CREAMi basics

How it works

A CREAMi does not churn. You freeze the base solid in its tubpint for 24 hours, then a spinning paddle shaves it from the top down and whips it creamy in a couple of minutes. That's why every recipe starts the day before, and why the base needs enough sugar and fat to shave into something soft rather than snow.

1. Mix the base and pour it into an empty tubpint, up to the max fill line.
2. Freeze it with the lid on, on a level shelf, for 24 hours.
3. Spin it on the recipe's program. Re-spin with a splash of liquid if it looks crumbly.

TubPint sizes

TubsPints only fit their own machine family, so a Deluxe tubpint will not fit a 7-in-1. Every Scoop Kitchen recipe is written for a 473 ml16 oz tubpint and scaled by 1.5 for the 709 ml24 oz Deluxe. The model number is on the bottom of your machine.

Max fill line: fill to the line printed inside the tubpint, never above it. The base expands as it freezes, and the paddle needs room. Scoop Kitchen recipes stay just under the line, at roughly 400 to 460 ml in a 473 ml16 oz tubpint.

Freezing

• Freeze for a full 24 hours. A base that is frozen at the edges but soft in the middle spins unevenly.
• Lid on, on a level shelf. If a hump forms on top, scrape it flat before spinning.
• A normal home freezer at around −18 °C (0 °F) is right. Very cold chest freezers make tubspints harder, so let them sit out for 5 to 10 minutes first.
• Cooked bases must be completely cool before they go in the freezer.

The program buttons

The Ninja Swirl adds six soft serve programs: Soft Serve, Fruit Whip, Frozen Custard, CreamiFit, Swirled Frozen Yogurt and a soft serve Lite Ice Cream. On UK machines they are called Ice Cream, Fruiti, Soft Serve Gelato, CreamiFit, Frozen Yoghurt and Light Ice Cream.

If a recipe needs a button your machine does not have, the recipe page tells you which one to use instead. Some store versions of the 7-in-1 have fewer buttons. Without Gelato, use Ice Cream. Without Smoothie Bowl, use Sorbet.

Re-spin or Mix-in?

Re-spin runs the paddle again to make a crumbly or powdery tubpint smooth. Add 1 to 2 tbsp of milk first (juice or water for sorbets). Protein tubspints often need two.

Mix-in folds chunks through a finished tubpint without blending them away. Dig a hole about 4 cm (1½ in) wide down to the bottom, add pea-sized pieces, then run Mix-in. Do any Re-spin first.

Deluxe: top, bottom or full

The Deluxe can process only the top or bottom half of its 709 ml24 oz tubpint. Spin the top half now and keep the rest frozen for later, or freeze two bases in layers and spin each half on its own program.

Leftovers

A spun tubpint freezes hard again. Smooth the top flat, put the lid on, and next time run the recipe's program again before serving, with a Re-spin if needed.

Cups and grams

Scoop Kitchen stores every recipe in grams and millilitres and converts for US cups. These are the numbers it uses.

Temperatures: 80 °C is 176 °F, the point where a custard coats a spoon. −18 °C is 0 °F.