Strawberry Rhubarb Frozen Greek Yogurt

Tory is the ice-cream queen in our family, at least since I bought her a yellow Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (no longer available in yellow – #EarnsCommission) for her college graduation along with a couple ice-cream recipe books.  Tory’s favorite ice-cream is licorice and I’m still waiting for her to make it for Gravel & Dine.   Tory’s reputation with ice-cream didn’t stop me from trying out my hand at some strawberry rhubarb frozen Greek yogurt.

It’s been really hot lately and my rhubarb plant isn’t getting any smaller so, frozen yogurt seemed like a great idea.  I found this recipe a couple years ago when I was looking for a recipe for rhubarb ice-cream. It’s got great rhubarb flavor in the yogurt base and strawberry chunks mixed in.  And the Greek yogurt is quite a bit healthier than actual ice-cream.

Here’s what you need:

The first thing you’re going to do is make a rhubarb sauce to go in the yogurt base.  Start by making a simple syrup by simmering equal parts sugar and water until the sugar dissolves.

Add the rhubarb to the simple syrup.

Bring to a boil and simmer until the rhubarb is soft, about 15 minutes.

Puree with an immersion blender.  You can leave some chunks or make it smooth depending on your preference.  I went pretty smooth because I wanted a smooth rhubarb frozen yogurt.

Allow the rhubarb mixture to cool to room temperature.  Then you can make the yogurt base. Whisk together the Greek yogurt, half & half, sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir in the rhubarb puree until completely mixed in. Chill for a few hours in the fridge – I left it overnight.  This allows the rhubarb flavor to penetrate the whole mixture.

I used fat-free Greek yogurt and I was tempted to use fat-free half & half too, but fat is important in both ice-cream and frozen yogurt.  It helps to give it a creamy texture.  Too little fat and you’ll end up with ice-crystals throughout.  The combination I used here was a happy compromise.

Now, depending on what type of ice-cream you make you may need to chill this even more.  I have an old fasioned ice-cream maker (#EarnsCommission) that uses rock salt and ice.  If you have one of the new fangled ones (#EarnsCommission) like I bought Tory, you might want to  put this in the freezer for up to 30 minutes before churning.

Chop up the strawberries, into small pieces.  I used the strawberry huller Tory gave me for Christmas to hull the strawberries and then I chopped them finely. I was pleasantly surprised how much quicker this actually made hulling strawberries – and I thought I was pretty good with a paring knife!

Here’s another difference in ice-cream maker types.  With mine, I add all my mix-ins right away; with one like Tory’s, you probably want to mix the strawberries in during the last few minutes of churning. Just follow the directions of your ice-cream maker.  So I mixed my strawberries into the rhubarb-yogurt base.

Pour into the canister of your ice-cream maker and churn.  I filled the bucket of mine up to the top with layers of ice and rock salt.

When it’s done churning it’s in a little-bit-harder than soft serve ice cream, but not quick scoopable yet.

You can certainly eat it at the soft-serve state, but unless you have a huge hungry crowd chomping at the bit, you’re going to need to freeze some of it. You’re going to want to package up the ice-cream in a freezer container; it will take about two hours to harden.  I got these cute ice-cream containers on Amazon.  A set of 4 single serve size containers and one quart size container.

This frozen yogurt is not overly sweet, still has a little tang from the yogurt and tastes refreshingly fruity.  I love that it helped me use up the rhubarb I have and it’s not a flavor I could buy in the store.

Strawberry Rhubarb Frozen Greek Yogurt

 

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Prep time

6 hours

Total time

6 hours

 

A rhubarb infused frozen yogurt with chunks of strawberries.

Author: Gravel & Dine

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 8 cups

Ingredients

• ⅓ c sugar
• ⅓ water
• 3 c rhubarb, chopped
• 1-1/2 c nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1-1/2 c half & half
• ⅔ c sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 c chopped strawberries
• If you have an old-fashioned ice-cream maker:
• Rock Salt
• Ice

Instructions

1. Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the rhubarb and bring to a boil. Cook for 15 minutes until the rhubarb is tender. Puree with an immersion blender, until it’s as smooth or chunky as you want. Cool.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the Greek yogurt, half & half, sugar, and vanilla. Chill for a few hours or overnight, to allow the rhubarb to infuse throughout the yogurt mixture.
3. Stir the strawberries into the yogurt mixture.
4. Add to your ice-cream maker and follow the directions to churn the ice-cream. With mine, I start it churning for a couple minutes and then layer on the ice and rock salt. It’s easy to know when it’s done because it just stops.
5. After the ice-cream is done churning, put into freezer safe containers and freeze until hard enough to scoop, about 2 hours. Enjoy!
6. Note: Depending on your type of ice-cream maker, you might want to chill the yogurt mixture in the freezer for a half hour or so before churning. Also it might want you to add the strawberries toward the end of churning. Follow the directions for your ice-cream maker.

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