This Ninja Creami Vanilla Soft Serve recipe uses simple ingredients, including low fat milk to keep the recipe lighter. You'll love this easy vanilla ice-cream that has a softer texture. It is begging to be topped with lots of sprinkles.
The Ninja Creami appliance lets you make ice-creams, sorbets, and soft serve with unconventional ingredients! With a traditional ice cream maker you add the ice cream base for a frozen canister that churns the ice cream while mixing. But with a Ninja Creami, you freeze the entire base and then it chops and blends it up (similar to a blender, but gives a much creamier texture). Other Ninja Creami recipes to try is this Ninja Creami Peach Sorbet, Ninja Creami Protein Ice Cream, and Ninja Creami Mixed Berry Sorbet.
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Why I Love It:
- Easy Ingredients - You only need low-fat milk and a few ingredients to add flavor.
- Tastes Like Soft Serve - This tastes like vanilla soft serve and is even better with added sprinkles.
- Lighter Vanilla Ice-Cream options - Instead of using heavy cream like typical ice-cream, this Ninja Creami Vanilla Soft Serve recipe uses mainly low fat milk. Also check out this Ninja Creami Frozen Yogurt recipe made with Greek Yogurt.
Ingredients
- Low-Fat Milk - You can use nonfat milk, but know the flavor and texture will be slightly impacted. You can also use whole milk. My favorite milk to use is the Fairlife reduced fat milk that is lactose free.
- Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix - You can use regular or sugar-free. There are two reasons for adding a little bit of this. The first is to serve as a stabilizer that gives the ice cream a thicker, creamier texture. The second is to add more vanilla flavor.
- Granulated Sugar - Adding a very small amount of sugar adds just enough sweetness.
- Vanilla Extract - Essential to adding more vanilla flavor!
- Half and Half - I add just two tablespoons of half and half to add a little more fat (helps with texture and flavor) and use a little bit more for the re-spin.
- Sprinkles - Optional, but fun to mix in!
Variations
- Other Flavors - You can use other flavors of instant pudding mix to add other spins. Or this recipes also works using chocolate milk and chocolate pudding mix for a chocolate soft serve or try this Ninja Creami Wendy's Chocolate Frosty copycat recipe.
- Mix-Ins - I love mixing in sprinkles, but other great options are cookie dough chunks, Oreo cookies, chocolate chip cookies, or mini chocolate chips. Try using Oreo cookies and making this Ninja Creami Oreo Blizzard recipe!
Step by step instructions
Making vanilla ice cream in your Ninja Creami is easy! Just mix the ingredients together, freeze, and blend!
- Mix Base in Pint Container - I like to use a milk frother to do this, but you can also mix well with a fork or small whisk.
- Freeze - Place the pint in the freezer and freeze for 24 hours so it is fully solid. Make sure you place it on a level surface in your freezer.
- Prep for Blending - Remove the frozen pint from the freezer. If you have a 'peak' in the center, it's best to scrape most of it away with a spoon.
- Blend - Insert into the outer bowl, add the lid, and lock into position. Blend on 'Lite Ice-Cream'
- Add Liquid and Re-Spin - Make a little well in the center, add the extra liquid, and re-spin on the same lite ice cream setting.
- Enjoy - After the second spin, your soft serve should be thick, creamy and ready to enjoy!
Leftovers and Storage
If you can't eat the entire pint of soft serve in one sitting, you have two options for storing:
- Save for Re-Blending: Use a spoon to smooth out and level the top in the Ninja Creami pint container and put back in the freezer. Freezing with the level top will let you re-spin it in the Ninja Creami when you want to eat it again. This method will give you that same creamy texture. Note that if you mixed in sprinkles, they'll get chopped up when you re-spin.
- Store and Thaw Slightly Before Enjoying: If you want to free up your Ninja Creami pint container, you can transfer the leftover ice-cream to another container and freeze. For this method, you won't be able to re-spin it but I find that letting it thaw on the container for a bit or zapping it in the microwave for just 5-10 seconds softens it and the texture is almost as good as the freshly spun ice cream.
Recipe Tips
- Powdery after the First Spin is Normal - It's normal and expected for the mixture to be crumbly after the first spin. The second spin (especially when you add a little more liquid) is when the magic happens!
- The Machine is Loud -If this is your first time using your Ninja Creami, be aware that it is loud when it is spinning. I find the noise level to be similar to a blender. Might not be the best option during nap time 🙂
- Freeze without the lid - I've found that freezing the pint without the lid helps prevent the large peak from forming in the middle. If yours does have a peak, it's okay. You'll just want to shave off some of it with a metal spoon so the top is more level.
Frequently Asked Questions
Once your base is frozen (takes up to 24 hours), the actual spinning and blending into ice-cream takes less than 5 minutes (including the re-spin and mix-ins).
The instructions say to freeze your base for 24 hours before blending because it insures that it is frozen completely solid. The exact freeze time will vary based on your freezer - your base likely can be frozen completely solid in less time. The Ninja Creami will not work properly if it isn't completely frozen.
It is normal for the ice-cream to be powdery or crumbly after just one spin because the base is frozen so solid. After one more spin, the ice-cream should be creamy and ready to enjoy.
The Ninja Creami does a great job making soft serve ice cream. The texture is smooth and creamy. If
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PrintRecipe
Ninja Creami Vanilla Soft Serve (with Low Fat Milk)
This Ninja Creami Vanilla Soft Serve recipe uses simple ingredients, including low fat milk to keep the recipe lighter. You'll love this easy vanilla ice-cream that has a softer texture and is begging to be topped with lots of sprinkles.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 pint
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Ninja Creami
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups low fat milk
- 2 tablespoons half and half
- 1 tablespoons vanilla instant pudding mix
- 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons liquid for re-spin, half and half or milk
- 2 tablespoons sprinkles, optional to mix-in
Instructions
- Mix Base in Pint Container - I like to use a milk frother to do this, but you can also mix well with a fork or small whisk.
- Freeze - Place the pint in the freezer and freeze for 24 hours so it is fully solid. Make sure you place it on a level surface in your freezer. I like to freeze without a lid as I find it reduces the peak that can form in the middle
- Prep for Blending - Remove the frozen pint from the freezer. If you have a 'peak' in the center, it's best to scrape most of it away with a spoon.
- Blend - Insert into the outer bowl, add the lid, and lock into position. Blend on 'Lite Ice-Cream'
- Add Liquid and Re-Spin - Make a little well in the center, add the extra liquid, and re-spin on the same lite ice cream setting.
- Optional Mix-Ins - If adding sprinkles, or other mix-in. Use a spoon to make a well in the center and add the sprinkles. Then blend on the 'mix-ins' setting.
- Enjoy - After the second spin (or mix-ins) your soft serve should be thick, creamy and ready to enjoy!
Notes
Leftovers? You can either use a spoon to smooth out and level the top in the Ninja Creami pint container and put back in the freezer. Then you can spin again when ready to eat. Or you can transfer the leftover soft serve to another container and freeze. Then thaw on the container for a bit or zap it in the microwave for just 5-10 seconds to soften it and eat again.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ½ pint
- Calories: 145
- Sugar: 19.3 g
- Sodium: 195.3 mg
- Fat: 4.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.1 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 6.9 g
- Cholesterol: 17 mg
Keywords: Ninja Creami Vanilla Soft Serve, Ninja Creami Vanilla Ice-Cream, Ninja Creami Ice-Cream, Ninja Creami Soft Serve, Ninja Creami Recipe
Louise M says
Consistency is great, real soft serve, but maybe check the quantities? This only filled my Creami container 1/2 to 2/3 below the “max fill” line, so I tried to roughly replicate quantities for the extra 1/3 of a pint. The other thing is sweetness, it needs about double the sugar imo. But amazing fabulous TRUE soft serve texture, will make again! Thank you !
★★★★
Kathleen Hansen says
Hi Louise! I'm glad you loved the texture. I'm guessing you might be using the Ninja Creami Deluxe? Not the classic Ninja Creami. The deluxe pints are 24 ounces or 8 ounces larger than the regular Ninja Creami pints that are 16 ounces (what I'm using). FYI that you may find many recipes online to be written for the classic 16oz pints so you'll need to make the smaller size or adjust up to fill your entire larger-sized pint.
And for sweetness, the piece is meant to be customizable as some like a sweeter fro yo than others - when making a Ninja Creami recipe, you can give the mixture a quick taste before freezing to adjust for your tastes 🙂
As always, here if you have other questions - thank you!
Katie says
This soft serve was so good! Will be making all summer long.
★★★★★