froyo

Hot days require cold things to eat. That is the law in my house. I decreed it. And so it was written.

There is nothing quite like ice cream to relieve the heat from the inside out, but The Evil Genius is still on his crazy “I want to be healthy!” kick. And so, loving wife that I am, I’m trying to mess with him. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not shooting down his healthy diet attempts, I’m just trying to make him think that I am. It’s complex. Let me explain.

I have finally found the holy grail of diet-friendly desserts; frozen yogurt. Yes. I knew frozen yogurt existed before, and I had even tried it and liked it. But my problem was that every time I made it at home (with this notable exception) it tasted like, well, yogurt. And while yogurt is a pleasant thing most times, when I’m biting into something that looks like ice cream, I want it to taste like ice cream, too. When I made my Blueberry Frozen Yogurt last month, it was a revelation. It was frozen yogurt that tasted so much like ice cream that it totally confused all the menfolk in my house. The boys thought I was teasing them by calling it frozen yogurt. The Evil Genius thought I was trying to secretly fatten him. It took another round of blueberry frozen yogurt, with them watching me make it, to convince them that it was really that healthy for them.

But when they were really and truly convinced it created a new, more insidious problem. They nagged me for it constantly. They wanted more, more, more… As much as I love food, I get a little fickle if I have to prepare the same thing three times a week. (Unless by ‘prepare the same thing three times a week’ you mean unwrapping individual bite-sized dark chocolate bars.) I had to move on from Blueberry Frozen Yogurt. The next step was a natural. My favorite ice cream flavor is Fill-in-the-blank* Cheesecake. Clearly that was the next candidate for health-i-fication.

*Fill-in-the-blank= strawberry or blueberry. Either will do!

Happily, the first attempt at Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt was a grand slam home run. Using 2% milk fat Greek yogurt and American-style Neufchâtel* cheese, I churned up a perfect creamy, healthy version of Cheesecake Ice Cream swirled with a fresh ruby strawberry coulis. Go on. I know! Seriously, it was cheesecakey. It was fruity. It was smooth. And it didn’t taste even remotely healthy! I call that a success!

*American-style Neufchâtel cheese is often sold next to cream cheese in the dairy section of grocery stores. It is packaged identically to cream cheese, and usually says “1/3 less fat than Cream Cheese” or something like that on the label. It is, in most cases, interchangeable with cream cheese in recipes. This case is no exception! You get the flavor and the creaminess imparted by cream cheese with less impact on the old rear. And goodness knows I do enough to pad that area already.

And wait until you hear my secret ingredient; balsamic vinegar. For those of you who have eaten a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over fresh strawberries this will not come as a shock, but if you’ve never had the combination before I should probably set your mind at ease. It doesn’t taste like vinegar on strawberries. Balsamic vinegar has an amazing ability, in small quantities, to make strawberries taste more like strawberries than ever before. It transforms regular strawberries into the most intense tasting berries you’ve ever had. It -in short- performs miracles. But unlike a stage mother, it fades into the background and doesn’t call attention to itself.

It’s hot out. I think you need some frozen yogurt. I think you deserve this.

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here.

Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

Yield: About 2 quarts of frozen yogurt

Ingredients for the cheesecake frozen yogurt:

4 cups 2% milk fat Greek Yogurt
8 ounces (1 brick) American-style Neufchâtel cheese (do not soften ahead of time)
3/4 cup cold milk
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for the Strawberry Coulis:

3 cups whole, hulled strawberries, frozen or fresh
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Add all of the ingredients for the coulis to your blender carafe. After positioning the lid on the carafe, turn the blender on and process until smooth. Pour into a measuring cup, jar or squeeze bottle with a tight fitting lid. Refrigerate until needed.

Rinse and dry the blender carafe and lid. Add all of the ingredients for the cheesecake frozen yogurt to the carafe. Place the lid on top and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl or container. Cover tightly and refrigerate for one hour prior to churning.

Freeze the ice cream mixture according to the manufacturer’s instructions included with your ice cream maker. It takes about 25 minutes in my ice cream maker.

Something to keep in mind is that this frozen yogurt, unlike most ice creams, churns up fairly firm. Listen for signs that your ice cream maker is struggling. Turn it off immediately if it is. If it is not quite as hard as you’d like it, you can always pop it in the freezer for a bit prior to serving.

To create the strawberry swirl:

Use a wooden spoon to transfer the churned frozen yogurt from the ice cream maker to a storage container. Squirt, pour or dollop strawberry coulis by the tablespoonful over the frozen yogurt. I use about 1/2 cup of the coulis. Store the remaining coulis in the refrigerator.

Use two butterknives to cut and swirl the coulis into the frozen yogurt.

Smooth the surface of the swirled frozen yogurt with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.

Cover tightly and freeze for 10 minutes prior to serving. If you freeze longer than 10 minutes, you may need to leave the container out on the counter top for some time prior to scooping.

Serve on cones or in a bowl topped with chocolate covered graham crackers and drizzled with more coulis.

And if you have a 12 year old who is art-directing the photography of your frozen yogurt, you can hang on a minute or two while he scours the yard for the perfect flower to decorate your dessert. “Voilà!,” quoth Liam, “It’s perfect!”

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

The following is a partial re-print of my column that appeared in today’s Record-Eagle.

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The Evil Genius oftentimes has been asked, frequently in my presence, how he avoids weighing 500 pounds eating my cooking. His response has been to grab his belly, moan a little bit, and say “I could easily!” He slid a little into uncomfortable weight territory over the winter and thus has declared himself to be on a health kick. He’s been riding his bike, playing more sports with the boys, watching his food intake and (gasp!) skipping dessert most nights.

All well and good, but the dessert thing I’ve found distressing. I am a baker. I am the sugarplum fairy, for crying out loud. Desserts are what I do. I have always been a little (read: a lot) snotty about healthy desserts. “You want a healthy dessert? Eat an apple!” But even more urgently, he had a birthday coming up soon. Birthdays equal mega-desserts. I didn’t want to serve my husband a cup of granola for his birthday.

My dearly beloved’s disturbing new edict left me with two options; pout or learn to make some spectacular and healthy desserts.

Healthy desserts it was.

In order to compensate for my lack of buttercream and caramel sauce, I went for big, bright fruit flavors and low carbs to accompany them.

I kicked off my healthy dessert experiment with blueberry frozen yogurt. And guess what? The guys couldn’t tell that it was frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. (Sadly, yes, that is my benchmark of success for a healthy dessert. Does it taste healthy? If so, toss and start over.) The conversation went something like this:

Boys (in unison): “Mom, can I have more blueberry ice cream?”

Me: “It’s frozen yogurt.”

Boys (in unison): “No it isn’t. It’s blueberry ice cream. Can I please have some?”

Me: “Yes, you can have a lot. Because it is frozen yogurt.”

Boys (in unison wearing “I-Know-Better-You-Trickster-You” facial expressions): “OK, can I have another scoop of the blueberry (air quotes) frozen yogurt (more air quotes) right now?”

Husband (hesitating after the first bite with spoon suspended over bowl): “Are you sure this is low calorie? It feels fattening. It tastes like your regular desserts. Should I be eating this?”

Well, score one for me. I guess that maybe this old dog can learn a few new tricks. And I sheepishly admit that perhaps, maybe, I was ever-so-slightly, just-a-wee-bit wrong about healthy desserts. But I reserve my right to bust out a cheesecake, custard or poundcake smothered in buttercream every now and again. On that, I will not bend.

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt is as creamy as ice cream thanks to thick Greek yogurt, but if blueberries aren’t your thing, you can easily substitute with an equal amount of peaches, strawberries or raspberries. If you do, be sure to adjust the flavoring (vanilla, Crème de Cassis, Grand Marnier) to agree with whatever fruit you’ve used.

You have two options; you can strain the blended yogurt base to remove the blueberry seeds for a smooth and creamy frozen yogurt or you can go a little more rustic and leave them intact. Either way, it’s delicious. If you have a one-quart ice cream maker, you can easily halve this recipe.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe minus my tendency to blather, click here!

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

3 cups Greek yogurt (whole or 2 percent)
1-½ cups sugar
6 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
1 Tablespoon Crème de Cassis, Grand Marnier or pure vanilla extract

Add yogurt, sugar and blueberries to your blender and blend until smooth. If you’re using frozen berries, it may take a little coaxing to get them all blended. If it doesn’t “want” to blend, shut off the blender and move the contents around a little with a wooden spoon or spatula. Remove the spoon, replace the lid and blend again.

If a smooth product is desired, pour and force the yogurt base through a stainless steel, fine mesh strainer. It will take a while, so be prepared! I like mine strained because I think frozen blueberry seeds are not so pleasant on the old teeth. If you like a more rustic yogurt with bits of blueberry and seeds throughout, skip the straining. Either way, you need to refrigerate the yogurt base for 2-4 hours prior to freezing.

When you remove the yogurt base from the refrigerator, run a whisk through the mixture quickly to make it easier to pour. (The yogurt base has a tendency to firm up in the refrigerator so that it’s almost a Jell-o like consistency. Running the whisk through it will loosen it up a bit.)

Pour the yogurt base into your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. (In my Cuisinart ice cream maker, it took 25 minutes and was ready to serve immediately.) Transfer to a freezer-safe container with a lid. This makes about two quarts.

If you have any yogurt left over, store it tightly packed in the freezer with a piece of plastic wrap laid directly on the surface of the frozen yogurt.

To serve as we did for The Evil Genius’s birthday, lay a warm crepe on a plate. Add a scoop of blueberry frozen yogurt to the bottom left corner of the crepe. Fold the right half of the crepe left over the scoop of yogurt. Fold the top quarter down over the scoop. Top with a sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar or a dollop of blueberry compote or blueberry sauce.

Of course, you can skip all that folderol and pile the scoops on top of a cone. One way or the other, you’re in for a deceptively healthy treat! Obviously Rowan didn’t mind missing out on the crepes…