Recipe: Blueberry Mojito Frozen Yogurt

Last Friday was my dad's birthday, and once again I found myself headed up to Okoboji to celebrate. Because there was no elaborate surprise party involved this time, I didn't have to pull together three kinds of cupcakes. (Thank goodness!) However, my mom did get an entire dessert buffet's worth of food on her birthday; at the very least, dad deserved to have some kind of celebratory homemade dessert.

Because I have him to thank for my salvaged ice cream maker, I thought it would be fitting to create an ice cream in his honor. Dad loves blueberry; I have a really great blueberry mojito recipe that I love to make in the summer. Borrowing the mint and lime flavors from the blueberry mojitos sounded like a great way to make the dessert light and refreshing while keeping the ice cream from getting too sweet. Because it has a tangier taste, I decided Greek yogurt would be a perfect base. Of course, frozen yogurt is also a lot quicker to put together than ice cream since you don't have to make a custard first!

When I did my "dry run" of this recipe last week, I kept the blueberries whole and stirred them in after the ice cream maker had finished churning. This was not a good idea - the blueberries instantly became icy, hard, and flavorless. Essentially, it tasted like I was eating frozen blueberries. To solve the problem, I decided to cook down the blueberries first with lime juice, mint leaves, and a little sugar. I also mashed the blueberries as they were cooking in order to really meld all the flavors together. Adding the blueberries in a syrupy swirl makes the whole frozen yogurt turn a delightful purple color, and it vastly improves the texture. The blueberry swirl version was much better, and was finally worthy of being served as dad's birthday dessert.

Blueberry Mojito Frozen Yogurt

For blueberry swirl:

1 pint blueberries

1/2 c sugar

Small handful mint leaves, chopped

1/2 c c fresh squeezed lime juice (about 2 small limes)

1 tbsp lime zest

For yogurt base:

3 c Greek yogurt

1 1/2 c sugar

1/4 c fresh squeezed lime juice (roughly, the juice from one small lime)

1 tbsp lime zest

pinch of sea salt

1 1/2 tbsp rum

In a small bowl or shallow glass, muddle 1/4 cup of sugar with the lime juice and mint leaves until mint leaves are crushed and fragrant. 

I didn't have a proper muddler, but luckily the base of mom's
ice cream scoop made a pretty good substitute.

Combine the blueberries, lime zest, 1/4 cup sugar, and the muddled mint mixture in a saucepan over medium heat.

Once the blueberries are heated, mash them with the back of a wooden spoon so that their juices combine with the sugar and lime.

Cook until mixture is slightly thickened and syrupy, about fifteen minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Combine the yogurt, sugar, lime juice, zest, salt, and rum in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. (If you would rather leave the alcohol out, you can easily replace the rum with vanilla extract; the alcohol keeps the yogurt from freezing too hard, but vanilla will accomplish the same purpose.) Freeze mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

When ice cream maker stops, transfer frozen yogurt to a large bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Stir in blueberry mixture with a spatula.

Cover and freeze until mixture is hard enough to scoop.

The yogurt will take a little longer than an ice cream to harden - allow at least four to five hours for it to freeze completely.

The final product was refreshing, creamy, and completely absent of the heaviness you sometimes get with ice cream. While the blueberry flavor was prominent, the lime and mint balanced the blueberries with just the right amount of tartness and acidity. This was one of my best frozen yogurts and is definitely a recipe worth making again.

(Perhaps every July 23rd??)

Happy birthday, dad!