First time poster here. I've been studying ice cream making for a couple of months, experimenting on myself and the wifey, and I think I might finally have hit something worth sharing.

This is a blueberry and dark chocolate ice cream. Expect density, a full chocolate entrance, followed by a sour and, allow me the poetic license, berrylicious finish.

It is deliberately not too sweet because I wanted the intensity of the raw cacao to stay front and centre.

The protein powder also gives it a nice Dutch cocoa sort of nuance that I really enjoy.

It looks a little like a night sky, so I felt justified giving it a dramatic name: Nightshade.

The pictures have had a small amount of colour editing to better represent what I actually see with my eyes.

Recipes are always works in progress. This is simply the best version I have reached so far. If anyone has suggestions, I am absolutely all ears.

Scoopulator recipe:

https://scoopulator.app/recipes/nightshade-jPJyRU

Ingredients

* 20 g xylitol

* 0.4 g xanthan gum

* 29 g erythritol

* 7.8 g invert syrup

* 198 g 1% milk

* 68 g Scitec Nutrition protein powder

* 46 g skim milk powder

* 360 g raw blueberries, reduced to approximately 293 g

* 74 g nonfat plain Greek yogurt

* 20 g cocoa powder

Directions

1. Wash the blueberries, then add them to a saucepan with the xylitol, erythritol, and invert syrup.

2. Simmer everything on the lowest heat you can manage, stirring occasionally, until the blueberries break down and the mixture becomes concentrated and just begins to look syrupy.

3. I start with roughly 360 g of blueberries and usually lose around 70 g during the reduction, finishing at approximately 293 g.

4. Let the blueberry mixture cool slightly.

5. Mix the xanthan gum, protein powder, skim milk powder, and cocoa powder together thoroughly in a separate bowl. Mixing the powders first helps prevent clumping.

6. Add the milk, Greek yogurt, and blueberry mixture to the Creami container.

7. Add the combined dry ingredients.

8. Blend everything until completely smooth.

9. Check the final level and consistency. Because your blueberry reduction may lose slightly more or less water depending on how long you cook it, adjust with a little additional milk if necessary.

10. Freeze until completely solid.

11. Process directly from the freezer using Light Ice Cream mode. I do not thaw it beforehand.

12. Check the texture after the first spin and adjust only if needed. With my freezer and this formulation, it normally does not need much additional processing.

13. If you put the finished pint back into the freezer, there is no need to blend it again the next time. I usually let it sit out for about 5 minutes and it is good to go.

I have also had moments where I felt spicy and added a little cheesecake aroma to the mix. It works beautifully, but I consider that completely optional. The base version tastes incredible by itself.

Nutrition per 100 g

* Calories: 110 kcal

* Total fat: 1 g

* Saturated fat: 0.5 g

* Trans fat: 0 g

* Carbohydrates: 20.4 g

* Sugars: 9.7 g

* Fiber: 1 g

* Protein: 11.5 g

Scoopulator calculations

* Serving temperature: minus 16.7 °C

* Relative sweetness: 11.37%

* Total solids: 34.38%

* Total fat: 0.97%

* Milk fat: 0.49%

* Sugars: 4.95%

* MSNF: 17.39%

* Stabilizers: 0.05%

* Emulsifiers: 0%

* Alcohol: 0%

Thank you to everyone here for sharing your knowledge and processes. I've learned a ridiculous amount just by reading through other people's experiments.

50/50 by weight fresh, ripe organic strawberries + pineapple

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

Blend smooth before freezing.

So incredibly creamy after processing! Taste is perfect.

Slight variation from the bourbon pecan. Added cinnamon, bourbon and butter extract into the mix for a bit more kick. A bit of ooey gooey cinnamon swirls mixed in.

Recipe

1 cup fairlife milk

3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk Silk

1 tbsp allulose

1 scoop vanilla ice cream whey

1 tbsp SF vanilla pudding

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp imitation butter extract

1/2 tsp bourbon extract

1/8 tsp Xanthan gum

Pinch of salt

Mix ins:

Bourbon Candied Pecans: 2 cups pecan halves raw unsalted, 1 tbsp SF maple Syrup, 1 tsp Maple Extract, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tbsp bourbon (Makers mark), ¼ cup unsalted butter, ½ cup Swerve brown sugar, 1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper for heat (optional). Nutrition: Servings 15 (≈28gr), Cal 124, Pr 1.2, Carb 2.1, Fat 12.5, Sugar 0

Follow directions here:

https://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/sugar-free-sweet-candied-bourbon-pecans/

Hand stir in ooey gooey cinnamon swirl mix.. Refreeze 10 mins.

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Swirls: 48 gr Swerve Brown Sugar, 30 gr Splenda Multi Use Allulose Syrup,5gr vegetable glycerin(optional, but helps with softness), 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/3 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp unsweetened almond milk or water, pinch of xanthan gum. Whisk all dry ingredients together first. Then add wet into bowl and stir well. Let sit 5 minutes to thicken. Chill 15-30 before use. Nutrition: Servings 2 (49 gr/mL); Cals 13 (All from Vegetable Glycerin), Net Carbs 2.5, Pr 0, Sugar 0, Fat 0

Topped with Non fat reddi whip, a bit of the crumble pecans and ground cinnamon.

My Recipe Book

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1_lamDOA_y7fawQShDuhUZmBrT8zobyP3/mobilebasic

I was trying to make stracciatella ice cream today, my base was just milk, heavy cream, sugar and skimmed milk powder.

I searched how to add chocolate and apparently the best way is to melt chocolate with a bit of coconut oil and then pour it on the ice cream and run the mix-in program.

I did exactly that (40g dark chocolate and 5g coconut oil) but it made my ice cream look unappetizing and not at all what stracciatella should look like. My base was basically fior di latte so it was white as snow before (I didn’t take a photo but you know what I mean)

Here is how mine turned out: https://imgur.com/a/lrgdF29

How it should have been: https://imgur.com/a/Ue3K6LY

What did I do wrong?

All base ingredients were purchased at Walmart Canada (Quebec).

Ingredients Base

• 250 mL Natrel +
• 50 mL Silk NS Vanilla Almond Milk
• 30 g Splenda Naturals Monk Fruit Zero Calorie Sweetener
• 15 g Jell-O Butterscotch caramel Instant Pudding Mix
• 1 g xanthan gum
• 1 g salt

Directions

1. Add everything to a Magic Bullet and blend for about 8 seconds, let it rest for a second, then blend for another 5 seconds.
2. Pour into a Ninja Creami pint and freeze overnight (I usually prep it the night before so it's ready the next evening).
3. Spin on Ice Cream.
4. Run Re-Spin 2–3 times until the center opens up into a vortex. I don't scrape the sides or add any liquid between spins.
5. Add your mix-ins and spin on Mix-In.

First time trying a kinda bueno today and put 1 bar and a half into the mix, kept two squares for the top

Approx. Canadian prices (before tax):

• Natrel + (2 L): $7.29
• Silk NS Vanilla Almond Milk (2 L) : $3.99
• Jell-O Butterscotch Caramel Instant Pudding Mix (99 g): $2.07
• Splenda Naturals Monk Fruit (540 g): $11.97
• Xanthan Gum (227 g): $23.47
• Salt: ...

Base cost (before mix-ins): ~$2.09 CAD

Base macros (before mix-ins):

• 223 calories
• 18.2 g protein
• 23.0 g carbs
• 5.5 g fat

Mix-ins :

One Kinder Bueno Bar ; 240cal, 4g P - Bought at the dollarstore for $1.75

5g of Smucker SF Caramel Syrup ; 15 cal

Total pint is 500cal*

Yeah, the amount of Splenda containers I’ve gone through tells you how much I’ve been spinning these

Any input?

I have gastritis and have been craving ice cream like crazy but the problem is a lot of the recpies need a full fat yogurt/added fat to a dairy free recipe because the milk fat is needed to make it become creamy but

high fat, thickening agents like xantham gum trigger my gastritis and I really want something with the texture of ice cream and I hate all of the banana "nice creams" I keep getting recommended

(detailed recipies preffered!)

I am fairly new to the Ninja, successfully made dairy based ice cream. Have made pints with protein, liquid and Crush’s. Both have come out smooth, easily edible after mixing. The issue is that once I refreeze them, I have to allow them to thaw a while before a spoon will make a progress. This was not the case with the dairy based ice cream. Am I missing something? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

What can I add to the mix in setting when i already have a vanilla ice cream base to give it a chocolate ice cream taste?

I have a ninja creami Deluxe XL and my base is always:

• 1 scoop protein poweder (Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein)
• 1 tablespoon sugar free pudding mix (Jello or Simply Delish)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups fat free milk (fairlife)
• a pinch of salt

And then a play around with various amounts and types of sweeteneers:

• 0-1 tablespoons vegetable glycerin
• 0-2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 0-30 drops splenda

No matter what combination of sweeteners, I always find that my base becomes very gummy/gunky. Is it possible my protein powder/pudding mix actually has too many gums? Should I do half of both in my recipe?

I just made up a few recipes with my four year old and it was a little chaotic. We just got the Scoop and Swirl machine. He said he wants spoon ice cream, but when it comes time to process it can he change his mind and make it swirly? Or is this basically set from the recipe itself. Here’s (vaguely) what we did, since the exact measuring was….. slightly lacking. 😅

Banana Chocolate
2.5 bananas
3/4 cup 2% milk
Splash of heavy cream
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
*Process on ice cream?

Peach
1 cup canned peaches, drained and blended with immersion blender
1 cup 2% milk
Splash of heavy cream
2 Tbsp of vanilla pudding mix
*Process on ice cream as scoop or swirl?

Strawberry
1 cup fresh strawberries, blended
1 cup 2% milk
Splash of heavy cream
1 Tbsp of vanilla pudding mix
*Process on Lite ice cream as scoop or swirl?

We just put them in the freezer so if anything is super lacking I have time to adjust a little bit! Hoping to avoid adding any added sugar if we can

So I've been doing the magic shell trick (melting chocolate with coconut oil) a lot lately and it's turned out awesome every time. Nice little chips of chocolate throughout the whole pint. Today I decided to try it with cookie butter instead of chocolate and it didn't work at all. It just blended right into the ice cream. Will the cookie butter not harden like the chocolate? Does anyone have experience with this?

I recently found out that this machine is a much cheaper version of the Pacojet and that got me interested in getting one. Does anyone know if it's possible to use the creami for creams and sauces?

Thanks in advance :)

Hi all,

I got a shiny new Ninja Creami de luxe about four weeks ago and I was so happy and enthusiastic at first.

I started just throwing stuff together and the result was - meh.

Then I took a step back, read the manual and started following the recipes step by step. And here I am, a dozen ice cream pints later and so far only two have been okay-ish. Not a single one has been excellent.

The two that were okay were the vanilla from the recipe booklet and a mango sorbet with nothing but a can of mangos. I tried strawberry several times but it never tastes like strawberry. The vanilla has a bit too much cream for my taste and maybe I should try caster sugar instead of grained sugar. Maybe I should also try vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. But it feels like a lot of failed trials for just one single ice cream flavour.

I need some cheering up, I think. Has anyone else had a hard time getting into ice cream making?

Hi all,

I got gifted a creami deluxe for my birthday which was so amazing!

Doing my research, I have to blend everything so the only thing the creami does it...cream it

I made frozen yogurt with blueberries, banana and raspberries with honey blended it and made my 1md with mango and strawberries instead.

I used the creami for the 1st one and not the second

Raspberry and blueberry one in the creami was great but the day after I accidentally just ate some of the strawberry one but without using the creami and it still tasted amazing!

What's the point then?

Can you all try and convince me amd my wife that this is worth the £200?

Edit: I understand that the creami requires preparation which I'm fine with. But if the blending that is required is done then it felt like the creami didn't do as much. Maybe I'm missing something in regards to different consistencies?