It is in no way contradictory. If, on the one hand, it is intuitive to eat ice cream in summer, savoring with fruition (that is, with delight) a piece of caloric chocolate, well covered, is another type of delight. The reality is that even bicycles are not just for the summer. And even less ice cream. That’s why We tested the Ninja Creami, an ice cream mixing machine that, according to social media, You can turn virtually anything into delicious ice cream in a matter of minutes.
The first thing to clarify is that it is true: turns anything into ice cream and in minutes. As long as we have done the previous mixing 24 hours before, the period that the machine needs to be able to act. Simply put: ice cream is made in minutes, but we need the mixture to spend 24 hours in the freezer first.
This makes having the whim of an ice cream and doing it at the moment, an impossible mission with the Ninja Creami. and this is the biggest problem of the device. It should also be noted that the first few times the process of taking the container to the Creami takes practice, until it becomes a litany of twisting, locking and releasing.
On the positive side of the scale it should be noted that the Creami works very quickly in terms of turn a liter of frozen ingredients into ice cream, even without dairy and with complicated bases. It was obvious that chocolate, vanilla and even bananas or strawberries would be simple, but with peanut butter it also behaves very well and with less thought out or common ingredients, it behaves wonderfully.
And this is one of the great Ninja Creami advantages: trigger creativity. An example: I had a homemade fig chutney that we had made from scratch. The ingredients were, obviously, figs, pear, onion, sugar, vinegar and water. No milk or cream. And this device, which would delight Willy Wonka, turned it into creamy ice cream. It may not be suitable for all palates, but it is very interesting in terms of textures.
From previous experiences with ice cream, One of the biggest difficulties was the essential use of invert sugar, that does not crystallize. To make it you have to mix sugar, water, lemon, baking soda… And it takes several hours. It prevents lumps in ice cream, but the process is annoying. Ninja Creami avoids having to use this type of sugar.
To this we must add that not only makes ice creamalso gelatos, an Italian ice cream that is served at a slightly higher temperature than traditional ice cream, which makes it sometimes confused with sorbets, something that is also possible with this machine (its characteristic is that it is generally fruit-based) , smoothies, shakes and other preparations, all simple and for which all you have to do is press a button.
Also behaves very well with preparations containing alcohol (pear ice cream in wine, for example), something very complex to achieve due to the chemistry of alcohol in temperatures below zero or close to it.
Ninja Creami It comes with three transparent plastic tubs of almost half a literalthough you can buy more. The advantage of this is that we can freeze them and make the ice cream whenever we feel like it, we do not depend on a single container that must be rotated.
It is easy to wash (all components are dishwasher safe) and does not take up much space.so it is not necessary to “hide” it: it is similar in size to a coffee maker. Some preparations, it must be confessed, did not have the desired texture and for this purpose it is the Re-Spin button, which spins a few more times until the desired texture is achieved. This has happened to me, for example, when I used coconut.
Important: we have to explore it to know the textures we want to achieve. The recipes available on the website (more than 100) are very precise, but for tastes and flavors. For example, the one with chocolate and nougat leaves the small pieces of the latter somewhat hard. Maybe one more turn will give them a crispier characteristic. This means that, if we include cookies in the preparation, it is a good idea to make several “turns” until we achieve the desired texture. The same for pieces of fruit.
Verdict
Currently, the Ninja Creami is on sale for €183. Considering this, it is a temptation. Mainly for those who enjoy inventing flavors, using fruits for smoothies and preparing cold coffees. But there is another less explored aspect: using it with children to get creative (like Willy Wonka) and to create a snack in the middle of summer for pets. If you don’t care about frozen flash or raspberry sorbet, it won’t be your “favorite flavor.” For the rest, as I said: a tempting whim.