creamerizer Paddle (the bit that turns the base into ice cream), user manual and recipe book.
The actual unit is 40.5cm tall, 17cm wide and 30.5cm deep. It’s quite skinny and will fit on the benchtop underneath most overhead cabinets. Bear in mind the height and where you will store it when not in use.
The three plastic tubs feel like quite thick and solid hard plastic in the hand. They can each contain one pint (473ml) of ice cream. The tubs are for pre-freezing the base and storing the frozen dessert afterwards, and the lids have grooves on the top to make them easily stackable. The tubs and lids are BPA free, and the tubs are microwave and dishwasher safe.
The user manual and recipe book were clearly written and easy to follow.
The control panel is easy to read and shows the following:
- Power button
- Install light which illuminates if the unit is assembled incorrectly
- Progress bar light
- Ice Cream program button
- Lite Ice Cream program button
- Gelato program button
- Sorbet program button
- Smoothie Bowl program button
- Milkshake program button
- Mix-in function button
- Re-spin function button
Getting started was simple: we chose a recipe from the included recipe book, prepped and froze the base in one of the included tubs 24 hours before using the Creami. We washed all the loose parts before using and then assembled the outer bowl, tub with pre-frozen base, Creamerizer paddle and lid according to the user manual.
We started with a watermelon sorbet (found in the recipe book that came with the Creami). Once we got to the spin stage it took less than 5 minutes to go from frozen to sorbet, and we did need to give it another spin. We added mint for some interest and used the mix-in function to fold it in. It was very tasty and the texture was perfect for sorbet! We found it melted quite fast, noting however that we live in Queensland and the weather was hot.
We also made ice cream using a base made with cream and milk, it turned out very creamy and smooth, and we all agreed that it was just as good as (if not better than) store bought ice cream.
We did find it to be moderately noisy, similar in noise level to a blender.
All the parts except for the actual unit are safe to go in the top rack of the dishwasher, so cleaning up was quite easy.
Tips and tricks
- If your dessert comes out too icy, your base may not have enough (or any) sugar or fat in it. Experiment with different ratios of ingredients in your base to find what works for you.
- Scrape down the sides of the container before using the re-spin function.
- Don’t fill the tub too full because the mixture will expand during churning.
- Use canned fruits to make it super easy.
- Prep a few bases at a time to save time.
- If you use nuts as a mix-in, toast them first.
Is it worth it?
Like all trending small appliances the value is in how often you use them beyond the initial novelty phase. Looking online the people who seem to get the most consistent use out of them are parents, diet and fitness enthusiasts and ice cream lovers.
If you use it often, use simple ingredients, use ingredients from your own garden or use it to stop fruits and vegetables from going to waste, you will get value from your Ninja Creami.
The bottom line
The Ninja Creami is a good appliance with good accessories and it does what it says on the box, turning a frozen base into a creamy dessert. You never know which trend will end up being the new Air Fryer, so if you’re an ice cream fanatic jump on the bandwagon online or at your local Bi-Rite. Shop the Ninja Creami here.
