Plum frozen yogurt

It's hot here in southern California this weekend¹, and thus on Friday I broke out our ice cream maker and made some plum frozen yogurt.  Friends have told me that they haven't had much luck making frozen yogurt at home, as they find it tough to get the yogurt strongly flavored enough with the bits of fruit they add.  I've never had that problem with this recipe: by adding more plum than yogurt, this frozen yogurt ends up filled with plummy goodness, peppered with blended bits of purple skin and small chunks of plum.

This is my favorite homemade frozen yogurt recipe, and it makes an excellent refreshing snack or dessert.

This recipe requires an ice cream maker; for more background on home ice cream makers, see this post.


6 plums (3 to 3 1/2 cups coarsely chopped)
1 3/4 cups whole-milk, plain yogurt (unsweetened)
3/4 - 1 cup sugar


1) Remove the pits from all 6 plums, leaving the skin on.

2) Peel the skin off one of the plums, saving the skin for step 3.  Finely chop the rest of the plum (you should have about 1/2 cup), and set aside.  These plum pieces will be added to the frozen yogurt as it freezes in step 5.

3) Coarsely chop the remaining five plums (you should have about 2 1/2 to 3 cups coarsely chopped) and add them to a blender with the yogurt, sugar, and skin removed from the plum in step 2.  Blend until smooth.

4) Add the plum and yogurt mixture to an ice cream maker and start it up.

5) Partway through the freezing (once the yogurt has started to solidify), add the plum pieces that were set aside earlier (in step 2).

6) Once the ice cream maker has finished (~10-15 minutes in ours), spoon the frozen yogurt to a pre-chilled container (or containers) and freeze for at least an hour or two.  I like freezing the yogurt in small glasses, as it makes serving easy and helps keep it soft.

Notes:

This recipe comes close to overfilling our ice cream maker; be sure that the mixture will fit into yours (remembering that the concoction will increase in volume as it freezes).

The amount of sugar you should add depends on how tart the yogurt is and how sweet the plums are.  I find that around 7/8 of a cup seems like a good amount to make it quite sweet, but that will vary based on your own taste and ingredients.  If you have any doubts on the sweetness, add less sugar to start with and then taste the yogurt before adding to the ice cream maker.

My SO prefers this without the pieces of plum added, but I enjoy them (as they give a burst of plummy goodness every now and then, and add texture to the yogurt).  If you prefer a smooth frozen yogurt, just skip step 2 and add all the plums to the blender in step 3.


¹  And no, by "hot" I do not mean 83F.  It's actually over 100F in most of the area!