Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

I recently came into possesion of an ice cream maker, and I'm pretty sure its going to change my life. My manager at work used to work in the food service industry, doing baking and catering and the like. Since then she has been diagnosed with some pretty severe food allergies and had to give up wheat, eggs, dairy... pretty much all the things she used to cook with.

While unfortunate for her, I've certainly benefitted from her bad luck. She has been going through her kitchen and garage, cleaning out her old supplies, and donating to my, "I'm teaching myself how to cook" charity. So far I've gotten cookie cutters, pie weights, silicone baking cups, thermometers, cooling racks, and now, an ice cream maker. Its an older model but I can tell you one thing - it still works.

I've had this bad boy for about a week and I've been using it a LOT; pretty much every time that bowl is frozen I'm taking it out to whip something up. I've made strawberry granita, which didn't come out very well, chocolate ice cream, and my favorite so far: strawberry frozen yogurt.

The Mister and I picked up a huge crate of strawberries at Costco on Saturday. Random tangent: I LOVE California produce. That night we were sitting at home, recharging after a day of house shopping (and gearing up for more on Sunday) and were trying to decide what to eat for dinner when we realized that dessert would be much better. We had an unopened plain yogurt in the fridge and thus, strawberry froyo was born.

We love chains like Pinkberry, so we decided to go easy on the sugar to keep things nice and tart. We wanted chunks of strawberries so we didn't puree the mixture, and cooked the strawberries in phases so that some broke down completely and some stayed in larger bits. This was delicious that night, but even better the next day after a chance to solidify in the freezer.

I have a feeling this ice cream maker is going to be very, very well used.


Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe


Adapted from here

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups full fat yogurt (if use low or non fat, then add 2 Tbsp cream)


Place half the strawberries, lemon juice, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the rest of the strawberries and continue to stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the strawberries as the mixture is heating. As soon as all of the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

Whisk in the milk and yogurt, until completely incorporated. Place the mixture in the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour until completely cold.

Process the mixture in your ice cream maker 20 to 25 minutes. Eat immediately or keep in freezer until served.

Makes about 1 quart.