Summer is already heating up here, and so it's ready to take on a serious topic: homemade frozen yogurt. This is something I yet to have any luck with myself, so I was glad to find Nicole Weston's Perfectly Creamy Frozen Yogurt. She's figured out how to make it work, and her recipes can work if you have an ice cream maker or if you don't.
If you want to go all-out, you can use her recipe for frozen yogurt, or if you are short on time or energy, you can buy yogurt, but with her "Meringue Method," you make an Italian (cooked) meringue to infuse air into the frozen yogurt base, and then you can make as many different varieties as you want.
With mouth-watering photos, Weston starts with some basic recipes for a Tangy and Tart base, Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Coffee before getting into chapters with added fruits, spices, and nuts. She includes recipes for flavors such as Key Lime, Creamsicle, Strawberry Cheesecake, Snickerdoodle, Mint Julep, Maple Bacon, Tiramisu, Cookies 'n' Cream, Pistachio, and Elvis, there are so many ideas for amazing yogurts that you can make pretty easily at home.
But that's not all. Using her basic frozen yogurt recipes and a handful of other brownie, cookie, and sauce recipes, you can make frozen desserts that will make you the toast of any summer party. Ginger Spice Cookie Sandwiches, Candy Cane Brownie Sandwiches. Banana Split Layer Cake, Strawberry Shortcake Torte, Mudslide Pie, or even a Pumpkin Pie Baked Alaska.
For even fancier desserts, she shares recipes for semifreddos, terrines, and bombes that can be made with frozen unchurned yogurts. These are frozen into layers or put into molds to create spectacular frozen treats to impress and enchant. There's a S'mores Icebox Terrine made with Vanilla Bean frozen yogurt, graham crackers, mini marshmallows, and Chocolate Sauce. The Red White and Blue Bombe is made with Strawberry, Blueberry, and Tart and Tangy frozen yogurts. And the Funfetti Semifreddo is made with Vanilla Bean frozen yogurt, cubed pound cake, and colorful sprinkles.
And if that's not enough, there are also ideas for Popsicles, Bonbons, and other tasty treats like sugar cookie bowls (you bake the sugar cookies using a muffin tin to create bowls for your frozen yogurts--genius!). And the classic butterscotch and caramel sauces are joined by Bananas Foster Sauce and Magic Chocolate Sauce (the kind that makes the frozen shell). There may be more ideas in this Perfectly Creamy Frozen Yogurt than there is time in the summer to eat all the frozen treats. At least, I will make it my mission to find that out.
Galleys for Perfectly Creamy Frozen Yogurt were provided by Storey Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.