Fro Yo From Yo' Own Home

When my girlfriends and I were walking through the airport in Honolulu, I spotted a sign that made me think the mother ship was calling me home; pinkberry! it's snazzy sign called out to me. I couldn't not try the very yogurt I'd heard so casually referenced in all the Hollywood and NYC magazines I drool over in the grocery lines and when I get the (sadly now) occasional pedicure.

This was no TCBY-I got the original tart and loaded it up with berries and some hot fudge and it was amazing! I had apparently never had 'real' frozen yogurt before, and the tangy zip was perfection. Recently I discovered a little frozen yogurt shop downtown called Peach and Pear, which serves European-style frozen yogurt with hand-made and/or local toppings (excepting the candy such as m&m's) and it was just as I'd remembered Pinkberry. Then, just in the last month another yogurt shop opened even closer to my house (sabotaging my weight-loss plans here people!). Blue Palm Frozen Yogurt has okay yogurt, a lot of them are yocream brand, and it's mainly a fun experience. You get to pick your cup, go through the line and pick your flavors, then load on the toppings. Keep in mind, though, you pay by the ounce so be careful. 

It was fun the first couple of times, until I realized that I was spending an exorbitant amount of money on a frozen treat. (Over $10 when I picked up a single large container without toppings for the fam's dessert). 

Since I bought the ice cream maker, I can kill two (or three) birds with one stone. 1) Spend less money on something that's not a necessity, 2) Have absolute control over the ingredients and 3) Re-create that tangy Pinkberry perfection.

I've heard several mentions of the book The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, but I've yet to purchase it or try any of the recipes. When I googled Frozen Yogurt Recipes, I found that someone in the comments on a generic recipe had referenced both The Perfect Scoop and 101 Cookbooks in the same comment. Hell-o! I love me some Heidi Swanson takes on recipes, so I clicked on over.

Here is Heidi's take on the frozen treat:

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Heidi notes: First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. The version in David's book is Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.

3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

At the risk of having it become too icy, I'm going to use 0% yogurt, because part of the purpose of this is to find lower/no fat alternatives to my most entrenched addiction: Ice Cream. I think that I'll also experiment with alternative sweeteners next time, but only one rebellious move at a time here. For tonight, I used 3 cups of Fage 0%, 3/4 cup of sugar in the raw and a splash of vanilla. I'll also test out almond and orange extracts in the future, but for now it's good ol' vanilla.

This only took about 12 minutes to freeze in my bowl...it's velvety smooth and I can't imagine added richness from full-fat yogurt.

First off, aren't my new nesting bowls fun?! A great Wold Market find. After mixing the ingredients, you just store them in the fridge to chill for about an hour before transferring them to your ice cream mixer and create your frozen dessert per the manufacturer's directions. I rinsed out the yogurt container and will re-use it to transport the yogurt to our neighbors' house for our dinner/swimming date. Talk about deceptively delicious!