Cooking Appliances review
Ninja Creami Review: The Recipe Matters More Than the Machine
One reviewer using professional ice cream bases got a finished result from the first spin. Everyone using the recipes in the box needed to re-spin. That is the whole learning curve.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Ninja
Ninja Creami
Fair · researched from 3 sources
Given a properly balanced base and a day of notice this produces genuinely good dense ice cream in two minutes. Given the recipes in the box it produces something chalky that needs re-spinning, which is why people's experiences with it differ so wildly.
- Buy if
- Anyone willing to learn how to balance a base · Protein, dairy-free and low-sugar versions, which A Beautiful Mess found worked well · Batch preparation, freezing several pints to spin on demand
- Skip if
- Spontaneous dessert, given the 24 hour freeze · Quiet flats and households with sleeping children · Anyone who wants light, airy, soft-serve style ice cream
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
Why nobody agrees about this machine
Dream Scoops made ice cream from professionally formulated bases: Philadelphia style from Jeni's, from Salt and Straw, from Dana Cree, plus a cooked vanilla bean gelato. All of them came out firm, dry and ready to eat from the first spin. No re-spin. No hardening in the freezer afterwards.
A Beautiful Mess found the first spin chalky and needed a second pass with added liquid.
Edible Brooklyn describes results ranging from powdery and crumbly, like Dippin' Dots, to smooth and creamy, depending entirely on recipe and setting.
The tiebreaker is a single sentence in the Dream Scoops review: the recipes in the machine's own manual are really, really bad.
That is the learning curve people describe. The machine does the same thing every time. What you feed it decides everything.
What it actually produces
About 19 percent overrun, measured by Dream Scoops. Overrun is the air whipped into the mix, and a low figure means a dense product.
The result is nearer gelato than soft serve. Denser, colder, more intense. Whether that is what you wanted is a matter of taste, and it is worth knowing before you buy something expecting a Mr Whippy.
The genuine advantage is that a balanced base comes out ready to eat. A conventional churn produces something soft that needs hours in the freezer to firm up. This does not.
The 24 hours
Every batch. All three sources call it mandatory, and Edible Brooklyn is specific that eight to twelve hours gives you icy, crumbly or overly soft results.
That rules out deciding you want ice cream after dinner. A Beautiful Mess works around it by freezing several pints at a time so there is always one ready to spin, which is the right way to use the machine and takes some planning.
Re-spinning, and its hidden cost
Dream Scoops measured what happens: re-spinning clears ice crystals from the edges and warms the mixture to around 21°F in the process, which frequently means returning it to the freezer before you can eat it.
Edible Brooklyn's method is to add a tablespoon of liquid and re-spin until it looks right, which works and takes time.
If you find yourself re-spinning every batch, the base is the thing to fix.
It is genuinely loud
Dream Scoops measured 71 to 81 decibels. Edible Brooklyn compares it to a circular saw and rules it out during naps or late at night in a flat. A Beautiful Mess likens it to a high-speed blender.
Dream Scoops offers the fair defence: it is as loud as other machines and runs for one to two minutes rather than the twenty to forty a churn takes.
Living with it
Seventeen inches tall, per Edible Brooklyn, which is a serious amount of worktop or a serious amount of lifting.
Pint containers and lids are dishwasher safe. The paddle is not, because of its sharp edges, and Dream Scoops notes mixture getting trapped in the small holes in the lid, which a soak in warm water resolves.
And A Beautiful Mess raises the thing nobody expects: leftovers freeze extremely hard, needing fifteen to twenty minutes out of the freezer before they are scoopable again.
How it scored
The overall 6.6 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Ice cream quality
Dream Scoops measured about 19 percent overrun and describes gelato-like results, firm and dry from the first spin when the base is balanced. Edible Brooklyn reports grainy results from low-fat bases.
Value
A Beautiful Mess notes it costs around $180 against $50 for a conventional churn, and still calls it the best ice cream maker they have used.
Build quality
Pints and lids are dishwasher safe. Edible Brooklyn says the paddle needs hand washing because of its sharp edges, and Dream Scoops notes mixture trapping in the small lid holes.
Ease of use
A mandatory 24 hour freeze before every batch. Dream Scoops calls the included recipes really, really bad, and Edible Brooklyn describes a genuine learning curve.
Noise
Dream Scoops measured 71 to 81 decibels. Edible Brooklyn compares the sound to a circular saw and says it is unsuitable during a nap.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- Dream Scoops measured about 19 percent overrun, giving a dense gelato-like result
- When balanced correctly, ice cream comes out firm and ready to eat with no hardening step
- It runs for one to two minutes against twenty to forty for a conventional churn
- A Beautiful Mess got consistent results across dairy, fruit, juice and protein bases
- Pint containers and lids go in the dishwasher
- Batches can be frozen in advance and spun on demand
What we didn’t
- Every batch needs 24 hours of freezing first, which all three sources call mandatory
- Dream Scoops calls the recipes in the included manual really, really bad
- Edible Brooklyn reports low-fat bases coming out grainy and needing several re-spins
- Dream Scoops found re-spinning warms the mixture to around 21°F, often needing more freezer time
- Edible Brooklyn measures 17 inches of height, which is a lot of worktop
- The paddle has sharp edges and cannot go in the dishwasher
Specifications
| Freeze time | 24 hours before every batch |
|---|---|
| Spin time | One to two minutes; 5 to 10 minutes per pint including handling per A Beautiful Mess |
| Overrun | About 19 percent per Dream Scoops |
| Capacity | 16 oz per pint container |
| Noise | 71 to 81 dB per Dream Scoops |
| Re-spin | Warms the mixture to about 21°F per Dream Scoops |
| Height | 17 in per Edible Brooklyn |
| Settings | Seven programmes on the standard model |
| Cleaning | Pints and lids dishwasher safe; paddle by hand |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
3
sources reviewed
Dream Scoops is the most technical source, supplying the overrun measurement, the decibel range, the temperature after re-spinning and the results from professionally formulated bases, and is the only source to identify the recipe manual as the problem. A Beautiful Mess supplies the domestic experience across a range of ingredients including protein and dairy-free, the processing times and the storage observation. Edible Brooklyn supplies the freezing time findings, the low-fat base problem, the height and the cleaning detail. The three describe very different textures and the FAQ explains why rather than averaging them.
What we read
Common questions
Why do people get such different results from the Ninja Creami?
Do I really have to freeze it for 24 hours?
What does the re-spin button actually do?
How loud is it?
Is it real ice cream?
The bottom line on the Ninja Creami
Given a properly balanced base and a day of notice this produces genuinely good dense ice cream in two minutes. Given the recipes in the box it produces something chalky that needs re-spinning, which is why people's experiences with it differ so wildly.
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