homemade yogurt ice cream: vanilla and strawberry variations!!

I made both vanilla and strawberry "yogurt-ice cream" over the last few weeks!  Both flavors turned out really delicious and fruity tasting (even though the vanilla didn't have any fruit in it)!!  These recipes were adapted from the vanilla yogurt recipe in The Ultimate Ice Cream Book.  Since i like to find and make lower-fat and healthier variations of recipes when i can, i decided to substitute coconut milk+milk for heavy cream here.  I got the idea from making coconut ice cream last month.  I thought, "hmm..that coconut milk is kinda creamy, maybe i can use it instead of heavy cream"!  it seems like it is healthier, but i haven't done a comparison of the nutrition information side by side, so i can't say for sure.  Here's what i did:

Vanilla
2 cups (vanilla, organic) yogurt - strain (in strainer through a cheesecloth or wet paper towel to get a very fine strain) in fridge for 1-2 hours (to get 2/3 cups liquid out of the yogurt), discard liquid
2/3 cup sugar whisk into post strained-yogurt until dissolved
1 cup (2%, organic) milk
1/2 cup (light, organic) coconut milk
2 T vanilla extract
Strain yogurt for a few hours in refrigerator.  In a separate bowl, mix coconut milk, milk, and vanilla together, and chill.  When yogurt has been strained, discard liquid; add 2/3 cup sugar and whisk until dissolved.  Add milk mixture to yogurt mixture.  Mix with ice cream maker until frozen.  Serve with fruit or chocolate cookies.

After making the vanilla yogurt ice cream, i felt like a pro and was ready to tackle a fruity flavor!  I basically used the same recipe, added strawberries and a bit more sugar (to compensate for the extra volume of the strawberries; i realized afterward, it was probably not necessary and would have been good without the extra sugar).

Strawberry
2 cups (vanilla, organic) yogurt - strain (in strainer through a cheesecloth or wet paper towel to get a very fine strain) in fridge for 1-2 hours (to get 2/3 cups liquid out of the yogurt), discard liquid
2/3 cup sugar whisk into post strained-yogurt until dissolved
1/2 cup (2%, organic) milk
1 cup (light, organic) coconut milk
2 T vanilla extract
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup sugar (in addition to 2/3 cup)
Same process as above for yogurt.  While yogurt is chilling, mix strawberries, milk, coconut milk, vanilla, and 1/4 cup sugar in a blender until strawberries are desired texture. Chill strawberry mixture until yogurt is ready.  Add strawberry mixture to yogurt mixer.  Mix with ice cream maker until frozen.<3

right out of the machine, the ice cream is soupy!

after a while in the freezer it looks like this, yum!

Coconut Ice Cream!!

I made coconut ice cream last week, delish!!!  I interpreted the recipe since I didn't have any coconut water as called for.  Instead, the only ingredients I used were coconut milk, water, a little sugar, and some shredded coconut!  It turned out great, really nice consistency, kinda frothy!  Yum!!  Of course I topped it off with chocolate chips; I did think about added them to the actual mixture, but wanted to taste the unadulterated coconut first.

 <3

summer time = ice cream time!

We have an ice cream-maker attachment for our KitchenAid mixer and try to make ice cream or sorbet (fondly referred to as sorbetto by me) whenever possible.  Since it's getting warm, we have officially broken out the tools and made our first ice cream of the season, strawberry!!

We used the strawberry ice cream recipe from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book by Bruce Weinstein.  The book is fairly straight forward, most of the recipes have just a few ingredients, so it's not too intimidating for a not-so-serious cook!

photo from amazon listing

The recipe calls for more strawberries than we had so we (Ryan..) added pineapple.  The ice cream came out sweet and strawberry-tasting..but there was a slight bitterness to it too.  We think that the bitterness may be from the pineapple, even though it was not particularly bitter.  It is especially tasty with chocolate chips!

I think the next flavor we should go for should be coconut.  It's fresh and fruity for summer, and we happen to have coconut milk on hand.  I think a sorbet would be perfect!  In addition to coconut milk, we will also need coconut water (I haven't seen this around anywhere)..and sugar.  That's it!!  <3

cake success! Tres Leches!!

Yum!  Ryan made another great cake this weekend!  (Pan) Tres leches - Spanish for three milk cake!  This was awesome!  He decided to make it for a dinner party we had, and it went over well.  I was the biggest fan, so it is fitting that I get all the left overs!

Ryan used a box vanilla cake, and prepared it as packaged.  When the cake was cool, he poked holes in the cake, (I helped with this part) poured the three milks over the cake to soak over night.  The three milks are condensed, evaporated and heavy cream (although we used part 2% milk, part heavy  cream).   Ryan also made fresh whipped cream to top the cake, and added fresh strawberries.  Gorgeous!!

We don't have a picture of the cake before it was mostly eaten, just from the next morning, for breakfast!  Yum!!  Adding this to my list of winners! <3

Buttermilk Pie - Salty and Sweet!

So, Ry made this delicious buttermilk pie this week.  At first taste it was definitely interesting..with a super salty crust, made with oil, not butter, and a sweet custard filling.  I think he was actually disappointed with how it turned out, unfortunately.  The second day, after the pie had chilled in the fridge, I loved it!!  Not exactly sure what the difference was, maybe the chilled custard.  Also, the crust absorbed some the filling, which was nice!

I'm encouraging Ryan to make a second round, especially since we have buttermilk left in the fridge!!  He wants to try with a butter crust, instead of the oil, and I think that is a fine idea!  All in all, I think it was a great recipe!  He found it on YouTube - here  by India Galyean.
<3