Evan and I agree that the best frozen dessert of our childhoods, bar none, were push-ups. There is an iced novelty by that name these days, but it's not the same at all. When we were kids, it was a frozen yogurt treat that was perfectly sweet and slightly tangy and creamy and so much fun to push up.
I got some beautiful raspberries at the farmers' market this week and wanted to make a raspberry-centric dessert for the 4th of July. Fruit torte was an obvious choice, but I figure I'll be making that for family dinner for July birthdays soon so wanted to try something new. The strawberry ice cream I made the other week using the Fruit Gelato recipe was super tasty, so I pondered a raspberry version of that.
And then I remembered push-ups, and the fact that I had a gallon of homemade yogurt in the fridge, and I knew I had to make raspberry frozen yogurt. I was planning on making it to eat as soft serve, as frozen yogurt always gets so hard after a long freeze, but I looked around to see if I could solve the chalky/hard problem and found this recipe, oddly posted on the King Arthur Flour (KAF) website, plus another one on The Kitchn that suggested using some heavy cream in conjunction with the yogurt would lead to the best texture. I happened to have some cream on hand so thought I'd give it a try.
While I based my fro yo on the KAF recipe, I immediately made some changes that I will keep in future: I wanted a full quart of ice cream so I upped the portions slightly, I reduced the sugar by a lot, I omitted the vanilla and, most significantly, I did not cook the berries at all. Because I chose to use only raspberries, I felt that cooking them would ruin the fresh, fruit-forward fro yo I was going for. It nearly goes without saying that I also did not strain my berry mixture. If I used blackberries I would have, but I don't mind raspberry seeds in my dessert as much as I mind the tedium (and waste) of the straining.
We did eat it as soft serve and I don't know yet how chalky it will be tomorrow. While it wasn't an exact replica of the push-ups of yore, it was mighty fine and I'll definitely make it again. I found it a bit sweet so I'll keep reducing the sugar til we achieve the perfect balance. My homemade yogurt is not particularly tangy, which may be part of it.
Turns out, it scooped like a dream even after a night in the freezer. This stuff is great! I also made a blackberry and a blueberry version where I did cook the berries. I used 3 cups of berries and cooked them down for 10 minutes or so before adding the sugar and then the lemon juice. I strained the blackberries as I don't love those seeds, but didn't strain out the blueberry skins. I've been having some trouble with my ice cream maker not churning very well (a sign of age, perhaps), so make sure to chill down your mixture thoroughly if you have cooked your berries. The 2/3 cup sugar works well and is what I regularly use.
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 c raspberries
2/3 to 3/4 c sugar
Juice of half a lemon
1 3/4 c whole milk or 2% plain yogurt, not Greek style (recipe would likely need adjustment for Greek style yogurt)
3/4 c heavy cream (or whatever makes sense for the overall dairy to add up to 2.5 cups)
DIRECTIONS
I got some beautiful raspberries at the farmers' market this week and wanted to make a raspberry-centric dessert for the 4th of July. Fruit torte was an obvious choice, but I figure I'll be making that for family dinner for July birthdays soon so wanted to try something new. The strawberry ice cream I made the other week using the Fruit Gelato recipe was super tasty, so I pondered a raspberry version of that.
And then I remembered push-ups, and the fact that I had a gallon of homemade yogurt in the fridge, and I knew I had to make raspberry frozen yogurt. I was planning on making it to eat as soft serve, as frozen yogurt always gets so hard after a long freeze, but I looked around to see if I could solve the chalky/hard problem and found this recipe, oddly posted on the King Arthur Flour (KAF) website, plus another one on The Kitchn that suggested using some heavy cream in conjunction with the yogurt would lead to the best texture. I happened to have some cream on hand so thought I'd give it a try.
While I based my fro yo on the KAF recipe, I immediately made some changes that I will keep in future: I wanted a full quart of ice cream so I upped the portions slightly, I reduced the sugar by a lot, I omitted the vanilla and, most significantly, I did not cook the berries at all. Because I chose to use only raspberries, I felt that cooking them would ruin the fresh, fruit-forward fro yo I was going for. It nearly goes without saying that I also did not strain my berry mixture. If I used blackberries I would have, but I don't mind raspberry seeds in my dessert as much as I mind the tedium (and waste) of the straining.
We did eat it as soft serve and I don't know yet how chalky it will be tomorrow. While it wasn't an exact replica of the push-ups of yore, it was mighty fine and I'll definitely make it again. I found it a bit sweet so I'll keep reducing the sugar til we achieve the perfect balance. My homemade yogurt is not particularly tangy, which may be part of it.
Turns out, it scooped like a dream even after a night in the freezer. This stuff is great! I also made a blackberry and a blueberry version where I did cook the berries. I used 3 cups of berries and cooked them down for 10 minutes or so before adding the sugar and then the lemon juice. I strained the blackberries as I don't love those seeds, but didn't strain out the blueberry skins. I've been having some trouble with my ice cream maker not churning very well (a sign of age, perhaps), so make sure to chill down your mixture thoroughly if you have cooked your berries. The 2/3 cup sugar works well and is what I regularly use.
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 c raspberries
2/3 to 3/4 c sugar
Juice of half a lemon
1 3/4 c whole milk or 2% plain yogurt, not Greek style (recipe would likely need adjustment for Greek style yogurt)
3/4 c heavy cream (or whatever makes sense for the overall dairy to add up to 2.5 cups)
DIRECTIONS
- Wash and pick over the raspberries, then mash them in a large bowl
- Add the sugar and lemon juice, stir and let sit until the sugar dissolves
- Stir in the yogurt and the cream. Taste and adjust sweetness, keeping in mind that frozen yogurt will taste less sweet than the liquid mixture. If it's already too sweet, you could balance it out a bit by adding a pinch of salt, more lemon or even some balsamic or sherry vinegar
- Chill if you're not ready to churn, otherwise if you're using ingredients straight from the fridge you can churn right away
- Churn in an ice cream maker per instructions. My Cuisinart took about 25 minutes. Serve what you like straight from the ice cream maker and then freeze the rest for later
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