Thursday, July 31, 2008

Strawberry Fro - Yo

Last summer I spent the better part of a perfect June morning picking organic strawberries at this lovely farm in Milton. If I remember correctly, I picked about 14lbs in approximately 3 hours. There are few things more blissful in life than standing in acres of strawberry plants, the sun bronzing ones shoulders, and inhaling deep breaths of the highly perfumed air.

However, using 14lbs of strawberries is a daunting task. While some became strawberry shortcakes, and others became a beautiful sticky, sweet, darkly delicious strawberry and balsamic jam, most of the berries became freezer fodder.

This year, working the festival meant no time for laundry, much less berry picking and as a result I am working my way through the ones I stock piled last summer. Plus, in an effort to loose the Pride weight I've been staying away from ice cream as much as possible..which is difficult given the humidity. And then it occurred to me...fro yo! We already make a beautifully creamy yogurt in the restaurant...and I had vague recollections of Jamie Oliver doing something like this with very cold heavy cream and frozen berries.

So how do you make the best strawberry frozen yogurt...without an ice cream machine? With a blender...and frozen berries.

Virtually Instant Strawberry Fro Yo

Ingredients:
2 cups of frozen strawberries (mine are organic, picked and frozen from a lovely farm in Milton)
1 cup of yogurt (mine is from 2% milk, made in house at the restaurant)
1/2 - 3/4 cups of sugar (depending on the sweetness of the berries)

Process:
1. Combine the yogurt and the sugar and stir vigorously to dissolve.
2. Rough chop the berries and toss them into the blender.
3. Pour over the yogurt and blitz until combined. Stir occasionally to ensure an even blend.
4. Once the blend is uniform pour into a freezer safe container and chill for at least an hour - preferably five. Check in occasionally and give it a quick stir to break up the freezing along the sides.
5. Pile into cones, cups, spoons etc and enjoy.

Note: This is also blissful with pineapple, banana, mango and ginger (all of which I froze over the course of the year at various times). The added fibre from the banana and mango make for a creamier, less granita like product.