Afternoon pick-me-up: Roasted Strawberry and Ginger Frozen Yogurt! I’ve never been a huge fan of commercial frozen-yogurt. It always had too much of a tangy flavor, and the low fat nature of it made it become icy pretty quickly. This homemade stuff doesn’t have either of those issues. Of course, I also used full-fat yogurt, which likely helped! 🙂 The ginger adds this touch of brightness and it’s hard to really identify as ginger, but it definitely adds something. And I got to use my ice cream maker to huge success, so might have to try more flavors!
Ingredients
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 tablespoon vodka
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 quart plain whole-milk yogurt
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
Note: This recipe requires draining the yogurt for 8 to 12 hours and you should freeze the freezing component of your ice cream maker for a minimum of 18 to 24 hours before use. Plan ahead for this recipe!
Directions
Line colander or fine-mesh strainer with triple layer of cheesecloth and place over large bowl or measuring cup. Place yogurt in colander, cover with plastic wrap (plastic should not touch yogurt), and refrigerate until 1 1/4 cups whey have drained from yogurt, at least 8 hours or up to 12 hours. If more than 1 1/4 cups whey drains from yogurt, simply stir extra back into yogurt.
In the meantime, preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a bowl, combine strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar. Toss to coat. Place on baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes. Let cool. Take 2/3 of the roasted strawberries and add to a blender, along with the grated ginger and vodka. Puree until smooth. (Note: the remaining 1/3 of the strawberries will thus be “chunks” in the final mixture. If you want the yogurt to be completely smooth, puree all of the roasted berries. Also, the vodka here is meant to keep the berries from crystalizing too much in the final frozen yogurt. You can omit it, but your end product might be a little icier.)
Discard 3/4 cup drained whey, so you only have 1/2 cup. Sprinkle gelatin over remaining whey in bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir ground ginger into mixture and let cool for 5 minutes. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer, pressing on solids to extract all liquid; this is so that you don’t have gelatin lumps in the frozen yogurt.
In large bowl, whisk remaining sugar, syrup, salt, drained yogurt, cooled whey-gelatin mixture and pureed and remaining roasted strawberries until sugar is completely dissolved. Cover and refrigerate (or place bowl over ice bath) until yogurt mixture registers 40F or less.
Churn yogurt mixture in ice cream maker until mixture resembles thick soft-serve frozen yogurt and registers about 20F, 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer frozen yogurt to airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Serve.
