All those warming flavours, the cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, they all feel so familiar in this ice cream, but at the same time so new when served in ice cream format.
š¦ My new ice cream maker: the Ninja Creami
Ninja Kitchen UK was kind enough to send me over their Ninja Creami to develop a summer-themed recipe. And of course, I had to pay ode to my love of desi flavours and what better way than to create a masala chai flavoured ice cream? I was rather impressed at how sleek and attractive the product looked on my counter top - looks a bit like a coffee machine, right? But what blew me away more was how quickly the Ninja Creami can churn something frozen absolutely solid into creamy ice cream. I’ve used this product several times for many different ice cream recipes since getting it, and it has never taken me a moment longer than 2 minutes! gasps in mum of 2 impatient children The Ninja Creami has a couple of different settings, including one for ice cream, light ice cream, milkshake, smoothie bowl, gelato and sorbet. There’s also a setting for mix-ins such as nuts, chocolate chips, cookie chunks etc. I have tried them all and cannot fault how quick and easy it all is. The insanely quick churn time is their biggest selling point. Normal ice cream machines take upwards of 20 minutes to churn ice cream, and some aren’t so straightforward and streamlined to use, so this is lightening speed in comparison!
š Ingredients
This recipe has two components: the spiced masala liquid, and the actual ice cream. For the spiced component, we need:
Fennel seeds Black peppercorns Whole cinnamon Cloves Green cardamom Black cardamom Fresh ginger Tea bags or loose tea leaves (whichever is your favourite brand is fine) Sugar, to sweeten the ice cream Water
They’re all pretty essential for the flavour profile of this recipe, so I wouldn’t recommend you skip any of the spices. If you do happen to want to make this but not have all the spices, you can omit them but the flavour won’t be quite the same. (PS: you can use this spice blend to make regular masala chai too!) For the ice cream, we just need:
double cream (known as heavy cream in the US) whole milk
š„£ Method
We’ll start by making the spiced masala liquid. Add the spices, tea bags, sugar and Ā¼ cup of water into a small saucepan. Simmer this over a low heat for 15-20 minutes - you could simmer this for longer too for a deeper flavour.Ā Once the spiced masala liquid is ready, strain out the spices and mix it into the whole milk and double cream. Stir well.Ā I made this recipe using the Ninja Creami, so I mixed everything together in the Ninja dessert tub (there are 3 dessert tubs that come with the Creami), and then placed it directly into the freezer, to freeze for at least 24 hours. Please note, if you’re using the Ninja Creami you’ll need to divide this mixture into two dessert tubs. Once the 24 hours were up, the Ninja dessert tub fits straight into the Ninja Creami and is ready to be churned directly in the container it was frozen in. All you have to do is turn the Ninja Creami on and select the ‘ice cream’ setting and the churning process begins. The entire churning process took a mere 2 minutes for me.Ā If you are making this recipe using a different ice cream maker, you can follow the instructions as per the user manual or however you usually make it.Ā I like to garnish my ice cream with some pistachio nuts before serving, however you can totally stir them in if you prefer more texture. You can use the Ninja Creami mix-in feature too, which is great to add in some texture evenly into the ice cream. I reckon this recipe would do really good with some cookie bits (think chai and cake rusk!) or even chocolate chips!
š Recipe
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