Creating Delicious Homemade Ice Cream with the Ninja CREAMi Swirl: Fun and Healthy Treats for Kids
If you’re like me and have ice cream-obsessed little ones, the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi is an amazing addition to your kitchen. It lets you create creamy ice cream or soft serve, with a flavour list only limited by your imagination.
The machine offers lots of different settings, allowing you to create scoop or soft serve style gelato, ice cream, sorbets, and more. The kids love the ice cream in any format, but there’s something special about the swirl of a soft serve treat that you usually only find at restaurants, ice cream shops, and fast-food outlets. Now, the Ninja CREAMi Swirl brings that soft-serve experience to our kitchen, where we control the ingredients and flavours!
The Swirl gives you the ability to create ice cream tailored to your tastes - whether it’s a classic vanilla soft serve in a cone, a decadent chocolate gelato, or even a fruity sorbet. You simply create your mixture, freeze it until solid in one of the supplied pint tubs (additional units can be purchased to allow for more flavour selection at home!), and place it into the machine to be processed. In about 5 minutes, the machine will have blitzed your solid mixture into a delicious ice cream that could be served over fresh fruit, apple pie, or enjoyed straight from the container! If you want to feel like your home is the best ice cream parlour in town, you can attach the soft-serve dispensing lid to the tub, load it into the dispensing area on the left of the unit, and pull the lever for a fun and satisfying experience. A word to the wise - take your time when pulling the lever to save yourself from overserving!
Helpfully, more than 20 handcrafted and tested recipes are included in the recipe book with the unit, giving you a chance to learn and practise your ice cream-making skills. Once you’ve got an idea for a recipe you can twist and tailor the flavours of an existing one to suit you and your kids’ wants. We’ve tried out several flavours since getting the machine, which has been a lot of fun and a creative challenge for our kids. Here are some of our highlights:
Mango & Coconut: As simple as mixing chopped mango and coconut milk for a tropical delight. No recipe, just a guess, and it still made a great treat! Note: A little coconut milk goes a long way! It’s a great addition because the fats give a creamy outcome.
Chocolate Protein Powder: Family-friendly protein powder (we use Nutra Naturals) mixed with your milk of choice, frozen and blended into a delicious and healthy soft serve!
Vanilla Custard Base: A homemade custard base (eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla), this was a classic, rich, and decadent ice cream base. We then used the mix-in feature to add Maltesers, which got blended up to create a crunchy treat, adding both taste and texture - the ultimate customisation feature!
Fruit Only: Blend frozen mango, strawberries, and bananas to give you a fruity, natural, added-sugar-free, dairy-free ice cream dessert!
One of the things we love most about the Swirl is being able to make healthier versions of ice cream using ingredients like fruit, yoghurt, and coconut water. I blended a couple of bananas, frozen mango, and strawberries with a little bit of water to create a yummy sorbet-like treat for the kids. If we’re making it in an ice cream maker and it comes out looking like soft serve, they’ll never know the difference!
Now, a couple of practicalities: The machine itself is quite large, so it will take up quite a bit of space on your countertop (like an air fryer would). You’ll be thankful that all the parts are dishwasher safe - making clean-up much easier. When you’re finished with a part, give it a quick rinse straight away in the sink, then load it into the top rack of the dishwasher for a thorough clean. Then, get another mix ready and pop it back in the freezer for tomorrow’s treat! It does require a bit of forethought and preparation, as the mixtures benefit from a full 24 hours of freezing time before processing. However, if you’re caught short, one trick is to use store-bought ice cream! Place it in the tub, flatten it level, and freeze it for a short while until it’s reset. You can then process this into a soft serve and add mix-ins if desired!
There are several Ninja CREAMi variations, so I would encourage you to check out the other Ninja models to see if this one is right for you. But the Swirl is a really nice extra to have for when the kids want to get involved in creating their own dessert.
Check out NinjaKitchen.com.au/products/ninja-swirl for more information. The Ninja CREAMi Swirl is also available from major retailers across Australia such as Myer, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, David Jones, BETTA, and Bing Lee.
