Ninja Creami Chocolate Ice Cream

Confession: chocolate ice cream is not usually the ice cream I reach for. Give me coffee. Give me vanilla. Give me butter pecan.

But this Ninja Creami chocolate ice cream changed my mind. It's made with real melted chocolate and cocoa powder, sweetened with honey. No cream cheese. No pudding mix. The chocolate flavor came out so much deeper than I expected. I sat at the counter eating it straight out of the pint.

Why it Works

Most quick chocolate ice creams lean on cocoa powder alone.  It ends up chocolatey, but in a one-note, powdery way. This one is different.

It uses melted chocolate as the backbone and cocoa powder is the booster. That's what makes the flavor punch through after freezing, when everything dulls a little. Together they give you a deep chocolate flavor.

Why this Version and Not The Cream Cheese One

If you've spent any time in Ninja Creami corners of the internet, you've seen the cream cheese trick. A tablespoon or two of softened cream cheese blended into the base for body. It works!

But it also pushes the flavor toward cheesecake, and on a chocolate ice cream I didn't want that tug.

So this base skips the cream cheese entirely and gets its structure from two places: the cocoa butter in the melted chocolate (which sets up firm in the freezer and gives the spun ice cream a creamy texture) and the honey (which lowers the freezing point just enough to keep things scoopable instead of brick-hard).

A few quick swaps if you need them

Maple syrup works in place of honey at a 1:1 ratio.

Whole milk is what I tested, and I'd stick with it; lower-fat milks will spin into something closer to a lite ice creamthan the real thing.

If you want it dairy-free, full-fat canned coconut milk + dairy-free dark chocolate works, and you can add a pinch of xanthan gum (⅛ teaspoon) to the blender to bridge the fat gap.

How to make it

The splash-of-milk question

The Creami manual will tell you to drizzle a tablespoon or two of milk on top before re-spinning if it still looks crumbly, and this base does respond beautifully to it. The texture goes from good-scoopable to soft-serve creamy and the chocolate flavor opens up.

I tested both ways and I liked the splash-of-milk version's texture, but it comes out soft enough that you can't really scoop it into a bowl and have it hold shape. You need to put the pint back in the freezer for two to three hours to firm up before serving. This sort of defeats the "ice cream right now" promise of the Creami.

My take: if you're eating it the moment it spins, skip the splash. If you're making it ahead and the firm-up time isn't a factor, the splash is worth it. Either way, it's the same recipe, just a fork in the road.

Mix-ins that work here

After the first respin, you can make a well in the center of the ice cream and add your favorite mix-ins.

• Oreo: Break them don't crush them. You want texture.
• Peanut butter : Drop a tablespoon of softened peanut butter into the well and let the Creami streak it.
• Brownie chunk: Torn into pieces from a leftover pan of brownies.
• Caramel swirl : Same method as the peanut butter
• Fresh berries: Raspberries are the best match; the tartness cuts the chocolate. 
• Cookies: A few crumbled cookies.