What if I told you that you could make creamy, custom frozen desserts in under two minutes? All it takes is investing in the Ninja Creami, a handy countertop gadget that churns out ice cream one pint at a time.
Okay, like most things that sound too good to be true, the Ninja Creami actually requires a bit more than a couple of minutes to produce soft ice cream–esque treats—but it comes pretty close. And as someone who’s made ice cream the hard way, I get the hype. But is it worth the counter space? And is it worth buying into the full Creami lifestyle?
Below, my honest Ninja Creami review after a week of spinning, scooping, and experimenting with this ice cream maker.
What is the Ninja Creami and how does it work?
The Ninja Creami can best be described as a mix between a blender, a food processor, and an ice cream maker. Though, technically, it’s none of these things. It’s a unique countertop appliance with a single purpose: shaving down frozen pints into smooth scoopable (or sippable) frozen treats.
Before you do any spinning, your dessert base—whether it's ice cream, sorbet, or something else—needs to freeze for at least 24 hours in the included pint containers. These pints are designed not just for storage but to lock securely into the machine as it runs. Once frozen solid (but not so hard that the blade can’t cut through them), they’re ready to be Creami-fied.
Without getting too technical, the Creami is kind of like a mechanical immersion blender. You load the frozen pint into the outer bowl, attach the lid, and twist the whole thing onto the base until it clicks into place. Inside, a motor spins a horizontal four-blade paddle downward into the frozen block, shaving and whipping it into a creamy texture. Unlike traditional ice cream makers, which churn a liquid base as it slowly freezes, the Creami works in reverse: It starts with a solid block and turns it creamy through mechanical force. The whole process takes about 1 minute 45 seconds.
If the texture isn’t smooth enough, Ninja recommends using the Re-Spin function, which often helps bring crumbly or powdery results to the right consistency. Once the Creami has Creami-ed your pint to a smooth consistency, your ice cream is ready to serve immediately.
Is the Ninja Creami an ice cream maker?
Not in the traditional sense. Most conventional countertop ice cream machines, or the popular KitchenAid mixer ice cream attachment, work by stirring or spinning a chilled liquid ice cream base (usually a custard) inside a pre-frozen bowl or in the well of a machine that, itself, uses a compressor to produce ambient freezing temperatures. As the mixture chills, churns, and stirs, ice crystals slowly form, turning it into soft ice cream that can then be frozen further to firm up.
The Ninja Creami works in reverse: You freeze your base solid first, then the machine pulverizes it into ice cream. Once the pint is locked in, a spinning blade (called the Creamerizer paddle) moves downward, shaving and whipping the frozen block into a creamy consistency. It’s a bit like a shaved ice machine, although Ninja is clear that it does not shave ice, and we don’t want to give you any ideas.
What can you make in a Ninja Creami?
If you disassociate the typical way ice cream is made from the term “ice cream,” then the Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker can be used to make ice cream, gelato, sorbet, milkshakes, and smoothie bowls. That includes simple, single-flavor bases plus the ability to add some chunky mix-ins to the party (with a dedicated button/cycle for that purpose).
The “ice cream” in question, when starting with the basic ice cream base provided in the accompanying cookbook of Ninja Creami recipes, comes out, texturally, between a soft serve and scoopable ice cream. I’ve seen many comparisons to a Dairy Queen Blizzard, and that description is apt. However, I found that storing the spun ice cream back in the freezer for a few hours or even overnight got me closer to purely scooping consistency. There’s also a basic gelato recipe using egg yolks and little cooking of the base beforehand, which results in a denser, creamier finish.
There are also dairy-free options and low-sugar or others incorporating sugar substitutes, which are churned using the dedicated Lite Ice Cream function. And with the rise of our national obsession with protein, many users have also hacked their Creami to create recipes for protein ice cream (officially, the Creami recipe book only has a protein smoothie bowl, but the website has some protein ice cream options).
Smoothie bowls generally require freezing fruit with a yogurt or milk (dairy or plant, whatever you prefer) base overnight and then churning them in the morning. Milkshakes are made using premade ice cream plus a splash of milk, or you can churn a pint of Creami ice cream and then pour in some milk and run it again as a milkshake right then and there. However, other than that, the original 7-in-1 Ninja Creami does not make any other frozen drinks.
Note: If you need your Creami to pull more weight around the kitchen, consider the Ninja CREAMi XL Deluxe, which has 11 preset programs for additional treats like frozen yogurt, frozen drinks, “Creamiccino,” slushies (branded as “Slushi”), and Italian ice. For soft serve fans, there’s also the Ninja Swirl, which has many of the same Creami presets along with the added functionality of a soft ice cream dispenser.
What I made with the Ninja Creami ice cream maker
The basic vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and the basic chocolate ice cream recipes (which use whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, flavoring, and a dollop of cream cheese) reminded me of store-brand supermarket ice creams. Not bad, per se, just not as delectable as Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs. (My kids didn’t care and ate them all up.) Mix-ins like Oreo cookies were generally well-dispersed, but not as consistently as the professionals.
Personally, my favorite results came with the Ninja Kitchen’s gelato recipe, which utilizes egg yolks, milk, and heavy cream (along with any flavorings), simmered and then chilled in an ice bath before sticking the pint into the freezer. If that sounds a lot more like making homemade ice cream the old-fashioned way, it is. But the richer texture and repeat scoopability (even after decanting the gelato into a separate container that couldn’t be re-Creami-ed) was well worth it, especially the Maple Gelato, which was hard to resist sneaking spoonfuls of throughout the day.
Some of the Creami’s nontraditional uses were its other standouts. The convenience of dumping a can of pineapple chunks in juice into the pint, freezing it, and whipping it into a sorbet was not only economical but also satisfyingly simple. And while it felt like a callback to the old Yonanas infomercial, I also tried the all-bananas sorbet (literally just shove banana slices in up to the pint’s Max Fill line and freeze) to be some of the best banana “ice cream” I’ve tried, beating the pants off the “throw frozen bananas in the food processor” version. However, a fresh watermelon sorbet with lime and agave wouldn’t coalesce into anything scoopable, no matter how many Re-Spins I gave it.
As mentioned above, one subcategory of Creami users you’ll find on Reddit and TikTok is those looking for high-protein treats to fit into their macros-obsessed lifestyles. I tried a protein ice cream recipe that appeared to be pretty standard (a scoop of protein powder, a spoonful of pudding mix, milk, sweetener) and found it came out as texturally pleasing as the basic ice cream, though with that inescapable mouthfeel of protein supplements. If you can get past that, it could be a dessert-meets-leg day gamechanger.
What I liked about the Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker
Given the simplicity of its base recipes, the Creami really is an easy entry point to homemade ice cream. With only a couple of minutes of mixing, 24 hours of patience, and a couple more minutes of Creami-ing, I was able to create acceptable flavors that my family and I liked. The pints are easy to batch out and freeze/store for later, and they require less room in the freezer or cabinet than the KitchenAid mixer ice cream maker or other frozen bowls. (The machine we tested came with two pint containers, and spares are available for purchase. I used four containers to speed up batch testing, and this felt like a handy amount to keep around.)
If you’re willing to commit to the prep and quirks of the Creami and think you’ll want ice cream or smoothie bowls on the regular, the machine only takes up about the same amount of counter space as a drip coffee maker. Other than being a bit noisy (like a Vitamix or other high-powered appliance), it could very well earn a permanent place in your kitchen.
What I didn’t like about the Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker
My biggest issue with the Creami is that, while the recipe book encourages you to explore different mix-ins and extracts to create your own flavors, the experimentation is still rather limited. You can’t, for example, use an ice cream recipe you might find in a cookbook from a fancy scoop shop. The Creami method even got in the way of its own recipes: My attempt at vanilla bean gelato, while tasty enough, felt wasted as I spent money on a real vanilla bean, only to have all the flecks settle at the bottom of the pint before it froze. And with the Creami, you won’t be mixing in any ribbons of Nutella or fresh fruit either, everything has to be frozen or hard, and you’re encouraged to use things like chocolate shell topping, which starts to feel less like homemade ice cream.
And, to be frank, it’s kind of a single-use appliance. If you group the ice cream, lite ice cream, gelato, and sorbet functions under one “frozen desserts” category (i.e., things you can make with any ice cream maker). In that case, you’re left with milkshakes and smoothie bowls, both of which you can turn to a blender or food processor for—and those kitchen appliances are much more likely (and dare I say deserving) of permanent homes on your countertop.
One quirk I noticed is that some of the pint lids snapped on securely while others had a looser fit. Nothing fell off once in the freezer, but I would worry about accidentally grabbing one by the lid and having it fall on the way to the fridge. Durability of the pint containers may also be a concern: At one point, I needed to remove the remnants of a frozen pint into another vessel, so I ran a butter knife around the inside of the container, which left some significant scratches.
Finally, none of the components (pints, lids, paddle, or outer bowl) are listed as dishwasher-safe, so hand scrubbing everything was a little tedious. Speaking of cleaning, a little metal cog up under the business end of the machine also needs to be wiped down, as some of the ice cream base makes its way onto it during the process. It’s an easy spot to miss.
Should you buy a Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker?
The verdict of my Ninja Creami review? If you want an easy-to-use, less fussy take on the countertop ice cream machine that doesn’t require a lot of upkeep or space, the Creami is a fun appliance that will have you or even your kids whipping up their own creamy treats the first time you use it. No, it can’t replace or do half the things your Vitamix Blender or Cuisinart food processor can do. But, to be fair, neither can any of the best ice cream makers out there.