Frozen yogurt?

[JustMe]

So, I bought the Cuisinart fro. yogurt ice cream maker talked about in the bargain section. I tried the recipe for vanilla yogurt, but did use non-fat. The yogurt on the outer part of the bowl got really hard, while the inside did not seem to get any firmer at all...however, I then mixed it by hand and it was a good consistency. It turns solid as a rock when I put it in the freezer. Is this because I used non-fat? How is the consistency of your fro. yogurt and then what about if you put it in the freezer? Do I really need to use whole milk yogurt (I would love to avoid this). Thanks!

[lizzywednesday]

The texture depends on the size of the ice crystals & how much air you managed to churn into the batch, not the fat content.

There's a lot of good information available in the Good Eats episodes 'Churn Baby Churn' and 'Churn Baby Churn 2' ... which are about makng homemade ice cream.

Recipes are here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats...urn/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats...n-2/index.html

There are some cooks' tips in the recipes as written, but watching the whole episode might be better for helping you with your issue.

Also, he did a show on yogurt called 'Yogurt: Good Milk Gone Bad' that includes a frozen yogurt recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats...bad/index.html

Hope this helps!

[larig]

wait, it is not just air, but how much water that is in it too. I did not use greek-style or strained yogurt, so my water content would have been higher than the recipe (I was just too lazy to strain it).

ETA: I would think adding more vanilla or some alcohol would make it softer, as would more sugar? chemists?

[lizzywednesday]

Alcohol will help lower the freezing point for the liquid. It would likely not freeze solid, but since it's frozen, you'd still have alcohol in the final product.

IDK that you're only reserving this treat for adults, but that should be a concern if you are not.

In the Egg Nog show (Episode title "School of Hard Nogs") he makes egg nog ice cream with homemade hard nog & explains it stays at soft-serve consistency because of the alcohol:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats...ogs/index.html

[JustMe]

Thanks for the tips. I can't really watch the shows on my dial-up, but looked at the recipes. Dd definitely will be partaking, so can't do the alcohol thing.

I think I may try it with fage yogurt and more sugar/vanilla. I used non-fat yogurt, vanilla, and very little sugar so I will see if that makes a difference...can't quite bring myself to use heavy cream or something like that.

[larig]

I'm with you on the cream and stuff--I was trying to (in fat) approximate the stuff I normally buy. When I compared the fat in the whole milk yogurt to the low fat ice cream I usually eat (dreyers/edy's vanilla) they were about the same per serving. plus that's what DS eats, so we had it around.