Recipe for Frozen Peach Yogurt and My Culinary Crush on Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home Cookbook

Recipe for Frozen Peach Yogurt and My Culinary Crush on Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home Cookbook

This might be the longest post title I've ever written!

It has been hot and humid in DC the last past week and I have been trying to spend as much time in my air conditioned condo as possible.

Earlier last week, however, I tracked to my library because there was something special waiting on hold for me: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home cookbook by Jeni Britton Bauer.

I started paging through the book even before I got home. It has recipes for ice creams, frozen yogurts and accessories such as sauces and chocolate bombe shells. The photography is bright and playful and the recipes are divided by season.

I have many pages marked, but one of the recipes that stood out the most to me was the Baked Rhubarb Frozen Yogurt.

Alas, my grocery store was out of rhubarb. Figures. I decided to use peaches instead. I changed Jeni's recipe a bit: first, I cooked the peaches in butter in a skillet instead of baking them. Second, I used almost double the fruit amount Jeni listed in her recipe. What you'll see below if my version of the recipe.

Frozen Peach Yogurt
Slightly Adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

Ingredients

1 quart plain yogurt

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 pound peaches, pitted, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup



Directions

1. The night before you want to make the frozen yogurt, fit a sieve over a bowl and line it with two layers of cheesecloth or paper towels. Pour the yogurt into the sieve, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours to drain. You will need 1 1/4 cups of the total drained yogurt for this recipe.

2. In a skillet, heat butter, add peaches and sugar and cook until the peaches are soft but not falling apart. Set aside. While the peaches are cooking, prepare an ice bath: big bowl filled with ice and cold water.

3. Mix about 3 tablespoons of milk with cornstarch in a small bowl.

4. Whisk the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth.

5. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture.

6. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

7. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Add the peach mixture and 1 1/4 cups of drained yogurt. Blend well.

8. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon plastic freezer bag, seal and submerge into the ice bath. Cool the mixture for about 30 minutes.

9. Pour the frozen yogurt base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the frozen yogurt into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lead. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Tada!

This recipe has quite a few steps, but it's oh so very worth it! The flavor of the peaches really comes through and you can make this recipe your own by using other fruit and experimenting with adding citrus zest or even a bit of liquor as a flavoring agent.

In the past, I've also made goat cheese ice cream from Jeni's book and loved it.

Do you have this book? Have you made any recipes from it? What is YOUR favorite flavor of frozen yogurt or ice cream?