Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
It was a boiling 96 degrees in Paris yesterday. Today, it’s going to be at least that hot again.
I love the heat, as all of y’all know, and normally embrace 100+ degree days with pure joy – but without AC, it’s just not the same. It’s not fun to come inside from the heat to more heat, and a fan that’s blowing hot air in a tiny apartment.
Cowgirl that I am, I have come up with a solution. Lots of cold showers, and ice cream. Every day. Every night.
For guidance and inspiration (and recipes), I simply look to my sensei of all things sweet, David Lebovitz, and open his ice cream book, “The Perfect Scoop,” for the antidote to summer’s unbearable heat.
Last month, I made his Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream (love), his White Chocolate (want to marry). So far, these are the stars in my ice cream freezer, along with my friend Melanie’s Milky Way and my own Caramel-Salty Butter. But the one that I’m going steady with, which is to say that we are in constant and daily moon-eyed contact is David’s Vanilla Frozen Yogurt.
Who would’ve thunk it, right?
In Dallas, I was a fruity, sugary yogurt girl, but after nearly three years of strolling up and down the Paris grocery store aisles filled with every kind of yogurt imaginable (or yaourt here in France, which I still can’t pronounce — did someone buy too many vowels?) I, too, have become yogurt-obsessed. Like Xavier, I like it plain. With a swirl of honey and a handful of fresh raspberries, I’m in heaven. A bit of homemade granola, too, and it’s just crazy it’s so good.
David’s Vanilla Frozen Yogurt is even better. Creamy and with that slight yogurt tang, it is my every day go-to dessert, and since it doesn’t require standing over the stove and making a custard, I can whip it up in less than five minutes, then turn on the ice cream freezer (you’re supposed to put it in the fridge for an hour, but I’m usually so impatient, I skip this step).
Much quicker than the two blocks’ walk to the Haagen-Daz store down the street. Way better, too.
I keep thinking that I’m going to make raspberry or nectarine sorbet to have along with this, but I’ve been extremely lazy lately. I’m going to blame the heat if that’s OK with you.
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
3 cups plain yogurt (whole milk)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1. Mix together yogurt, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl with a whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved.
2. If you have time (and patience), put in the fridge for an hour. Otherwise, go directly to #3.
3. Freeze in ice cream freezer.
