Ninja Creami Deluxe 10-in-1 Ice Cream and Frozen Drink Maker NC501UK

Verdict

The Ninja Creami Deluxe 10-in-1 Ice Cream and Frozen Drink Maker NC501UK is a fantastic ice cream maker. It’s incredibly well-built and easy to use, while offering a bevy of useful functions for making all kinds of frozen treats. While expensive, you won’t find many more versatile appliances in its category than this one.

Introduction

The Ninja Creami Deluxe 10-in-1 Ice Cream and Frozen Drink Maker NC501UK is perhaps one of the big appliance brand’s more focused products, aiming to bring the powers of a single appliance that can make all sorts of frozen treats in a matter of minutes.

This Deluxe version can make everything from ice cream and sorbets to milkshakes, slushies and frappuccinos without much in the way of effort.

While its £249.99/$249.99 price makes it more expensive than other top performers such as the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker, there isn’t an ice cream maker out there that can do as much as the Creami Deluxe.

Design and Features

• Hefty and well-made
• Especially easy to use
• Larger containers than the standard Creami

The Creami Deluxe is a large appliance that offers a lot of presence on a kitchen countertop, especially standing at nearly a foot and a half tall. Weighing 6.54kg, the ice cream maker is also quite hefty, but it is exceptionally well made.

Its small buttons and large control dial are tactile, while the controls needed to put the Creami Deluxe pints in its bowl for processing are reassuringly clicky and solid.

The Creami Deluxe is also remarkably easy to use. Its one large dial allows you to easily select your chosen function, while its small digital display shows a timeframe for processing. Depending on the selected function, this ranges from two to six minutes, which is remarkably brisk. Once you’ve chosen your desired function, you press the dial-in, and the Creami Deluxe begins to spin through and process.

For making recipes, you fill the container up to its respective fill line, depending on what you’re making, put the lid on and freeze for 24 hours, as per Ninja’s recommendations. Once frozen, remove your container from the freezer, remove the lid, and put the Creami Deluxe’s lid on with its blade. It clicks into place reassuringly and then select the function you want and push in the dial. In use, it is quite noisy, but at least it only lasts for a handful of minutes at a time.

What’s also handy here is the sheer amount of functions on offer. There are 10, up from the 7 on the original machine.

You get everything from making Ice Creams and Lite Ice Cream, as well as other scoopable items like Sorbet, Gelato and Frozen Yoghurt. On the sippable side of things, the Creami Deluxe can also make Milkshakes, Slushis, Frozen Drinks and Frappes, while also being used to add Mix-ins to your recipes. Compared to the standard Creami, the Deluxe model adds Frappes, Frozen Yoghurt and Slushis, which offer even more versatility.

As well as offering a selection of functions, the Creami Deluxe also offers three separate containers for making recipes. Known as Deluxe Pints, these containers are made of clear plastic with a grey lid, and offer up to 709ml for making drinks or solids in. These also have a larger capacity than the standard Creami, whose containers are 560ml, which is just 8ml short of a pint.

The Creami Deluxe is also remarkably easy to maintain as every part of it, excluding the motor base, are top-rack dishwasher safe, making maintenance completely fuss-free. For my use, I chose to hand wash everything just to be on the safe side, but, conveniently, you can put most of the Creami Deluxe’s component parts into the dishwasher for easy cleaning.

Performance

• Brilliant results across the board
• Lots of functions to try
• Some planning required

During my time with the Creami Deluxe, I tried as many of its functions to best gauge how well it performs, trying a range of scoopable and sippable recipes. Whether I made sorbet or a milkshake, it served up some fantastic results, offering quality examples at every turn.

A logical first test was to crush up some blueberries, strawberries and raspberries into a mixture to make a mixed fruit sorbet according to a Ninja Test Kitchen recipe, and freeze it for the recommended 24 hours. After the freeze and an initial spin on the Sorbet setting, the mixture came out slightly powdery and required a single respin. After the respin, the sorbet came out with an ideal consistency and texture, and tasted excellent.

Moving over to a more sippable recipe, I gave the Frozen Drink setting a go with a frozen margarita. This involved equal parts water and pre-mixed margarita, as per a recipe from the US Creami Deluxe book which was frozen for 24 hours, before more water and margarita was added. It was respun three times to get to a more sippable consistency, and tasted rather refreshing on a warm day.

Moving over to some ice cream, I tried a pair of recipes. First up, I used the dairy-free coconut vanilla ice cream as per the recipe book by mixing coconut milk, caster sugar and vanilla extract into a tub, before putting it into the freezer. For this test, I froze it for 18 hours as opposed to 24 hours, and after a run on the Ice Cream program and a single respin, the ice cream came out with a creamy texture and lots of coconut flavour.

Perhaps the best result with the Creami Deluxe was the strawberry ice cream recipe I tried with crushed-up strawberries, a small amount of granulated sugar, Elmlea Double and whole milk. That too was frozen for 18 hours, and came out with a rich, creamy flavour and consistency on the Ice Cream setting.

The leftover strawberry ice cream was also used to make a milkshake when combined with more cut-up strawberries, single cream, and Jersey milk. It offered a thick, creamy consistency after three re-spins and worked especially well.

I also tried a frozen yoghurt recipe with 200ml of Elmlea Double, 45g of caster sugar, 100ml of whole milk and as many blueberries as I could muster on the Frozen Yoghurt setting. This was frozen for closer to 12 hours and came out with the right consistency despite its shorter freeze time.

To test one of the Creami Deluxe’s special settings, I tried a slushie on the Slushi setting by adding raspberries, strawberries, a small amount of sugar and some tropical fruit juice to a Deluxe pint before freezing for 18 or so hours. When the mixture came to be processed, I added some more tropical fruit juice to make it a more sippable drink, and it was seriously refreshing after a couple of cycles.

My final test involved making light ice cream on the Lite Ice Cream setting by making a form of chocolate ice cream with some chocolate orange hot chocolate made in the Hotel Chocolat The Velvetiser which was left to go cold, and then had 150ml of whole milk and 150ml of Jersey milk added. This was frozen for 12 hours, and came out with a subtle orange flavour, but with the correct consistency for ice cream.

I also managed to use the chocolate orange ice cream mix with some additional Jersey milk to make a frozen hot chocolate, as per the Creami Deluxe’s recipe book on the Frappe setting. This was one of my favourite recipes, especially as it came out quite thick after a further respin, which resembled a sippable chocolate mousse.

The only thing with everything done with the Creami Deluxe, apart from milkshakes, is that they need to be prepared in advance, whether it’s for Ninja’s recommended 24 hours or for a slightly shorter amount of time. If you’re someone who plans ahead anyway, this isn’t so much of an issue, but for those who want cold drinks and ices in a pinch, then you will have to think again.

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