Rum Raisin Frozen Yogurt

My husband, J, loves rum raisin ice cream. I wanted to see if I could create a lower fat yogurt version for him. I didn't find any recipes, so I experimented. This is essentially a riff on David Lebovitz's basic vanilla frozen yogurt (his recipe is on lots of food blogs, such as this one), using the raisins from his Rum Raisin Ice Cream (both from Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop).

cook's notes:

I substited 2% for most of the yogurt, and used sweetened condensed milk for most of the sugar (because I had it in the fridge). Here's my recipe:

Rum raisin frozen yogurt for J

2.5 cups 2% greek yogurt

.5 cup full fat greek yogurt

1 t vanilla

4 oz sweetened condensed milk

¼ - ½ c. sugar (I used golden bakers sugar, very fine)

2/3 cup raisins, golden and brown mixed

½ c rum

1 slice orange zest

1. In small saucepan, bring raisins, orange zest and rum to simmer for 2 min.

2. Remove from heat and cover for several hours.

3. Mix yogurt, vanilla, condensed milk and sugar; put in refrigerator for a least 1 hour to chill.

4. When ready to process in ice cream maker , drain raisins and set aside, reserving rum. Measure rum and add more rum, if necessary, to to make 3 T total. Add the rum to the yogurt mixture, and pour in to ice cream freezer.

5. Freeze according to your machine's directions. When the yogurt is nearly frozen, add the reserved raisins.

Eat right away (for soft-serve consistency) or firm in freezer for an hour or so to harden a bit.

verdict

We ate this pretty much straight from the ice cream machine. It was really creamy, with a great 'mouth feel' - would be even creamier with whole fat yogurt. We'd like more rummy flavor, so I will keep experimenting.

The rest of the yogurt got very hard (and maybe a little icy) in the freezer. Still tasty, but nowhere near the fabulous experience of the freshly-made stuff.