Blackcurrant Ice Cream (Ninja Creami)

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Close up of luscious dark red blackcurrant ice cream in a small white china bowl

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Ninja Creami blackcurrant ice cream is incredibly easy to make, bursting with deep berry flavour, vibrant colour and a wonderfully creamy scoopable texture. You only need a few simple ingredients with no processed add-ins.

Servings:

Author: Helen Best-Shaw

Prep Time10

Freezing1

Total Time1 10

Equipment

Ninja Creami
Stick / Immersion Blender (UK) Get one with the highest wattage you can find, and ideally a steel shaft

Ingredients

220 g blackcurrants - 1
50 g sugar - 2
2 tbsp maple syrup - 3
1 tsp vanilla bean paste - 5
2 tsp lemon juice
225 ml single cream - 4

(4) Or in place of the single cream

150 ml semi skimmed milk
75 ml double cream

Instructions

Prep the tub - Put the blackcurrants into the Ninja pot (if frozen allow them some time to defrost)
Add the sugar, maple syrup (honey or golden syrup), lemon juice and vanilla extract.
220 g blackcurrants, 2 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 2 tsp lemon juice, 50 g sugar
Add the cream & blitz - Fill with cream up to the max fill line then give a good blitz with a stick blender to start to pulverise the pips. Spinning the ice cream will also do this, but I find a good initial blend makes a smoother ice cream.
You can also blitz in a regular blender, but using a stick blender in the Ninja Creami pot means less washing up.
Freeze until solid; this can take overnight or up to 24 hours depending on your freezer.
225 ml single cream
Check for humps - If the mixture has developed a hump or bump in the middle scrape with a spoon so it is flat.
* Freezing with the lid off can help to stop humps forming. Different recipes and freezers can different sized humps to form. If your mixture always forms a large hump as it freezes give it a stir after the first hour in the freezer.
Do not spin a mixture that has a large hump, without flattening it first. You may damage your machine.
Process - Put the container in the machine and spin – with the regular Creami (the NC300) I have found that the light ice cream cycle gives the best results.
Scrape the sides down and respin if needed.

Notes

Blackcurrants – Unless you grow your own and have a glut, blackcurrants are expensive – you can buy bags of frozen blackcurrants, but I tend to sift them out of the bag of mixed frozen fruit which we use as a breakfast topper each morning. This really only takes a few minutes, and the supply of affordable blackcurrants from it makes it worth it.
Sugar - I usually use golden caster
Maple Syrup is optional but adds some sweetness and improves the texture of the final ice cream. You could also use honey or golden syrup.
Cream – British single cream (18% fat). Or you can use a mixture of two parts semi skimmed milk to one part double cream which has almost the same fat content. This will be 150ml milk and 75ml double cream. I nearly always weigh the cream and milk using 1ml = 1g as a guide, the recipe will still work perfectly.
Vanilla Extract / Paste – takes your blackcurrant ice cream to the next level! I prefer a vanilla bean paste with the little black flecks of seed, as they have more flavour. It is worth spending more money on a decent brand, because if you buy a cheaper, one you often need twice as much (or more). Avoid false economy!
Vanilla extract contains real vanilla, while vanilla essence is generally synthetic and really does not taste very good. So don’t buy it.

Hints and Tips

This recipe is for the regular NC300 Ninja Creami, with (American) pint pots. For the Deluxe model use 1.5X the ingredients.
Make sure the mixture is completely frozen before processing.
If you add some whole blackcurrants as additions using the mix-in function, then any re-spinning of the ice cream will blend them completely.
Smooth the surface of any leftover ice cream before returning to the freezer.
To enjoy a half empty pot: either just let it thaw slightly or process again with the light ice cream function. You must not the re-spin function on a solid mixture. Or, you can add about 2 teaspoons vegetable, food grade glycerine into the mixture so it is scoopable from the freezer. Experiment to perfect quantities.

• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.