Ninja Creami Pumpkin Ice Cream (Cottage Cheese)

Name: Ninja Creami Pumpkin Ice Cream
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 1090 min
Ingredients: ½ cup Pumpkin Puree; 1 cup Half and half (or Heavy Cream); ¾ cup Soy Milk (or oat milk, or cow's milk, depending on your dietary preferences.); ½ cup Cottage Cheese; 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice; 3 tablespoon Agave Syrup ( or honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, stevia, monk fruit or regular sugar. ); 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

I don't wait for fall. There's a can of pumpkin puree in my pantry most of the year, and that's genuinely all it takes.

This one blends in about five minutes. Pumpkin puree, cottage cheese, half and half, and pumpkin spice, then the freezer does the rest overnight. The cottage cheese is what gives it body without heavy cream or a packet of instant pudding, and you can't taste it.

If you are waiting for fall, my apple crumble ice cream is the other one I make on repeat once the weather turns.

Scoops of pumpkin spiced ice cream in a white bowl. The ice cream is a creamy orange color and has a smooth texture.

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Why You'll Love This
Ingredients
Substitutions
How To Make It
Rose's Top Tips
Topping and Mix-Ins
Variations
Equipments You'll Need
Recipe FAQs
More Ninja Creami Recipes
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Ninja Creami Pumpkin Ice Cream

Why You'll Love This

Five minutes of work. Everything into a blender, pour into the pint, freeze. The overnight wait is the machine's problem, not yours.
Cottage cheese instead of pudding mix. Most Ninja Creami recipes reach for instant pudding as a stabilizer. Cottage cheese does the same job for texture, adds real protein, and you can't taste it in the finished pint.
A can of pumpkin puree keeps for a year. Which means this isn't a September recipe. It's whenever you want it, and the can costs about two dollars.
It spins smooth on the first go. Because the base has enough fat and protein in it, you usually don't need a re-spin. Let the pint sit out five minutes before it goes in the machine and that's usually all it takes.
It scales into a routine. Mine live in the freezer in a rotation, one pint spun while the next one freezes. If you already own a Creami you know how that goes.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need:

Pumpkin puree: Canned, and check the label says pumpkin puree rather than pumpkin pie filling. The filling is pre-sweetened and pre-spiced, and it will throw the whole balance off. One 15-ounce can makes more than one batch, so freeze the rest in portions.
Cottage cheese: The one that makes this different from most Creami recipes. It thickens the base the way instant pudding mix does, adds protein, and disappears completely into the pumpkin flavor. Full-fat blends smoother than low-fat.
Half and half: The fat that keeps it from freezing into ice rather than scooping smooth. This is the ingredient you don't want to cut back on.
Soy milk: Thins the base so it blends properly. Any milk works here, dairy or not, since the half and half is doing the fat work.
Pumpkin spice: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves. If you don't have the blend, a teaspoon of cinnamon with a half teaspoon each of nutmeg and ginger and a pinch of cloves gets you there.
Agave syrup: A liquid sweetener blends in without any grittiness. White sugar, Maple syrup, honey, or monk fruit all work. Taste the base before you freeze it, since frozen desserts read less sweet than they do at room temperature.
Vanilla extract: Rounds off the spices. Half a teaspoon is enough

See recipe card for quantities.

Substitutions

No cottage cheese? Greek yogurt does a similar job, same amount. Cream cheese works too and gives a tangier, denser pint. You can leave it out entirely, but the base loses body and freezes icier, so I'd keep it in.
No half and half? Heavy cream gives a richer pint, whole milk a lighter one. Both work.
No pumpkin spice blend? A teaspoon of cinnamon, half a teaspoon each of nutmeg and ginger, and a pinch of cloves.
No agave? Maple syrup, honey, or regular sugar. A liquid sweetener blends in without grittiness, which is the only reason I use agave.

How To Make It

Pumpkin spiced ice cream mixture in a container, ready to be frozen. The mixture is a creamy orange color and has a smooth texture.

Blend the base. Pumpkin puree, cottage cheese, half and half, soy milk, pumpkin spice, agave, and vanilla into a blender. Blend until completely smooth, about 30 seconds. Taste it now, since this is your last chance to adjust the sweetness.

Pumpkin spiced ice cream in a container, frozen solid. The ice cream is a creamy orange color and has a smooth texture.

Pour and freeze. Into the Ninja Creami pint, stopping at the max fill line. Lid on, and set it in the freezer somewhere level. A pint that freezes at an angle spins unevenly. Give it a full 24 hours.

Pumpkin spiced ice cream mixture in a container, immediately after being churned. The ice cream is soft and creamy, with a slightly frozen texture.

Let it sit, then spin. Take the pint out and leave it on the counter 5 to 10 minutes before it goes in the machine. Lock it into the outer bowl, and select Lite Ice Cream. That setting suits this base better than the regular Ice Cream one, since cottage cheese and half and half give you less fat than a heavy cream base.

Scoops of pumpkin spiced ice cream being taken from a container. The ice cream is frozen solid and has a creamy orange color.

Re-spin only if you need to. If it comes out crumbly, add a tablespoon of milk and hit Re-spin. Most of the time the five minutes on the counter means you can skip this entirely.

Rose's Top Tips

Don't reach for heavy cream. It seems like it should give you a richer pint, but over-spun heavy cream separates and goes waxy, closer to butter than ice cream. Half and half has enough fat without that risk. This is the mistake I made early on and it's why the recipe is built the way it is.
Check the can says puree, not pie filling. They sit next to each other on the shelf and the labels look similar. Pie filling is already sweetened and spiced, and it throws the whole balance off.
Freeze the pint level. If it sets at an angle the blade meets uneven ice and you get a patchy spin. Clear a flat spot before you put it in.
Five to ten minutes on the counter first. Straight from the freezer is when a pint comes out crumbly. Letting it soften slightly means you usually don't need a re-spin at all.
Give it the full 24 hours. Eighteen sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Twenty-four always does, and you're going to bed anyway.
Taste the base before it goes in the freezer. Cold flattens sweetness. A base that tastes right at room temperature will read under-sweetened once it's frozen, so go slightly sweeter than feels correct.

Topping and Mix-Ins

Crushed gingersnaps. The one I'd pick. Ginger against pumpkin spice is sharper than graham crackers and it holds its crunch longer. Fold them in right after spinning and eat it within a few minutes.
Graham crackers. The pumpkin pie version, and the more familiar one if you're serving this to people who want it to taste like a slice.
Caramel sauce. Spoon it over and fold once, so it stays as a ribbon rather than disappearing into the pint. Salted caramel is better here than plain.
Toasted pecans. Five minutes in a dry pan first. The difference between toasted and raw is bigger than it sounds, and raw pecans in cold ice cream taste like almost nothing.
Whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. If it's going in a bowl for someone else rather than being eaten out of the container.
A crumbled speculoos cookie. Spiced, buttery, and it doesn't go soggy the way a softer cookie does.

Variations

Pumpkin cheesecake. Two or three tablespoons of softened cream cheese blended in with everything else. Tangier and a bit denser, and it's the version I make when I want it to feel like more of a dessert than a snack.
Pumpkin spice latte. A teaspoon of instant espresso powder, or a cooled shot of espresso in place of some of the soy milk. It doesn't read as coffee exactly, it just makes the spices land deeper.
Higher protein. A scoop of vanilla protein powder blended in, or swap the soy milk for Fairlife. Greek yogurt in place of the cottage cheese also pushes the number up.
Dairy-free. Full-fat coconut milk instead of the half and half, silken tofu instead of the cottage cheese, and any plant milk. Stick with the Lite Ice Cream setting.
Less sugar. Monk fruit or allulose in place of the agave. Taste the base before it goes in the freezer, since cold flattens sweetness and you'll want it slightly sweeter than seems right.
Maple instead of agave. Not really a substitution since agave is just a liquid sweetener, but maple brings its own flavor and it sits well next to pumpkin spice.

Equipments You'll Need

Ninja Creami. Any model works for this. I have the Deluxe, which takes a larger pint, so if you have the original Creami check your fill line rather than assuming the quantities match.
Extra pint containers. The single most useful thing you can buy alongside the machine. One pint in the freezer means one flavor at a time, and these take 24 hours each. I keep three or four going.
A blender. The base needs to be genuinely smooth or the cottage cheese leaves lumps, and a whisk won't get you there. An immersion blender in a jug does the job, though I use a Vitamix and it gets the base smoother in about ten seconds.

Recipe FAQs

Can I use fresh pumpkin instead of canned?

Yes, as long as it's cooked and blended completely smooth. Fresh pumpkin holds more water than canned, so the base may come out thinner and freeze icier. Canned puree is more consistent and it's what this recipe is built around.

Pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie filling?

Puree. They sit next to each other on the shelf and the cans look similar, but pie filling is already sweetened and spiced, so using it throws off the sweetener and the spice measurements both. Check the label before you open it.

Do I have to use cottage cheese?

No, but it's doing real work. It thickens the base the way instant pudding mix does in other Creami recipes, and it disappears completely into the pumpkin flavor. Greek yogurt is the closest swap. Leaving it out entirely gives you a thinner base that freezes icier.

Why is my Ninja Creami ice cream crumbly?

Almost always because it went in straight from the freezer. Let the pint sit on the counter 5 to 10 minutes first. If it's still crumbly, add a tablespoon of milk and hit Re-spin. Crumbly on the first spin is normal, not a sign anything's wrong.

Does it really need 24 hours in the freezer?

Yes. Eighteen hours sometimes works and sometimes gives you a soft, uneven spin. Twenty-four is reliable, and you're asleep for most of it anyway. Make sure the pint sits level in the freezer too, since an angled pint freezes unevenly.

Which setting should I use?

Lite Ice Cream. This base uses cottage cheese and half and half rather than heavy cream, so it's lighter than a standard ice cream base and the Lite setting suits it better.

How long does it keep in the freezer?

A couple of weeks in the pint with the lid on, though the texture is best in the first few days. When you go back to it, re-process on the Ice Cream setting rather than trying to scoop it straight out.