Frozen Yogurt

An unexpected exercise in preserving abundance

I adore frozen yogurt, but despite having an ice cream maker and a constant supply of yogurt, I rarely seem to make it. Frozen yogurt and ice cream feel like things that are so luxurious that it feels somehow taboo to make them just for myself, as though freezing the yogurt fundamentally changes not just the texture of the food but the morality of consuming a quart of it solo.

But nothing shifts your perception of a food (or food in general) so much as having too much or too little of it, and an abundance of an ingredient pushes me to ask how to use it to its best effect. I'm forever informed by earlier moments in my adult life, where 'too much' was rarely a problem I encountered with food, and which has shaped me to continue preserving food and engaging with food stories in ways that continue to ask me to stretch and think in new ways.

Case in point is frozen yogurt, and this particular method was born from a twinned desire to use the gallons of excess yogurt at my disposal (more on that in a moment) and a desire to expend as little energy as possible doing it.

As an added bonus, I have finally found the sweet spot for the ratio of fruit to yogurt to sugar to salt, a process that has taken years and many less-than-palatable (mostly just bland, or runny) batches to achieve.

A case of too much of a good thing

In my normal life I eat about a quart or so of yogurt every week. I have yogurt parfait for breakfast most mornings with homemade granola and whatever fruit is in season and/or on sale. My consumption goes up on weeks where I strain yogurt overnight for labneh, to spread on bread or to dollop on main courses before studding with herbs and fresh pomegranate seeds (p.s. Samin Nosrat recently wrote a list of ideas for using labneh in your cooking).

This past week or so, I've been testing various yogurt makers, and in so doing, have been blessed with an abundance of yogurt, to the tune of about 3 gallons of it.

This coincided with an abundance of peaches (last weekend I canned about 20 jars of jam and made quarts of peaches in syrup, plus peach puree), fresh herbs, and mangoes.

One of my favorite things about cooking is that it asks us to take what we know and stretch it.

Recipes don't (or perhaps, shouldn't) exist to give us exact prescriptions for how and what to cook, and when.

Recipes offer us guidance that we then fold into our lives. A technique, a process, an iterative set of daily acts that build on each other into what becomes our own personal process of cooking.

Just like I was feeling like frozen yogurt was Too Luxurious, I also realized it was one of the few logical answers. And was reminded that a personal practice, made simply to nourish myself, deserves to be as luxurious, as pleasing, and as over the top as anything I do that involves other people.

Frozen yogurt

I have spent YEARS, and I do mean probably closer to a decade, trying to make frozen yogurt that wasn't too sweet or bland, that had the right balance of fruit, and a texture I liked.

And I’ve finally gotten it.