Ninja Creami - worth it?

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I keep hankering after one of these but I'd love to hear some real life experiences.

How often do you use it? How good is the ice-cream?

I saw someone on TikTok saying that it either had to be eaten fresh or you had to re do it if you stored it in the freezer, so it seemed a bit pointless/too much of a faff, but maybe someone will come along and clarify.

I got one this month, and I love it - you do need to re-mix it if you're keeping it in the freezer rather than being able to take it out and eat straight away, but mixing takes 2 minutes so no issue for me

I LOVE the sorbet options - watermelon and sprite make an incredible sorbet. I have such a sweet tooth but since getting the creami I'm able to have 'healthier' options of sweet treats as you know what you're putting in. I wouldn't be without it now!

We like ours but don’t use it very much. These holidays kids have made Greek yogurt with strawberries and Dubai chocolate style with kunefa mix in. Quite noisy to use but only on for a few minutes (you pre freeze for 24 hours). DD keen to try making frappucinos and frappes soon.

Waste of money - never gets used as too much of a faff

We got one after tasting some a friend had made in hers. A basic Creami, not the one with the Mr Whippy attachment. Never looked back. See my username. Honestly it makes the most delicious ice cream, we have about 10 different tubs in the freezer and have to ration ourselves to a single scoop per night. I make the base mix according to my friend's recipe which can be scaled up or down depending how many tubs you're making (each is about the size of a Haagen Daz tub, I had to buy 8 more from Amazon as the machine only comes with 2). The recipe uses a little Philadelphia cream cheese, caster sugar, milk and double cream. I then add Monin syrups (as sold for coffee) to flavour each tub differently. You freeze it solid for 24 hours, then put it in the machine which spins and churns it noisily in 2 mins, and then it's ready to have a scoop whenever you want some, keep it in the freezer, doesn't need respinning. I love that it's pure and simple compared to the whipped up fats, artificial colouring and gum in supermarket ice cream. Apart from the delicious sugary syrups I add obvs. Big hits have been banana, popcorn, pistachio, lemon tart, roasted hazelnut, praline, salted caramel, vanilla, strawberry. My experiments making sorbet from canned fruit have been less successful so I'm sticking to the creamy ones and buying more Monin syrups. Can't recommend highly enough.

Very faffy, lots of prep, been in the garage for a year.

I absolutely love mine and wouldn’t be without it

I wonder if people are put off by tricky recipes, does the one in the booklet involve faff? I put a dollop of Philadelphia in the Kenwood chef bowl, beat in the sugar, pour in the cream and milk, mix it all together and pour it into tubs on top of whichever flavoured syrup I'm mixing in, it literally takes one or two minutes and is so good

Then freeze it for 24 hours - all that = faff

The size of the containers is odd too, too big for one person too small for a few people.

Having to remix it after you’ve taken it out.

I suppose if you eat enough ice cream it’s worth the faffing and space in the kitchen - we don’t and it takes a lot of space.

Sorbets are also incredibly easy. Couldn’t be easier in fact.

How is it different to freezing the mix and blending it in a food processor?

you only freeze each newly made tub for 24 hours before spinning it, then keep it in the freezer and use like any other ice cream though, you don't have to respin it every time you want some? The size is like a standard Ben and Jerry's or HD tub, I'd never eat a whole one myself although I could! And if I was going to serve it to more people I'd make two tubs of the same flavour. Oh well, each to their own, it works well for the two of us and is earning its place. Unlike the waffle maker (delicious but too calorific)

ooh what's your secret, what method do you use? I found the simply frozen canned mandarins turned out a bit icy.....

Might be worth a try, but I suspect the texture would be different, the Creami machine puts a fast rotating blade through the mix in the tub from top to bottom and seems to turn it from rock solid to proper recognisable ice cream texture

I mostly use a combo of fresh fruit and purées, though I recently used tinned lychees which were fine, if a little soft in the end product.

I'll try that thank you, what combos have you been pleased with? I learned that putting pieces of strawberry in the ice cream resulted in unpleasant little icy pieces, fixed by respinning, so would definitely puree it in future, or use freeze dried fruit

You’d break the food processor 😆. The creami shaves the block - it doesn’t blend it.

i got one two years ago - I now have healthy ice cream most days. If you don’t eat the whole tub then just put it back in freezer and next time leave it out for 10 mins before attempting to scoop.

personally I eat what I want then put the remainder in lolly moulds and have the rest as home made magnums.

I'm sure you're right and you wouldn't want to risk breaking your food processor. It's quite the technology, shaving the block describes it exactly. Great idea about lolly moulds, thanks

I love mine, I've just got the basic creami but that's enough for me. Freeze your mix overnight, spin it the next day, you don't have to spin again if you haven't eaten it all, just get it out of the freezer and let it sit for 10 minutes or so & it will be soft enough to scoop/spoon out. You don't need complicated recipes either you can use ready made custard as a base then add your fruit or whatever flavours, it's very simple & fun.I joined a Facebook group for tips and ideas it was really helpful.

Make sure you don't spin straight from the freezer, it can break your machine.
They are very noisy in use when spinning the mix, but it's only for a couple of minutes each time, I can live with that.
ETA . I even make ice cream for my dog with it , he loves it 😁