Raspberry and fruits of the forest frozen yogurt

Some time ago I bought an ice cream maker. It is a very basic, simple and cheap model. But the results you can have at home are absolutely brilliant!

The ice cream maker base has a capacity of 1.6 liters, and the amounts I used in this recipe filled almost the entire recipient. Like all ice cream makers in which the base should previously be frozen, it must be at least 12 hours in the freezer. But once the base is frozen, you'll love this recipe because in 30 minutes you can enjoy a creamy frozen yogurt with a perfect result. This recipe is so quick because I use frozen fruit, which allows the mix to go directly into the machine instead of having to wait for it to get cold. Besides, this recipe has very little fat, and although we can not say it's a light recipe you can take every day, it is much lighter than conventional ice cream with much less fat but with a very similar texture and full of flavor with the yogurt and the fruits.

With this result you can imagine how I liked to try it. I still have a few ideas in mind that I really want to try, so there will be more coming.

Raspberry and fruits of the forest frozen yogurt
Ingredients (for about 1.5 liters of frozen yogurt)

400 grams of condensed milk (I used it skimmed)
500 grams fat-free plain yogurt 
300 grams of frozen raspberries

100 grams of frozen fruits of the forest

Note: I used this combination of raspberries and wild berries as it was what I had at home, but you can use your choice to your liking. Even if you use the same fruit, it is interesting to keep a quarter of the amount apart from the mix to keep bits in the ice cream.

Preparation

Beat in the bowl of an electric mixer raspberries with yogurt and condensed milk and mix well. Add the berries, put in the ice cream maker and let the ice cream machine works for 30 minutes. Once it is ready, it can be served directly, or reserved in a plastic container (like the one I used, with lid) and freeze. Take the frozen yogurt out from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving.

Coffee, lemon and cardamom granita

For someone who loves coffee anytime and in almost all versions, coffee granita is a common dessert. In summer it is refreshing and closes a meal by mixing dessert and coffee. Now, it is more or less the same idea. This recipe gives you a point of extra flavor by adding lemon and cardamom. The result is more refreshing thanks to the lemon juice and more intense due to cardamom. If you prepare it  with decaffeinated coffee, you can have it any time without fear of spending the whole night awake. Just a precision: with or without caffeine, coffee for this grantia should always be a good espresso.

Coffee, lemon and cardamom granita
Ingredients (for 2)

1/2 liter of espresso (can be decaf, but espresso)
Sweetener to taste
Juice of a lemon 

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

Put the coffee in a metal container that can be introduced in the freezer, add sweetener and taste. It should be rather sweet, because freezing  will make it bitter. Add the lemon juice gradually, testing, and do not incorporate all of it  if it gets too acid. Add the cardamom and mix well. Put in the freezer and stir with a fork every hour or so to prevent freezing altogether.
Serve with a slice of lemon.

Chocolate and choco chips ice-cream

Today's ice cream has not got any egg on its base, but it gets an intense chocolate flavor, and crunchy chocolate chips, which against the creamy base are a delicious contrast. Besides, you can prepare it in a moment.

Chocolate and chocolate chips ice-cream

Ingredients (for about 700 ml of ice cream)

200 ml whipping cream (at least 35% m.g.)
125 grams of  plain yogurt
250 ml milk
40 grams icing sugar
40 grams cocoa powder
25 grams of chocolate chips

Whip the cream with half the sugar, beating at low speed first and then up, until it hardens, being careful not to overdo it or it will become butter. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, whisking until integrate, and test. Correct sugar or cocoa to taste.
If using ice cream machine, put in refrigerator several hours or twenty minutes in the freezer before putting the ice cream, in the machine. Halfway through the process, add the chocolate chips. When the ice cream has curdled, place in a suitable containers for freezing, put into the freezer and finish cooling.

Mascarpone and almonds ice cream

I keep on making ice cream. I guess it is my way of trying to extend a bit the summer feeling. I cannot get used to these rainy, cold days and gray days in August. Weather has been terrible this summer in here. I guess by now I should have got used to the fact that here weather can only be one of two: bad or worse. So, it really makes no sense at all talk about the weather. But it is not a rhetorical resource at all. Here it is a real topic for conversation. These cold temperature and dark skies make it really difficult to think of summer. And when you receive the occasional out of office autoreply  at work, with someone’s message explaining she is on summer holidays, it feels really strange. It feels kind of out of place.

So occasionally I decide to do some ice cream. I prepare it not because a hot summer day asks for a refreshing and frozen dessert.  Right now, I need to remind myself that no matter how cold it is outside,  at the end of a great  meal, an ice cream will always be a perfect dessert.

This ice cream is just a slight variation on one of the easiest ice creams I've ever done. I had done it several times before. And when I invited some friends over for dinner, I thought I could prepare this ice cream some days in advance. If I felt like preparing something else, this delicate and neutral ice cream flavor would work perfectly. If served alone, the almonds would  provide a lovely  crunch to it so that it is not bland at all. Besides, you can prepare it in a moment, and the result are oh so good. Will you also try it?

Mascarpone cheese and almonds ice cream

Ingredients

250 grams of mascarpone cheese

100 grams of sugar

100 ml whipping cream

juice of 1 lemon

50 grams of toasted almonds, (flakes or coarsely ground)

Directions

To make the ice cream, put the cheese, sugar and  lemon juice in a bowl and mix well. Add the cream and mix again. Finish by adding the almonds, trying to keep them well distributed. Put in the freezer (or ice cream) at least 6 hours before serving, preferably overnight.

Forest berries creamy frozen yogurt

If there is anything at all in my memory that instantly pops up whenever I think of summer, it is ice cream. When I was a child ice cream was a summer-only sweet. The long, hot summer days in the beach used to be followed by a creamy, flavourful ice cream. Those were the best ice cream ever. No matter the flavour, or the ice creamer itself. Just on the sea side, with the urge of a frozen treat after all the sun and the sea of the day. 

Making ice cream at home can be really simple, can be absolutely simple, I'd say. You can use an ice cream machine if you have one, but you can really get back to that childhood memories in no time and without any special ingredients with recipes as simple as this. 

Enjoy!

Forest berries creamy frozen yogurt

Ingredients

150 grams of frozen berries

250 grams of creamy Greek natural yogurt

50 grams white, granulated sugar

Directions

Mix  in a food processor all the ingredients and beat well until you get a creamy and integrated mixture. Taste and adjust sugar to taste. Remember it should be slightly sweet, because by freezing it will become less sweet. Put into the freezer at least four hours, better 6 to 8, before serving.

Serve with a few mint or basil leaves, a bit of pink pepper and some freshly ground black pepper.

If you prefer, you can also take it as a milkshake, without freezing. The frozen fruit with yogurt will be a perfect smoothie anyway.