Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream

I have found that making a blueberry sauce and adding it to the ice cream base provides 100 times more flavor than adding uncooked blueberries to that same base. It takes just a couple of minutes to make your own blueberry sauce.

I love blueberries! They are one of my favorite fruits to eat. If they are ripe, they are super sweet and flavorful and go really well with so many things. It makes sense that blueberries would taste great in ice cream! For this recipe, I decided to cook the blueberries into a sweet sauce. I’m so glad I did. If you just add blueberries to the ice cream base you won’t get nearly as much flavor as you will if you make a blueberry sauce. Mixing the sauce with the other base ingredients, before freezing, creates a wonderful purple ice cream that has a ton of blueberry flavor throughout.

Ingredient substitutions for making Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream:

The full ingredient list is found at the bottom of the post in the recipe card.

Milk– I used whole milk in this recipe. You can use a dairy substitute or lower fat milk if you prefer but the lower the fat content, the less creamy the result will be.

Half and Half– If you don’t have half and half, you can use a mixture of ¼ heavy cream and ¾ whole milk.

Sugar– White sugar was used. You can use a sugar substitute that is a 1:1 ratio.

Cream Cheese- I use regular cream cheese, not whipped. If you prefer not to use cream cheese, you can use ¼ teaspoon of guar gum instead or any other Ninja Creami ice cream stabilizer that you would like.

Vanilla Bean Paste- I prefer to use vanilla bean paste because it adds a deeper vanilla flavor and I find that it tastes less like alcohol. You can substitute the vanilla bean paste with vanilla extract.

Blueberries– I prefer to use fresh blueberries, but you can use frozen if that’s all that you have available. You could even change it up and use raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries. You may want to run the cooked berry mixture through a mesh sieve if you use blackberries due to the larger seeds.

Lemon Juice- Fresh or bottled work the same for this recipe. If you don’t have lemon juice, you can use lime juice instead. I would not recommend substituting with an extract or flavor oil.

Directions for making Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream:

Make the Ice Cream Mixture

1. In a small saucepan, combine the blueberry sauce ingredients; blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the blueberries have burst and turned into a saucy consistency. This should take about 5 minutes. Allow to cool while making the ice cream base.
2. Pour the ice cream base ingredients into a small blender and blend until all ingredients are fully combined. Pour the cooled blueberry sauce into the blender and mix together with the rest of the ice cream base. Pour this mixture into a Ninja Creami pint container.
3. Freeze on a level surface for 24 hours. Your freezer should be between 9 and -7 degrees Fahrenheit. To avoid getting a bump on the top of the frozen mixture, freeze with the lid off of the container.

Process the Ice Cream

1. After 24 hours, remove the pint container from the freezer.
2. Place the pint container into the outer bowl of the Ninja Creami and then process on “ICE CREAM.”
3. If the ice cream is dry or crumbly looking, pour in a tablespoon or two of milk and then re-spin. You may have to repeat this process a couple of times.
4. Remove the pint from the machine and enjoy!

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