Ilene’s Creamery: Tart and Tangy Froyo (like pinkberry, red mango, etc.)

by ilene on August 9, 2012

(This is part of a series I wrote on ice cream making. See full list of posts here.)

Hi guys!! Sorry for the sporadic posting!! Jeff and I were gone on our babymoon in Hawaii last week! We hit up Oahu and the Big Island for one last romantic vacation in paradise before baby girl arrives in October. We had a blissful nine days away where we hung out with friends, stuffed our faces with amazing food and did all the usual touristy stuff in Waikiki and then island-hopped over to the Big Island where we saw the live volcanoes and swam with manta rays. I was pretty proud of myself for snorkeling, swimming, kayaking and hiking despite starting my third trimester of pregnancy. I’m feeling pretty good these days! While I’ve been lucky enough to have vacationed in Hawaii a handful of times before, Jeff, hailing from the landlocked state of Illinois, experienced this tropical paradise for the first time. He loved it! Now we want to go every year!

Between soaking up the sun out on the beach, learning to surf (Jeff, not me) and stuffing ourselves with shaved ice and spam masubi, we were crazy enough to buy a new home while we were away on vacation!! After months and months of searching for the perfect home driving all over the San Francisco bay area, we finally found one just a block away from where we currently live in the city. Go figure. We had to outbid a bunch of other home buyers to get it but luckily our superstar agent took care of everything for us while we were out of town and now we will be moving in less than a month! We’ll move in with just enough time to settle in and nest before our daughter arrives. I’m so glad our baby girl wont have to sleep in our closet or in our dresser drawer like I was beginning to imagine! Whew! Huge sigh of relief!

Anyways, back to my icecream series. Living in California, I LOVE my froyo!! I am obsessed with Pinkberry, Red Mango and Yogurtland and all the other frozen yogurt shops that serve the tart, tangy froyo (not the old school regular type of froyo that is like softened icecream). My favorite in SF is Fraiche. After churning out lots and lots of icecream and gelato, I thought I should make a healthier alternative and try making this tart and tangy froyo. I found this recipe and it was surprising a LOT easier than I thought. I’ve seen other recipes that use greek yogurt or lemon juice or whipped cream or a bunch of other ingredients and was intimidated by those. I like that this recipe is SO simple, it use just two ingredients: regular plain nonfat frozen yogurt and sugar. I think I could do this! The post also includes an excellent recipe for mochi (japanese rice cake) to accompany the froyo which I tried as well and will write about tomorrow.

Tart & Tangy Frozen Yogurt (from Design Sponge)

32 oz. container of Plain Nonfat Yogurt

5/6 cup of Sugar (this is 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup)

Directions:

1. Whisk together the yogurt and sugar until the sugar dissolves. (I found that 5/6 of a cup of sugar was really sweet for me, I think next time I will cut it down to just half a cup):

2. Pour yogurt mixture into an ice cream maker and churn for 25-30 minutes. Make sure your ice cream maker base has been in the freezer for at least 24 hours, as the colder it is, the more creamy (and less icy) the fro-yo will be.

3. After 25-30 minutes, the fro-yo should be creamy and thick – in between the texture of sorbet and ice cream.

4. Transfer into an airtight container and freeze. I stored some ofmy froyo in my disposable icecream cartons: