Fat Free Yogurt with fresh strawberries and coconut milk

I have been inspired with the summer coming on to make scratch ice cream. When I was growing up my parent used to throw ice cream parties. I remember helping my mom make the ice cream base and since this was 30 plus years ago we had to old crank ice cream churn that required lots of ice and rock salt. One spring break we went on a trip to Texas and we went into Mexico for a day trip. On the trip dad found a bottle of Mexican vanilla. It looked like a bottle of brown liquor. For years they hid that bottle from all their church friends. And for the longest time after that anytime mom cooked something that required vanilla she used that bottle. For those of you who do not know its a stronger flavor and the smell is a bit harsher than its asian sister. To this day I can tell just by the smell if the vanilla is Mexican or a south east asian. One of the other things I remember vividly was the fresh strawberry ice cream that we used to make as well. There is nothing like that fresh local grown strawberry flavor in your homemade ice cream on a hot July saturday afternoon. Remember the scene in Ratatouille when the critic has a flashback from eating that meal in the end. Same thing for me.

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to come across an Il Gelato ice cream maker. They stopped making them a while back due to the ban on the type of freon that it used. Needless to say its one of the peices of cooking equipment that I cherish.

My ice creams are legendary amongst my family. Probably cause I use the 42% butter fat heavy cream and egg yolks in the batter. But we dont tell them that. I have an Aunt who swears that she is allergic to butter... not lactose but butter. I have been feeding her butter for years. My partner on the other hand watches EVERTHING I cook and put into the dishes I make for her. She is very particular about her diet and I respect that. So when I asked if we could make some ice cream I was pretty sure I knew what the criteria was going to be. Fat free and lo cal was the response. And then if I recall since I was asking this on IM she sent me a link to a fat free frozen yogurt recipe. And we were off and running.

I started off with fat free greek yogurt. I like the rich flavor and Greek yogurt has the active enzymes that help facilitate the digestive system. I also purchased a large basket of strawberries, from Texas I think, and let them sit on the counter for a couple of days. This part is important. I want the strawberries to get good and ripe.

That means you are going to have some of that moldy fuzzy strawberries in the basket when you go to sort them. Now here is the special instructions part. You have to keep the soggy none brown strawberries. Those are the ripest and have the most flavor.

So here we go on the recipe.



16 oz greek yogurt fat free

3 cups extra ripe strawberries

1 tbsp (yes tablespoon) vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 8 oz can coconut milk

1 8 oz can sweetened condensed fat free milk

sweet and low to taste ( I know I know she insisted)

mix all ingredients in a large bowl mix thoroughly and pour into the ice cream maker and mix till cold and thick.

I like to buy those ziplock disposable containers to put the ice cream in and put in the freezer. Once the mixture is in the freezer let it sit over night and cure (Ya right I was scooping a bowl out of the the machine while it was still churning)

I recommend having some sugar cookies to go with this but thats just me.

Bonne Apetite