Check out my recipe for making Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream! I’ll show you how to make the thickest, creamiest, and most flavorful blueberry ice cream in your Ninja Creami. There’s a couple of extra steps that go into making it, but it’s definitely worth it!
You can make blueberry ice cream with just a few ingredients, but it’s what you do with those ingredients that makes a huge difference when it comes to flavor and texture.
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.
Not only does Ninja Creami ice cream taste amazing, but the texture is PERFECT! I’ve made this recipe over and over again and every time the texture is super thick and creamy. If you ask me, the thicker the ice cream is, the better it is.
However, there are some folks that prefer more of a soft serve consistency. If the ice cream is too thick for you, just add a little more milk and re-spin. The more milk you add, the softer and fluffier looking it will get.
Tips for making Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream:
Vanilla bean paste is a thick syruplike vanilla flavoring. The vanilla bean paste is a combination of vanilla pods (the little seed-looking things inside the bean) and vanilla extract. The flavor is more intense but has less of an alcohol and artificial taste. Vanilla bean paste is used just like vanilla extract, it’s a 1:1 ratio. The result is a rich vanilla flavor with vanilla bean speckles throughout. You can buy vanilla bean paste at most grocery stores (even Home Goods and TJ Maxx sell it now!!) near the vanilla extract and on Amazon.
If you have made ice cream and it just isn't quite as creami as you would like, you can very easily get it super creami by using the re-spin function on the Ninja Creami. After the initial process, if the ice cream is dry and crumbly, pour in one tablespoon of milk or cream and then simply place the pint into the outer bowl and snap it into place. Choose the RE-SPIN function. Once the cycle completes, remove the pint and enjoy! Your ice cream should be nice and creamy .
Some people put frozen berries along with the dairy and other ingredients into the Ninja Creami container and then process, without freezing the mixture first. I DO NOT recommend doing this. If you want to do that, then just use a blender. The Ninja Creami is not made to process hard frozen chunks (frozen fruit) that are suspended in liquid (dairy and other ingredient). Processing frozen fruit with liquid (without freezing the mixture first) can damage the machine and may void the warranty.
My #1 go-to cream cheese substitute for cream cheese is guar gum. Instead of using cream cheese, you can use ¼ teaspoon per 16 ounce container. The guar gum is flavorless and very small in volume.
If your Ninja Creami ice cream is very dray and looks like sand, it likely does not have enough fat or sugar in it. It might also be because of your freezer temperature being too cold, or a combination of those things. After the first spin, if the ice cream looks like sand, pour 1-2 tablespoons of liquid (milk, cream, juice) and re-spin. You might have to do this a couple of times. Be sure to add the liquid on the first re-spin. If you keep re-spinning and then add liquid on the 3rd or 4th re-spin it’s more difficult to get the ice cream to become creamy. If the ice cream looks like little balls of ice cream (like dippin’ dots) after the initial spin, just respin it without adding any liquid.
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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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- After 24 hours, remove the pint container from the freezer.
- Place the pint container into the outer bowl of the Ninja Creami and then process on “ICE CREAM.”
- 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.
- Remove the pint from the machine and enjoy!
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Recipe
Ninja Creami Blueberry Ice Cream
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Add Food Grade Vegetable Glycerin To Make Leftover Ice Cream Scoopable Right Out of the Freezer
Per 16 ounce pint: *Add 1 Teaspoon to full fat/full sugar bases *Add 1.5 teaspoon to high protein bases *Add 2 teaspoons to low sugar/low fat lite bases. Freeze and process per the recipe. Take the leftovers out of the freezer and scoop without having to reprocess. ***This is a guideline and adjustments may be needed based on your recipe.
Original, Breeze, Swirl, and Deluxe Ingredient Measurements
Use the multiplier below to adjust quantities based on the machine that you own. ***If you have the Original, Breeze, or Swirl machine, which use 16 ounce containers, choose the 1X option. ***If you have the Deluxe or XL machine, which use 24 ounce containers, choose the 1.5X option.
Ingredients
Ice Cream Base
- 1 Cup (236 ⅗ ml) Milk
- ½ Cup (121 g) Half and Half
- 1 Teaspoon (1 Teaspoon) Cream Cheese (Room Temperature- If you don't like cream cheese, you can use ¼ teaspoon of guar gum instead.)
- 1 Teaspoon (1 Teaspoon) Vanilla Bean Paste
Blueberry Sauce
- 1 Cup (148 g) Blueberries (Fresh)
- ¼ Cup (50 g) Sugar
- ½ Teaspoon (½ Teaspoon) Lemon Juice
Instructions
Prepare the Blueberry Sauce
- 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.
Make the Ice Cream Mixture
- 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.
- 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
- After 24 hours, remove the pint container from the freezer.
- Place the pint container into the outer bowl of the Ninja Creami and then process on "ICE CREAM."
- 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.
- Remove the pint from the machine and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. Optional ingredients are not included in the nutrition information.
Recipes that use allulose:
Allulose is a low calorie sweetener that your body doesn't fully digest, so it provides only 0.4 calories per gram instead of 4. That's why the calorie total doesn't match what you'd expect from the carb count. Calories from allulose are calculated based on metabolized carbohydrates. Allulose contributes fewer calories than standard carbohydrates.
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Paige says
This blueberry ice cream was s fantastic!!!!
Lauren Cardona says
I’m so glad you liked it!!