My new ice cream maker arrived a week ago and since then I have been dying to use the little beauty. You know what it’s like this time of year, especially if you have school age children; it’s non-stop. Life really steps up another notch as you race towards the end of term. You find yourself attending swimming galas, cricket matches, athletic practices and championships, concerts and squeezing just way too much in. To be honest I wouldn’t have it any other way, this crazy life of mine, but sometimes a girl needs to get acquainted with her new ice cream maker!

I’ve been wanting to experiment with FroYo’s (that’s frozen yoghurt if you’re not familiar with the terminology) for a while now and have been contemplating purchasing an ice cream maker. I have to say, I thought they were going to be really expensive but the Internet came up trumps with lots of affordable options. I ended up with a Von Shef for an amazing 20 pounds!

I’m a big fan of probiotics and so have been stepping up the children’s intake. I have been looking at ways to build up their immunity and probiotics feels like a great way of doing that. Healthy gut = healthy you. I thought it would be fun to have a go at making coconut yoghurt, a delicious non-dairy alternative from scratch, and turning them into tasty FroYo’s for the children. It’s a great way of getting probiotics into their little tummies in a fun, delicious way. Plus I get to try out my ice cream maker at the same time, what more could a girl want!

Coconut yoghurt

Ingredients

2 x 160ml tins of coconut cream (this makes a thicker creamier yoghurt)

½ tsp. powdered starter culture for yoghurts or 2 probiotic capsules

350ml warm filtered water

Method

Begin by sterilising a 500 ml jar and lid; you can do this by adding boiling water into the jar and the lid for 10 minutes.

Once sterilised add the coconut cream to the jar and add the water, add the ½ tsp. culture and combine.

It was warm weather when I made my batch so I left my jar in a warm place in my kitchen, not in direct sunlight though. Or another option is to leave it in the airing cupboard, for both options you would leave the yoghurt for 24 hours.

Store in the fridge to set. The yoghurt will keep for 1-2 weeks in the fridge.

Blueberry and yoghurt lollies

I made two batches of these lollies one with coconut yoghurt and one with Greek yoghurt.

Ingredients

5 oz. Blueberries
¼ cup of coconut palm sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cup of Greek yoghurt
3 tablespoons honey

Method

Combine the blueberries, lemon juice and sugar in a pan and heat through, simmer for 5 minutes. Leave the mixture to cool and then blend to a puree.

Meanwhile mix the yoghurt and honey together in a bowl.

Layer the blueberry mixture and the yoghurt. I added a blueberry layer first and then alternated each mixture.

Freeze for an hour, until the yoghurt has hardened a little and insert the ice cream sticks. Freeze for another 3-4 hours and then serve.

Strawberry Ripple FroYo

Ingredients

1 pound Strawberries chopped
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
8 tbsp. raw honey
4 cups organic full fat Greek yoghurt

Method

Place the chopped strawberries in a pan along with the vanilla seeds and half of the honey. Cover and bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Once off the heat break up the strawberries with the back of a fork, leaving a few strawberries to make it a little chunky. Place in the fridge until completely cooled.

Combine the rest of the honey with the yoghurt and then add ¾ of the strawberry mixture.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions set by the manufacturer.

I found that the mixture needed a bit longer than specified in the booklet, so I added an extra 10 minutes. The mixture came together really well then.

Remove the paddle and pour the yoghurt mixture into a loaf tin or container.

Add the remainder of the strawberry mixture making a ripple effect. Place in the freezer until ready to eat.

And that’s it for this month, now all we need is for the sun to shine and for us to have a lovely warm summer to enjoy these yummy treats!

Until next month…

As always, you can follow Clare on Instagram and Facebook. You can also check out her brand spanking new website here.