The Ninja Creami is an awesome way to make frozen treats at home! No matter how basic or complicated your ingredients are, you can make the most wonderfully creamy dessert at home!
With any appliance, especially a cooking appliance, there are a lot of questions that can come up. Well, you’re in luck! I’ve put together a list of the most commonly asked questions about using the Ninja Creami! These FAQs have been created based on experiences using the machine and are not directly from Ninja Kitchen.
These questions pertain to using the Ninja Creami to make recipes. If you have questions about the machine itself, check out my unboxing/review post on the Ninja Creami here!
Do you have a great Ninja Creami recipe that you want to share? Submit your recipe to The Tasty Travelers!
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If you are in my Ninja Creami Community group on Facebook, you may come across some abbreviations that you aren’t quite sure what they mean. I’ve listed out a few below.
Ninja Creami Abbreviations
- HWC-Heavy Whipping Cream
- SF-Sugar-Free
- BBB-Bed Bath and Beyond
- GF-Gluten-Free
- WW-Weight Watchers
- FF-Fat-Free
- DF-Dairy-Free
- T, TB, tbsp, tbl, tbs-Tablespoon
- tsp, t- Teaspoon
I’ve pulled together a bunch of substitutions that can be used when making Ninja Creami treats! Thanks to the members of The Ninja Foodi Community for submitting all of the different substitutions that they use! As with any recipe, ingredients are adjusted by the tastes of the creator. So, you may find that you prefer to use more or less of the ingredient. Adjust based on your own personal tastes. This is a great place to start though!
Stabilizers and Thickeners (instead of cream cheese)
- Sugar-Free Instant Pudding Mix- 2 tablespoons per pint
- Guar Gum- ¼ teaspoon per pint 0r 0.1% by weight per pint
- Tara Gum- ⅛-1/4 teaspoons per pint
- Acacia Gum- ¼ teaspoon per pint
- None- skip the stabilizers all together
- Mayonnaise- 1 tablespoon per pint
- Coconut cream- 1 to 2 teaspoons per pint
- Dream Whip- 1 to 2 teaspoons per pint
- Unflavored Gelatin- ½ tablespoon per pint
- AvaCream- ¼ to ½ teaspoon per pint
- Cream Cheese- 1 tablespoon per pint
- Neufchatel- 1 tablespoon per pint
- Regular Instant Pudding Mix- 2 tablespoons per pint
- Instant Clear Gel-2 tablespoons per pint
- Good Culture Cottage Cheese- 150 grams or ⅔ cup per pint
- Xanthan Gum- ¼ to ½ teaspoon per pint
- Cornstarch (boil the mixture before freezing)- 2 tablespoons per pint
Sugar Substitutes (most sugar can be added to taste- taste the mixture before freezing and add the sugar until it tastes good to you)
- Allulose- 2 to 3 tabelspoons per pint
- Erythritol- 2 teaspoons per pint
- Monkfruit (lakanto)- 2 teaspoons per pint
- Monkfruit with Erythritol- 3 tablespoons per pint
- Powdered Monkfruit-½ cup with Allulose- ¼ cup per pint
- Swerve- ⅓ cup and a little Stevia per pint
- Pyure- 2 tablespoons per pint
- Skinny Syrups- 45ml or 3 tablespoons per pint
- Splenda to taste per pint
- Honey to taste per pint
- Bochasweet to taste per pint
- Agave to taste per pint
Dairy Substitutes (the amount of each will vary on the recipe that you are using. As little as a few tablespoons can be used up to almost 2 cups)
- Almond Milk
- Coconut Cream
- Coconut Milk- canned or refrigerated
- Nutpods
- Almond Milk-1 cup and yogurt- 80grams or ½ cup
- Oat Milk
- Protein Shake
- Almond Milk- ¾ cup and Coconut Milk- ⅛ cup and Coconut Cream- 4 tablespoons
- Kroger Carb Master- 1 ½ cups
- Bananas instead of the dairy
- Cashew Milk
Liquid Flavorings (most flavorings can be added to taste- taste the mixture before freezing and add the flavors until it tastes good to you)
- Vanilla Bean Paste- 2 teaspoons up to 2 tablespoons per pint
- LorAnn Oils- ¼ to 1 teaspoon per pint
- Flavored Alcohol (one that complements the flavor of the ice cream)- 1 to 2 tablespoons per pint
- Homemade Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon and Raw Vanilla Bean half seed per pint
- 1 ½ sticks of instant drink packet per pint
- One-on-One Flavorings
- Skinny Syrups- 2 to 4 tablespoons per pint
- Instant Pudding Mix- 2 tablespoons per pint (also used as a stabilizer)
You can buy Lorann Oils in a 24 pack where YOU PICK THE FLAVORS! Here’s the link to check it out on Amazon.
Where to buy Ninja Creami Cozys
- Joan from The Ninja Creami Community on Facebook hand makes the very popular crocheted Ninja Creami Cozys. She sells them in her Etsy store. Click here to see her listing.
- Sharon from The Ninja Creami Community on Facebook makes embroidered Koozies. She sells them on her Square site. Click here to see her listing.
- Jeanne from The Ninja Creami Community on Facebook makes handmade, sewn Koozies. She sells them in her Etsy store. Click here to see her listing.
- Linda from The Ninja Creami Community on Facebook makes handmade, sewn Koozies. She sells them in her Etsy store. Click here to see her listing.
Part of the fun of the Ninja Creami is coming up with whatever recipe sounds good to you! It’s really a game of trial and error. One pint might not turn out exactly as you had hoped, but the next 5 are going to be awesome!
Once you have come up with a good base recipe and start to get the hang of the ins and outs of the machine, your ice cream journey will take off!
You can literally make ice cream, or sorbet, or anything really, using your Ninja Creami! Let the fun begin!
I hope the below FAQs make your ice cream journey even more fantastic than you thought it was going to be!
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.
Looking for more Ninja Creami Recipes? Check out all of our Ninja Creami recipes here!
Pin Ninja Creami FAQs for later!!
Ninja Creami FAQ’s
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Equipment
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
- 2 Cups Ice cream base ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Mix-ins
Instructions
- Prepare base with desired ingredients.
- Freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
- Insert Pint container into outer bowl and process.
- Add mix-ins if desired.
- Process on mix-ins.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
*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.
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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Wendy says
I found that adding 1 crushed Junket tablet makes a super creamy Icecream. I made wild blackberry Icecream and was worried it would be icy. Not at all!
Marilyn says
Can you just make regular ice cream recipe mix for use in the Ninja Cremi? Mostly just eat vanilla or chocolate ice cream. I know it requires eggs. Just want to make regular ice cream for now to test the machines capabilities for that. Thank you in advance for answering. Cannot find this question anywhere else.
Lauren Cardona says
Hi Marilyn- It depends. So, the Creami works differently than most ic ice cream makers. It does not churn the same way that others do. So, generally speaking, you can use the same recipes. However, you will likely need to make a couple of substitutions and adjust when some of the ingredients are added. For example, using too much heavy cream in the Creami turns the ice cream to almost a butterlike consistency and creates a greasy film. So, use less heavy cream or sub some of it for milk or half and half. Also, with a traditional ice cream maker, you can add things like chocolate chips during the churning process. You cannot add chocolate chips until after you have frozen and spun the ice cream or it will completely blend in the chocolate chips until they are no longer chips. Many do use tempered eggs in their ice cream bases. The use of the eggs in the creami should be no problem and should not do anything strange to the consistency.