Weekend Cooking: Homemade Frozen Yogurt
In the comments to my post Weekend Cooking: Shell Chocolate Sauce, Heather of Books and Quilts asked about how I make frozen yogurt. I experimented quite a bit when I first got my ice cream maker and I have a recipe that I like a lot.
I bought one of the new-fangled ice cream makers that have a gel-filled bowl you keep in the freezer. Mine is a Cuisinart ICE-20. It looks like they have now upgraded to model ICE-21. I paid $50 for mine several years ago — the going rate now appears to be $60. Either way, it will pay for itself pretty quickly if it’s taking the place of trips to the ice cream parlor or frozen yogurt shop. What I like most about the ice cream maker, though, is knowing exactly what ingredients went into my frozen dessert.
Making frozen yogurt requires some planning ahead. You have to either store the bowl in the freezer or put it in the freezer 24 to 48 hours before you want to use it. All ingredients must be cold. I frequently stir everything together in a quart glass measuring cup in the morning and then leave it in the fridge until mid-afternoon when I make it and eat the first serving.
I wanted a non-fat version of frozen yogurt containing a fair amount of fruit that I could feel good about eating most afternoons in the summer. This recipe uses a cup of fruit purée. This week, I used the last of the applesauce that I froze last fall — the apples are ripening early in Missouri this year so it was time to make room for the new! A pint of fresh berries yields about a cup of purée. If I’m using melon, I just throw chunks in the blender until the purée measures a cup. I haven’t tried banana (but, now that I think of it, that sounds really good with that chocolate sauce from last week) — I’m guessing it would take three or four and if they were really soft, they could just be smashed with the back of a spoon.
I include about 1/2 cup of something to make it sweet, often raw sugar. I’ll use less if the fruit is really sweet. I haven’t tried any artificial sweeteners, but I imagine they would work. To go with my applesauce, I used Grade B Maple Syrup — yum!
Applesauce Frozen Yogurt
Fruit Frozen Yogurt
1 12 oz can evaporated skim milk
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 cup fruit purée
1/2 cup sugar or honey or syrup or agave nectar
Combine all ingredients. Follow manufacturer’s instructions to make frozen yogurt. Makes eight 1/2 cup servings.
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