Ninja Creami Deluxe: I scream, you scream…

When I told friends I was going to review the Ninja Creami, I was surprised to find that they already knew all about it. You see, they were the cool kids (Yeah, I have cool friends. Who’d have thought?!) who hang out on Instagram and/or TikTok, where the Creami is already a star with a bigger than huge following.

Here’s the thing, though: I love ice cream, gelato, sorbet, granita, and other sweet, icy desserts. In anticipation of the review, I did some research. I was pleased to see that Ninja’s Creami Deluxe can make ice cream out of almost anything. You don’t need to spend hours farting about making custards or laboriously churning a half-frozen base.

It turns out that making frozen treats is as simple as freezing whatever you want to make into ice cream, sorbet, or gelato for 24 hours in one of the pint (568ml) containers bundled with the machine. Then you pop it into the Creami, select the relevant function based on what you want to make, and a cleverly designed blade spins at an improbable speed, descending into the frozen mix, whipping it with air and magically transforming it into delicious ice cream.

As simple as this sounds, I was sceptical owing to several complications. First, there is my own personal situation. Over the past year, my average blood sugar level has increased. It is now just one point below what is officially considered pre-diabetic. Making matters worse, my wife is lactose intolerant, meaning that anything with even a hint of dairy really disagrees with her. The upshot of this was that I had to find a way to make both sugar and dairy-free ice cream – not an ideal scenario when reviewing an ice cream machine.

It turned out that my concerns were completely unfounded, thanks to the huge online community of Creami users and the vast number of recipes that are easily found. Checking the many online communities and forums devoted to Creami showed me that making healthy ice cream that wasn’t going to push me into diabetes or make my wife ill was indeed possible.

Ice cream traditionally uses dairy, as milk fat is what gives ice cream its silky, decadent, creamy mouthfeel instead of a far less pleasant grainy icy texture. Sugar also plays a significant role, as taste buds are far less sensitive to flavours in frozen dishes, requiring lots of sugar to be added.

Getting around these proved less difficult than I thought. Cream and milk could be replaced by substituting coconut cream and, if needed, oat milk. Swapping out sugar wasn’t hard, either. Medjool dates, stevia, or Monk Fruit are all easy to obtain and deliver oodles of guilt-free/calorie-free sweetness.

My first test involved a combination of frozen mango and coconut cream. Dumping chunks of frozen mango and tipping in a pile of coconut cream into the Ninja Creami pint container, I plunked everything into the freezer and waited 24 hours.

The pint bowl slots into another bowl, which is designed to fit into the Creami, locking everything in place. Fitting the blade to the lid, I set the Creami to “Ice Cream light,” hit “Go,” and waited. Most posts I’ve read about the Creami say it’s really loud, but I found the noise it made to be on par with a power drill, and wasn’t that bad.

Two minutes later (progress is counted down by a nifty digital display), the Creami was finished. Taking out the bowl and removing the lid, my mango dessert looked dry and icy. According to the many online forums I’d perused, this was perfectly normal. Most Creami users suggested I add a tablespoon of coconut milk, put the bowl back in, and fire up the “re-spin” option.

What a difference! I now had a delicious, super creamy, and zingy mango dessert. It might have been both sugar- and dairy-free, but holy shit, it tasted great! My mind was now reeling with endless icy possibilities. Espresso, flat white style ice cream (Yes, I did make this, and it was freaking awesome, even if I didn’t sleep for 24 hours afterwards), chocolate ice cream layered over peanut butter ice cream for a guilt-free dessert snickers!  Our lemon tree outside is laden with soon-to-be-ripe lemons, and the thought of making the same tangy lemon sorbet I’d eaten in Italy got me more excited than you can imagine.

The review unit I was sent is the Ninja Creami Deluxe. It has a bunch of different functions ranging from ice cream, sorbet, lite ice cream, gelato, milkshake, smoothie bowl, and mix-in (which allows you to mix choc chips and other delish goodies into your ice cream creations), plus slushy, Italian ice, frozen drink, Creamiccino, and frozen yoghurt. If you can freeze it, the odds are good that the Creami can make it into a dessert.

The Ninja Creami Deluxe is tall but narrow. This was definitely a good thing, given the limited bench space available in our kitchen. As most consumer-grade ice cream makers are far bigger than the Creami, it easily earned a place on my kitchen bench. I was also impressed by how easy the Creami is to clean. Everything is easily dismantled and can be scrubbed, and the bowls and blade are dishwasher safe, but hot washes can warp the bowl/lid, rendering it unusable. There are multiple tabs and buttons for locking and unlocking the blade, lids, and bowl. Using these soon became second nature.

If you’ve wondered how to make tasty and healthy ice cream, try the Creami. Backed by a huge online community, the Creami is a dream to use, making it easy to achieve great results. Taking its very reasonable $500 price tag into account (not to mention having healthier ice cream!), there’s a lot to like!

https://ninjakitchen.co.nz/products/ninja-creami-deluxe-11-in-1-ice-cream-maker