Making Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt at Home

My one birthday wish this year was to get a Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker that makes frozen desserts, because I'm always craving raspberry and boysenberry non-fat frozen yogurt and don't have somewhere I can get it locally. Thanks to my wonderful Hubby (who smartly used one of our 20% off coupons from Bed, Bath & Beyond), I got my birthday wish. After familiarizing myself with the instructional booklet and removing it from it many layers of styrofoam packing, the Cuisinart took its maiden voyage in making a raspberry non-fat frozen yogurt based on one of the recipes included in the instructional booklet. We photographed the process in order to share here in case anyone is curious how the process works and what the process looks like. I apologize in advance if any photos cause salivation, drooling, or cravings of any kind.

In addition to the Cuisinart, it was necessary to employ our Osterizer blender. If we hadn't been making a fruit recipe needing pureed fruit, the blender wouldn't have been a necessary piece of equipment for the process.

We chose to use fresh raspberries (although pricey) but we could have used thawed frozen fruit instead. Later on when the berries are no longer in season, I'll use frozen fruit.

The 12 oz. of raspberries went right into the blender. We also needed enough fresh limes to extract 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice (we used our electric juicer but a basic reamer will do just fine). The lime juice went into the blender as well.

We then added 3/4 cup of granulated sugar to the blender. Next time, I think I will experiment with a sugar substitute appropriate for baking purposes in order to keep the calories down.

Then it was time to puree everything in the blender until it was nice and smooth. I chose to strain out the seeds before continuing on with the rest of the mixing process, but it wasn't necessary. I just don't like seeds all that much. I still ended up with a few (which was fine).

After putting the puree in a medium bowl, we added 1 1/3 cups non-fat vanilla yogurt. Next time I'm going to go with just a plain yogurt instead a vanilla flavored one and add a dash of vanilla extract to punch up the flavor.

Then it was time to add 1/2 cup of whole milk. I think the whole milk is necessary for the added creaminess it gives. Calorie-wise it isn't much higher than 2% milk, but I suppose one could experiment with the lower fat milk if one wanted to lower the calories.

Once the dairy products were added, it was time to whisk to the entire mixture until satiny smooth (which doesn't take much time at all). Once the whisking is done, the instructional booklet said we could refrigerate the entire mixture until we were ready to use it. This was cool, because I did this before dinner, refrigerated the mixture, and then when we were ready for dessert all I had to do was turn on the machine and pour it in! Refrigerating the mixture beforehand, although not necessary, reduces the total time it takes for the soft serve ice cream to be ready to eat.

So once dinner was done, the machine got turned on and we poured the mixture into the easy-access window on the top of the unit. It was fun to stand and watch it mix and thicken up as it froze. Well, at least it was for me. Hubby didn't want to stand and watch it, so he went off to watch some television. In all the freezing process, takes about 20 minutes (a little less if the mixture was refrigerated first).

We tested the ice cream with little spoonfuls to make sure it was the right consistency before we dispensed it into vintage ice cream cups that I inherited from my great grandmother. It was fun dispensing it. Hubby says I'm more artful about it than he is (which is why I'm the one that makes our self-serve ice cream cones at Sweet Tomatoes).

The Good Verdict
Each little cup held about 1/3 cup of frozen yogurt which was a perfect portion of this delicious and rather rich dessert. It tasted way too decadent for a low-fat frozen yogurt, but it was! The TOTAL batch of 10 servings had 1,012 calories with 4 g of fat. So the final calorie is:

101.2 calories in one serving (pictured above)
.4g total fat in one serving

The Not-So-Good Verdict
The consistency, richness, and taste of the finished product was more like a sorbet or sherbet than I had expected and less like a creamy frozen yogurt. That was a bit disappointing when I had my heart set on a mild creamy frozen yogurt. It had an acidic tang to it that was definitely from the lime juice. I think adding less lime juice would have been better. The ratio of berries to yogurt seems off for a true yogurt so the next time I make I'm going to play with the ratio a bit and try to get the creamier and milder yogurt I was hoping.