I have never made homemade yogurt before, and it has been years and years since I've participated in the making of ice cream either. My grandparents always made homemade peach ice cream during summers when I was a kid. I can remember assisting by pouring the box of rock salt into the outer section of their ice cream maker. This machine is so compact that the days of rock salt are long gone.
I chose Peppermint as the frozen yogurt flavor, because I had a lot of candy canes left over from Christmas. I had quite a few mini-canes plus several standard candy canes and a few of the peppermint soft candies. I am not a big hard candy person, and I would never consume these otherwise.
Here is a recipe I found for Peppermint Frozen Yogurt through a site called YumYum.
Peppermint Stick Frozen Yogurt
INGREDIENTS:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 eggs
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup crushed peppermint candy
2 cups PLAIN yogurt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp light corn syrup
I had a few ingredients at home, and I picked up the rest at Kroger. As you can see, I bought the store brand as Kroger was having a big sale on their private label products. I think I calculated I had about $10 in the ingredients, but the recipe only calls for a small amount of some of these which have a lengthy shelf life. I will be able to make future batches without having to pick up as much now.
First I inventoried my ingredients versus the recipe. I realized that the recipe called for 2 cups of plain yogurt, but I only had purchased one. I resorted to my refrigerator, where I had some coconut yogurts that I take to work as a snack. Since coconut yogurt has a mild flavor, I crossed my fingers that it would not affect the flavor of my frozen yogurt (and it did not).
Before I started anything, I opened all of my peppermint candy and placed it into one quart-sized Ziploc bag. I took a small hammer from my tool box and pounded the candies through the Ziploc bag onto my cutting board. Some pieces ground up to almost a powdery consistency while others remained in very small chunks. (It's a great way to get out any aggressions too!)
The first step of the recipe is to pour the milk (1/2 cup) into a saucepan on low heat and then sprinkle one packet of the unflavored gelatin over the milk. I used 1% since the recipe did not specify that it had to be whole milk. This worked beautifully as would whole milk. I was just cutting out fat and calories.
I stirred the above 2 ingredients for just a few minutes until it had pretty much dissolved for me. Then I set it on a cool burner to allow it to cool down. In my mixer on medium speed:
I beat the 2 eggs until thick.
I beat in the corn syrup.
I beat in the milk+gelatin mixture from my skillet.
I beat in the yogurt.
I beat in the ground up peppermint candies.
I beat in the lemon juice.
I beat in the whipping cream (whisk these a few hard strokes before adding).
At this point I had a smooth pale pink mixture with the residue of peppermint candy to give the final product a little texture and subtle crunch. I did not add food coloring. The red color from the peppermints created this ideal shade of pink (you can see in the photos below) once it was completely mixed in my Kitchenaid mixer.
I bypassed the recipe steps that explain how you can make the frozen yogurt by hand without a yogurt machine. If you don't have the machine, you can follow steps #7-11 HERE. (It is about a 4-hour process without the machine).
I removed the stainless bowl for my yogurt machine that had remained in my freezer up until this very step. I wanted it to be as optimally cold as possible to work its magic. I placed the stainless bowl in my freezer 2 nights before making my frozen yogurt, based on the recommendation in my manual.
I put the stainless bowl into the base of the yogurt maker. I poured my mixture from the mixing bowl into the stainless bowl. I could see the mixture already becoming visibly hardened. I placed the machine's plastic paddle down into the mixture. I secured the plastic cover making sure I locked it onto place.
I plugged in my machine, pressed the power button and watched it work its magic. This was so quick, less than 15 minutes. Below are pictures of the mixture's consistency from start to finish.
At the end, it was perfection. I was so pleased with just how tasty it turned out and how well the entire process flowed for me. Once it was complete and I had enjoyed a scoop, I transferred all of it to a plastic container with an air tight lid which I stored in my freezer. I would say it made enough for about 5-6 servings (2 average-sized scoops). I figured up each serving to have less than 5 grams of fat and approximately 200 calories.
I'm thinking of trying a berry flavor the next time.
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