Strawberry Frozen Yogurt - With or without an ice cream maker

In my baking excitement I never posted my sexy strawberry frozen yogurt.



Simple Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

1 2/3 cups milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 cups strawberry yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
About 3/4 cup fresh strawberries, cut up into 1/2 - 1/4 inch pieces

1. With a hand mixer, combine the milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved - be patient
2. Stir in the yogurt and heavy cream
3. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions for 20 - 25 minutes. OR if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can try the process I describe at the bottom of this post.
4. In the last 5 minutes of mixing, stir in the fresh strawberry pieces
5. Frozen yogurt will have a soupy soft serve consistency, but transfer it to containers to finish freezing and it will be PERFECT!
   

It was definitely refreshing, I can't wait for sorbet season. The fresh strawberries were a nice touch (pat self on back), plus they look sexy.

So I know when I came across any ice cream recipe that said "process in your ice cream maker" I immediately stopped reading. Which is pretty much all recipes... BUT if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can do it the slow and steady way. There weren't always ice cream makers you know!

How to make frozen goodies without an ice cream maker

1. Make room in your freezer for a blender pitcher.
   
2. When your recipe says to add it to your ice cream maker for processing, pour the whole thing into the blender and put it in the freezer for 40 min to an hour.
   
3. Every 40 min to an hour, take it out and blend it for a few moments, then return it to the freezer.
4. As it freezes, use a spoon to push the frozen parts off the side back into the blender and blend some more.
5. Eventually, you'll have to transfer it to containers while you can still get it out of the blender. ;o)
6. You can use a hand mixer to give it a good mix a few more turns after this

I did this with triple berry sorbet and it was magic. I think the recipe stated to do this process for the next 3 hours I gave up and went to bed and it was still fine! I had the same success with ginger ice cream, but I religiously processed that every 40 min to an hour since I worked from home at the time and, well, I could. :o)

If you don't have a blender either, you can do the same process with a big metal bowl (some sites recommend a baking dish of sorts, since shallow will be better) and a hand mixer. But the blender is just so much easier.

Happy ice cream making!

Frozen Treats

I know it's February and it's been 1 degree out (literally...), but Dave got me an ice cream maker for Christmas. I plan to embark on numerous, exciting ice cream adventures, hence the Ice Cream Adventures set in Flickr.

I've made frozen desserts before without an ice cream maker, so it can be done, but it's painstaking, as chronicled in my successes with triple berry sorbet and ginger ice cream.

First I tried some honey vanilla frozen yogurt.



It was semi-successful. Dave seems to want "healthy" desserts so I tried making it with less sugar. Which I know now is important to the freezing process. This one was a little too frozen... At the end I swirled in some honey so it was honey vanilla frozen yogurt! :oD A good idea, but should of made it with all the sugar. ;o) It's shown here with some caramel sauce drizzled over it

For Sunday dinner one night with my fam, my mom decided to have pumpkin pie, so I made this buttered pecan ice cream to go with it. :oD



I didn't know it would take almost 3 times as long as the frozen yogurt to simmer and whatnot so it was more like soft serve than ice cream, but here it is in its fully frozen state. Again, it was a bit hard to scoop but it tasted AMAZING. It was my first time using a real vanilla bean for anything and it smelled heavenly while cooking.

Look at the sexy vanilla seeds, it's delicious.



Keep your eye on the flickr set for more to come!