Fresh Mint Frozen Yogurt

By Kath Dedon

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I made frozen yogurt for the first time and I was really pleased with this Fresh Mint Frozen Yogurt.

The recipe is from a terrific cookbook called The Sprouted Kitchen, by Sara Forte. (You can find more of Sara’s recipes on her blog at thesproutedkitchen.com. The beautiful photos in the book and on the blog are taken by her husband, Hugh.) I subbed honey for her brown rice syrup. Sara puts 2 ounces of chopped dark chocolate in hers for “Fresh Mint Chip Frozen Yogurt”, but I didn’t use the chocolate.

Mint and chocolate do taste great together, but I’ve never actually been a huge fan of hard frozen chocolate bits in ice cream. I prefer chocolate when it has more of a melt-in-your-mouth quality. So I’m not sure I would put chocolate in the frozen yogurt, but a fine chocolate sauce would be fantastic on it.

This time I served the Fresh Mint Frozen Yogurt with fresh local strawberries. The perfect berries paired beautifully with the frozen yogurt!

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Fresh Mint Frozen Yogurt is not green – no food coloring!

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Fresh Mint Frozen Yogurt

(Adapted from Sara Forte’s recipe in The Sprouted Kitchen)

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(print the recipe)

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Makes 8 servings

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1 cup fresh mint leaves

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored honey

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 cups whole-milk Greek yogurt (I used Fage Total.)

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1. Coarsely chop the mint leaves. Add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring just to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally and bruising the leaves against the side of the pan with a spoon to help them release their oils.

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2. As soon as it begins to simmer, stir in the honey. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 30 minutes.

3. Strain the cream through a fine meshed sieve into a large bowl. (A larger bowl makes it easier to blend in the yogurt without spilling.)

4. Stir in the peppermint extract and the yogurt. Stir until it’s well-combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Sara says 30 minutes to overnight, but I know colder is better with my ice cream maker, so I refrigerated it overnight.)

5. Make the frozen yogurt in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It’s best if you freeze the finished frozen yogurt for about an hour before serving. (If it freezes too hard, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving.)

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