The Ninja Creami is worth every penny — if you can get your hands on it
The Creami turns almost any liquid into frozen treats like ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet and more.
This is the smaller Ninja Creami, which comes with eight programs compared to the Deluxe model’s 12: ice cream, lite ice cream, sorbet, milkshake, smoothie bowl, gelato, respin and mix-in. It functions exactly like the Deluxe model, although you connect the pint directly to the appliance after screwing on the processing lid instead of housing it in an outerbowl. There is also no option to blend just the top or bottom of the pint — each program processes the entire thing.
I found the Creami Breeze’s smaller footprint convenient for apartment living. My apartment does not have much counter space, so I stored the appliance in a closet. It’s a little over 10 pounds and did not feel very heavy. I was able to easily lift it and carry it from my closet to my island and back.
Cost: $209.99 | Size: 12.21 x 6.3 x 15.75 in. | Weight: 11.685 lbs. | Programs: 8 | What’s included: Appliance, paddle and processing lid, two dishwasher-safe 16-ounce pints with storage lids
The Ninja Creami takes a backward approach to making frozen treats compared to typical at-home ice cream makers. You usually start by adding liquid ingredients to an ice cream machine, and either freeze the appliance’s insulated bowl ahead of time or run it through a programmed chilling period — both help the mixture get cold before the ice cream machine churns it into a thick, creamy treat. This can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour based on my reporting about ice cream makers and other highly rated models we’ve researched from brands like Breville and Cuisinart.
The Ninja Creami, however, requires you to freeze ingredients first. You pour liquids like dairy or nondairy milk, canned fruit, an already blended smoothie, wine (to make a frose, for example) or coffee into the included pints. You’ll then cover them and pop them in the freezer for 24 hours. Once the liquid is completely frozen, you screw on the machine’s processing lid, which is built with a paddle that has a blade, similar to a blender. You select your preferred preset and the machine drives the spinning paddle through the frozen block to shave the ice and whip it into a creamy, frozen treat.
Ninja Creami presets can run from about 90 seconds to five minutes depending on what you’re making. When you take the lid off the pint after the first run, don’t be surprised if you find a crumbly, powdery, chalky mixture that does not resemble ice cream, our editors say. Based on our experience, you’ll likely need to respin the pint, which is a separate program the Creami offers that further breaks down the mixture to get it closer to your desired consistency. Some pints only need one respin, but others may require two or three depending on how frozen and thick your mixture is.
If you need to respin your mixture, we found that adding a drop of milk, water or whatever liquid you included in the recipe helps soften it and get creamy faster. I use a chopstick to make a well in the center of my pint and pour the additional liquid inside it — this helps ensure the liquid goes all the way down to the bottom of the pint. Schneider says adding a drop of liquid on top of the frozen base before the first spin also helps move things along, similar to how you’d add liquid to a blender to help it process the ingredients. She also lets her pints defrost at room temperature for about 15 minutes before running them through the Creami.
Ninja sent us both of its Creami models to try. Two of our editors used them for over five weeks to make ice cream, dairy-free frozen treats, sorbet, frozen yogurt and more. We tried many of the appliances’ programs, including the mix-in and respin features. We also froze our bases for varying amounts of time — from 5 hours to over 24 hours — to see how long they would take to freeze all the way through.
It did not take long for us to become daily Ninja Creami users. Below are a few of our main takeaways after trying the appliance.
With the Ninja Creami, you’re in complete control of everything that goes into your mixture. For example, you can choose to follow a more complex recipe like vanilla gelato, or simply pour chocolate milk from the grocery store into the pint. Schneider also says she likes knowing exactly what sugar additives are in her ice cream, and she can choose exactly how much of each ingredient she wants included, which helps with portion control if that’s something you pay attention to.
It’s also great for those with dietary restrictions and allergies. In addition to a few food allergies, I eat gluten-free and mostly dairy-free, so I spend a lot of time reading ingredient labels, especially when it comes to prepared foods like ice cream. With the Ninja Creami, I can make the exact gluten-free and dairy-free treat I’m craving instead of compromising or hunting down the flavor I’m looking for (which can be expensive and time consuming). For example, I made gluten-free cookies and cream ice cream with an oat milk base in my Creami, which I’ve never found at ice cream shops or on shelves at the grocery store.
In our experience, the Ninja Creami is incredibly easy to operate, no matter your comfort in the kitchen — you freeze your mixture, connect a pint to the machine and press a button or two. Using the appliance feels similar to using a blender, so I approached it with familiarity and I was not worried about doing something incorrectly.
Additionally, the Creami will run your desired program on its own. Schneider says this lets her walk away and tend to something in a different room, unlike a blender which you have to constantly monitor.
Despite how straightforward using the Creami is, we recommend reading the included instructions — it walks you through using the appliance and includes helpful tips, like making sure you don’t freeze your mixture at an angle, which may be hard for the appliance to process. There’s also a QR code on the directions booklet you can scan to watch an instructional video. Since the Ninja Creami is so popular on social media, you can also find answers to many questions on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, where there are dozens of accounts and hashtags dedicated to the appliance.
The Ninja Creami Deluxe comes with 24-ounce pints and the Ninja Creami Breeze comes with 16-ounce pints. Our editors found that both yield at least three servings of ice cream when completely full, so you can make enough for a few people to enjoy or multiple servings for yourself.
You also don’t have to fill pints up all the way — I love making frozen yogurt with my Creami, and to do so, I add one 5-ounce container of yogurt to the pint, filling it about one-fourth of the way up. Schneider also says she barely fills her pints to make a frozen treat just for herself.
The Ninja Creami is not a quiet or lightweight appliance. As the motor drives the paddle through the ice block, the appliance makes a very loud sound — so loud, in our experience, you won’t be able to play music, hear the TV or phone calls, or talk over it. Since it’s disruptive, you may have to strategically plan when you use the Creami if you live with other people. Schneider also noted that you may not want to use the Creami while you have people over since it’s hard to hear or talk over.
The Deluxe Creami is also heavy, according to Schneider. She needed to use two hands to lift or move it around her home. It’s not an appliance that you can quickly grab while holding other things, she says. On the other hand, I don’t find the Creami Breeze excessively heavy — I can easily move it around my apartment when I hold it with two hands.
Zoe Malin is an associate updates editor who covers kitchen products at NBC Select. For this article, Malin and NBC Select editor Lindsay Schneider spent over a month trying two different Ninja Creami models to learn about the appliances and document their experience using them.
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