Blackberry Lemon Frozen Yogurt

When my parents asked me last year what I wanted for my birthday, I hemmed and hawed and eventually told them I wanted an Ice Cream Maker even though the hubby couldn't have any.  I'd just seen too many amazing recipes while blog-browsing and I needed to have one. 

Don't worry, when it arrived I was the dutiful wife and my fist experiment was with a cranberry sorbet - very j-friendly.  Unfortunately, that was also right about when the ulcer issues began so I don't think he ever actually had any.  

Well, that wasn't my problem. I'd done my duty.

Blackberry Lemon Frozen Yogurt

Making ice cream isn't hard.  Variations are as easy as pie but everyone seems to vary on techniques and in the end its just a finicky endeavor.   I'm not a big fan of using gobs of raw eggs in my recipes, nor do I want them to be long complicated affairs.  I have to thank the lovely lady of bakedbree for my favorite vanilla recipe.  (and she has soo many other amazing ideas as well).

This was my first time trying out a frozen yogurt and my first time trying out the Cabot Greek Yogurt.   Both are keepers, although I think for Greek Yogurt Parfaits I'll stick to my Chobani. 

I found the recipe at thecravingchronices when I was browsing there the other day for my home-cooking dinner date (we ended up making Chili).  I also found a million other recipes to try, so check them out when you have a chance.

Blackberry Lemon Frozen Yogurt

adapted from thecravingchronicles

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
handful of fresh mint leaves
2 cups Greek yogurt
2 heaping cups (300g) fresh blackberries
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoons Limoncello

 Start by zesting one lemon. 

 In your food processor, combine the sugar, mint leaves and lemon zest. Pulse until moist and fragrant.

It should look something like this.

Add the blackberries and pulse until combined.  I only have a mini food processor so I had to do this in several batches.  

The original recipe says to push mixture through a sieve at the end when all the ingredients have been combined to remove the blackberry seeds.  I decided to keep the seeds in my yogurt, mostly because I tried to use the sieve and it was rather hard.  The next time I make this, I'm going to push the mixture through a sieve at this point in the recipe - before I add the yogurt. 

The last time I had Lemoncello I was in Venice with some of my lovely study abroad friends.  Those were good times :)  This is the only brand of Lemoncello I could find at any of the local liquor stores - apparently the Irish arn't quite as interested in Italian liqueurs as they are in whiskey.  My kinda people :)

Once all the blackberries have been incorporated, start adding the yogurt, lemoncello and lemon juice.  

In the actual recipe, this is where it tells you to push the mixture through the sieve.  But, like I said, it was almost impossible and I was lazy.  I also don't mind the seeds. 

The other tricky part about homemade Ice Cream is that typically, its a two day process.  The first day you mix the ingredients, then it has to chill overnight and the next day you can throw it in the machine for the magic to happen.  When you cover your mixture for cooling, I've found it works best to push the saran wrap down onto the mixture itself, to prevent a film from forming.  Then find a spot in the fridge and let it sit overnight or for at least 4-6 hours. 

The next day.....

Pull your mixture out of the fridge. 

Toss it into the machine and let it churn.  My machine usually takes about 25 minutes.  

This is after about 15 minutes.  

All done!  My Dad likes to eat his homemade ice cream when its almost a soup.  I like mine a little firmer.   Sometimes, my machine doesn't get the mixture to quite the texture that I want, so then you just toss it into the freezer for a while until you reach the consistancy of frozen that you like. 

My original plan was to have this as dessert every night that J was out of town.  That plan failed most nights because I ate too much of whatever the entree happened to be, but I did manage to try it out the night I made my quiche and it was great!  I didn't mind the seeds at all but I did think that the mint was a tad too strong so just be careful when you're deciding how many leaves to add in.