Chocolate Cherry Frozen Yogurt: Laura Kramarsky aka Laura Curtis Guest Blogs

Recently I became Twitter friends with Laura Kramarsky (aka Laura Curtis, author).  I'm a big fan of chocolate and cherries, and I've been posting lots of chocolate and cherry recipes.  So recently on Twitter, Laura mentioned she made Chocolate Cherry Frozen Yogurt, and I knew I wanted to make it, eat it, and share the recipe. Laura agreed.

Today Laura Kramarsky guest blogs the recipe and the history of why she made it. Fabulous! Perfect for the weekend!

Laura Kramarsky aka Laura Curtis Guest Blog:
Chocolate Cherry Frozen Yogurt

My husband and I go to our favorite Italian restaurant, Enzo's Antichi Sapori, about once a week and over the past couple of years, we've gotten to be quite good friends with the owner. I've been known to bake cookies for the small staff there, and frequently Enzo will either try out a new recipe on us or just give us things he thinks we should be eating.

The most recent taste of Italy Enzo sent home with us was a beautifully decorated jar of Amarena Fabbri Wild Cherries in Heavy Syrup. Dark and rich, these cherries smell and taste amazing, but they're almost too sweet. My husband and I had eaten the cherries spooned over vanilla ice cream, and they were delicious, but it was primarily because the ice cream cut some of the sweetness out of the heavy syrup. Still, I was sure there would be another way to make the most of these treats. So they sat, and I pondered.

And then, the ice cream maker I'd had my eye on went on sale.

With all the recipes I'd saved from this blog over time about the combination of chocolate and cherries in mind, I set off to mix the two into a frozen dessert. I found recipes for ice cream and for frozen yogurt, most of which called for (and I shudder to tell you this) maraschino cherries.

The Amarena Fabbri Wild Cherry is no maraschino.

This frozen yogurt is rich, with lots of cherry flavor. In fact, the first time I made it, I thought the cherry rather overwhelmed the chocolate, so I added chopped chocolate as well.

This recipe makes a generous two quarts. If your ice cream maker is smaller than that, you'll need to cut the recipe in half.

9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 cups plain lowfat Greek yogurt (two of the big tubs is four cups)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup heavy syrup from the Amarena Fabbri cherries
1 cup drained Amarena Fabbri cherries, roughly chopped
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (or shaved or shredded)

In a food processor fitted with metal chopping blade, pulse chop the 9 ounces of chocolate.

Warm milk to a simmer in a small saucepan. With food processor running, pour in a slow stream and process until chocolate is melted. Add the yogurt, sugar and cherry syrup. Process until smooth. (This may take longer than you might expect--the Greek yogurt is thick, which is beneficial to the overall texture later on, but it is sticky in the food processor!)

Refrigerate at least two hours, or until well chilled. Can be refrigerated overnight without problems.

Turn on ice cream machine, spoon/pour mixture into freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Add in the chopped cherries and chopped chocolate and continue to mix for another five minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until you are ready to eat!

Laura Kramarsky can be found at: www.torchsongsglassworks.com and www.womenofmystery.net/