Fro-yo at home

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All the current hype about fro-yo wars ignores, perhaps, those waged at home. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to stand in line at my neighborhood frozen yogurt (or ice cream) store, with or without sugar-crazed children. And then there’s the issue of all that sugar and fat, things which we get quite enough of already.

So this Christmas, when I got an ice cream maker (thank you, Jenny!), I thought I’d try making something my daughters would like -- and that I could live with too. Although I love homemade ice cream, I didn’t really want them eating the 12 egg yolks and Armagnac that are in my favorite recipe; and the recipes for frozen yogurt that came with the machine called for things like canned fruit, whole milk and lots of added sugar. So we made up our own.

Here’s our version of strawberry fro-yo. (I explained to Sophie that strawberries aren’t in season, but she was adamant.) First we macerated 2 cups of sliced strawberries and 1 tablespoon sugar for half an hour (to bring out the juices and flavor a little; with ripe summer berries I won’t need this step -- or the extra sugar), then pureed them in a blender with 2 cups Greek-style plain yogurt and 1/4 cup wildflower honey. That, in turn, went into the ice cream machine; about half an hour later, we were done.

The kids couldn’t believe how easy it was. Nor could they believe that I let them have seconds. And thirds. No more begging them to eat a ‘healthy’ snack of plain yogurt, sliced fresh fruit, a drizzle of honey ...

-- Amy Scattergood