Recipe: Mint Stracciatella Frozen Yogurt
A bonus recipe from Anna Jones’ first cookbook, A Modern Way to Eat, which includes over 200 vegetarian recipes.
Kara Rota
Anyone who knows me will know about my infatuation with mint chocolate chip and stracciatella cream, which luckily is shared by John. I may have taken it a step too far.
Second to mint chocolate chip comes my love of frozen yogurt, a passion born of a childhood spent in California, where a cup of chocolate frozen yogurt heralded a sunny day.
Here my fascinations come together. I urge you to make this—it’s really easy, really healthy (for ice cream), and really, really good.
I have used just fresh mint here because I like the gentle sweetness. Fora more classic mint taste, add a 1 ⁄2 teaspoon of natural mint extract. This alsoworks well with coconut yogurt (though it’s a bit more expensive).
MAKES A DECENT TUB
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon/250 ml whole milk or coconut milk
a large bunch of fresh mint
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon/250 ml agave syrup
2 (pint/500 ml) containers of good Greek yogurt or coconut yogurt
2 ounces/50 g good dark chocolate, chopped up small
First, put the milk into a pan and add most of the mint leaves, keeping a couple of sprigs back. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn off the heat. Stir well, add the agave syrup, and allow to steep for at least 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes or so, your milk should be cool and will have taken on theflavor of the mint. Pour through a sieve into a large bowl and throw away the mint leaves—they have done their job.
Stir in the yogurt, then cover the bowl and let sit for 30 minutes in the fridge for all the flavors to meld.Taste for sweetness and add a little more agave syrup if needed, remembering that once it’s frozen it will taste less sweet.
Pour into your ice-cream maker and churn for 30 minutes or until it is well frozen. Then chop the remaining mint leaves very finely and stir them into the mixture with the chopped chocolate. Scoop into a freezer-proof container, cover, and freeze for an hour before eating. If your ice cream is frozen hard, leave it out for 10 to 15 minutes before eating.
Reprinted with permission from A Modern Way to Eat: 200+ Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes by Anna Jones, copyright © 2015 Brian Ferry. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC. Photography credit: Aya Brackett © 2014.
About the Author
Kara Rota headed children’s programming at Chicago’s Green City Market and studied food politics at Sarah Lawrence College. Kara has been a featured speaker at numerous venues including Food Book Fair, the Roger Smith Food Conference, and the Brooklyn Food Conference. She has written about food for Irish America Magazine, West Side Rag, Recipe Relay, and Food + Tech Connect, and is the former Director of Editorial & Partnerships at Cookstr.com.