🍦 Easy Ninja Creami Vanilla Ice Cream
Makes: 1 Ninja Creami pint
Prep time: 5–10 minutes
Freeze time: 24 hours
Creami time: 2–5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened — optional, but makes it extra creamy
Step-by-step
1. Soften the cream cheese
If using cream cheese, let it sit at room temperature for about 10–15 minutes. This helps it blend smoothly.
2. Mix the ingredients
Add the whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and softened cream cheese to a bowl or blender.
Whisk or blend until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture looks smooth.
Tip: If you don’t have a blender, whisk vigorously for about 1–2 minutes.
3. Pour into the Ninja Creami pint
Pour the mixture into your Ninja Creami container.
Do not fill above the MAX FILL line.
Put the lid on securely.
4. Freeze
Place the container upright in your freezer.
Freeze for at least 24 hours.
For the best texture, make sure the container is sitting flat and level while freezing.
5. Remove from the freezer
Take the pint out of the freezer.
Remove the lid.
If the surface is very uneven or has a large bump in the center, smooth it slightly before processing so the Creami paddle can work properly.
6. Choose the program
Put the pint into your Ninja Creami machine according to your model’s instructions.
Select Ice Cream.
Let the machine run through the program.
7. Check the texture
When finished, the ice cream should look creamy, but sometimes it can look a little crumbly or powdery after the first spin. That’s completely normal.
If it looks dry or crumbly, use the RE-SPIN function.
Usually one re-spin is enough.
8. Make it extra creamy
If it’s still too crumbly after the re-spin, add 1–2 tablespoons of milk into the center of the pint and run RE-SPIN again.
This usually turns it into a much smoother, scoopable ice cream.
🍨 Serve
Scoop immediately and serve with:
- Chocolate syrup
- Sprinkles
- Crushed cookies
- Fresh strawberries
- Caramel sauce
- Chopped nuts
- Chocolate chips
⭐ For an even richer vanilla flavor
Use 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract instead of 1 teaspoon, and add a tiny pinch of vanilla bean powder if you have it.
Important: Don’t skip the 24-hour freeze. The Ninja Creami relies on the mixture being completely frozen before processing.
