Ninja Creami FAQ's

Usually, if your ice cream comes out dry or crumbly it's due to one of the following reasons:
*Your freezer is too cold. Try to adjust your freezer to be a little warmer or let your ice cream sit on the counter for 5-10 minutes before processing it.
*Your recipe does not have enough fat in it. Try adding in a little bit of a higher fat dairy product to your recipe next time.
*Your recipe may not have enough sugar in it. The less sugar in the recipe, the icier and crumblier the ice cream will be. Regular sugar, honey, or corn syrup can be used to increase the sugar content if desired.
To help resolve this issue, after processing, add 1 tablespoon of dairy and then reprocess.

Yes, you can. But, frozen fruit either needs to be thawed out before using, blended with the other ingredients, or have a liquid, like dairy added to the pint to fill in all of the gaps. You cannot only use frozen fruit as it could damage the machine.

The heavy whipping cream has a tendency to turn greasy or almost butterlike when there is too much added or it is over-mixed. To prevent this from happening, use less heavy whipping cream or substitute it with half and half or milk.

To melt the ice so that it doesn't affect the texture of the ice cream, microwave the pint for 10 seconds, run the pint under warm water, or thaw the pint for 10 minutes before processing.

It depends. If you are keeping the ice cream in the Ninja pint container with the lid sealed tightly and are freezing it in a cold freezer (between 9 degrees F and -7 degrees F), your ice cream will keep for several weeks, even months. However, if you transfer your ice cream to another container or freeze it in a freezer that is not quite as cold (or that is accessed a lot/door opened and closed often), the lifetime of your ice cream will decrease greatly to just a few days and you will likely end up with freezer-burned ice cream.

All Ninja Creami mixtures need to have some fat, sugar, or dairy in it. This can come from the ingredients that are being used- watermelon already has sugar in it so you don't need to add more. You cannot freeze just water.

No. You do not need to use cream cheese. But, you will need to use some other type of stabilizer or the ice cream will be soft.

Yes! You can! There are a ton of different recipes using protein shakes in the Ninja Creami Community on Facebook. Here's a link to the thread on these recipes.

You can order Dole whip mix on Amazon. Check it out here. But, you can make something almost the same with canned pineapple. Here's my recipe for this.

But canned fruit in heavy syrup instead of water or add a little extra sugar before freezing.

You can't really. The peanut butter will mix in fully. When the ice cream is finished processing, mix in peanut butter with a spoon.

Yes. You can. Some of the substitutes may create a less creamy texture though. A good substitute for dairy is coconut milk/cream.

Adding 2 tablespoons of instant pudding mix (just the powder) helps thicken the ice cream up and adds a super creamy texture!

You can, but you cannot use it instead of the instant pudding mix in recipes. Instant pudding mix has much less volume, more flavor and a thickening agent that the premade pudding will not provide.

Angel Delight is similar to instant pudding mix in the US.

Modified corn starch such as EZ Gel or Clear Gel.

According to Ninja Kitchen, yes. It takes 24 hours for the mixture to evenly freeze throughout. Many have frozen for a shorter time and been successful. However, doing so may void the warranty.

Yes. Clean the lid by removing the blade and then soak the blade and lid in warm water with a splash of vinegar. Swoosh the lid around so that the water gets inside the hole that holds the blade. Open and close the blade hole while in the water to ensure that it all gets clean. You can also wash the lid and blade in the dishwasher, but inside the hole may not get clean.

The metal spindle is self-cleaning. If you would like to further clean it, do so by wiping it clean with a damp towel. Do not pull or bend the spindle.

Thaw the ice cream on the counter for 10 minutes or use a warm spoon to flatten out the bump before processing it. Processing it with the bump may cause the machine to start to process at an angle and this can cause the machine to malfunction.

Sometimes, the machine cuts at an angle and the blade cuts into the Ninja Creami pints. If this happens, do not eat the ice cream as it will have pieces of plastic in it. Call Ninja Kitchen at 1-866-826-6941 or contact them on their Facebook page to resolve the issue.

Add a fresh banana. Bananas do great things for the texture! But, you can taste the banana flavor. Or, re-spin the treat.

I usually start out with my recipe for Ninja Creami Vanilla Bean iced cream and modify it to add different flavors and mix-ins.

Amazon and Kohls seem to be the places that have them in stock the most often and for the lowest price. Find them on Amazon here and on Kohls here.

There are 2 different machines. One that is a 7 in 1 and one that is a 5 in 1. The 5 in 1 does not have the gelato or smoothie bowl option. Otherwise, they are the same. Different stores sell different model numbers but these model numbers only change due to the number of pint containers that are included and the store that you buy it at. But, there are only 2 different machines.

Smooth out the top of the ice cream and put it back in the freezer. Freeze until hard and then process again on the same initial process that you used.

Re-spin is used to re-spin a treat that has already been processed and is soft. If you have re-frozen an already spun treat, process on the original option after removing from the freezer. Re-spin is only used for treats that have already been processed and not added back to the freezer.

Lorann recommends ⅛-1/4 teaspoon per pint. Modify based on your personal preferences.