Sorry about the long delay between posts, it was a busy holiday season with lots of traveling to see families. But Im back in the bay now and have tons of toys and recipes to share.
For Christmas my aunt gave Cesar and I a $25 gift certificate to Cost Plus World Market, one of my favorite stores. Last night we were shopping looking for something to purchase for our kitchen…we thought about knives, pestals, grinders and almost settled on a really nice mandolin slicer. Then I happened to glance at a bottom shelf and saw a lone box containing a Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker! AN ICE CREAM MAKER!!! Best of all, it was one of the ones that you dont need salt, ice or to crank a handle like the one I had growing up. I began salivating thinking of all the ice cream and frozen yogurt recipes I have that I have been dying to try out (including a Bacon Maple Ice Cream). It was a tough decision, a mandolin slicer is a more practical appliance…but an ice cream maker is more awesome. Ultimately we went with the ice cream maker because it was something we would never go out and buy if we didnt have a gift card…we’ll get a mandolin slicer eventually.
One of the most awesome things about the ice cream maker is that it boasted to make ice cream in about 20-30 minutes! That meant we could make ice cream that night! We ran to the Safeway and picked up some non-fat vanilla yogurt and black berries to make Black Berry Frozen Yogurt!
We arrived at our friend Rob’s house and presented him with our new prize and the plan to make frozen yogurt that night. Unfortunately my failure to ever read directions completely bit me in the ass and we realized that in order to make the ice cream we had to freeze part of the maker…which would take 6 to 22 hours! But of course we were not so easily swayed and decided to see if we could freeze it in less time (it was about 8:30 at night and we didnt want to be making frozen yogurt at 3am). We filled a bowl with ice water and put the ice cream maker in that and filled the middle with ice shoved it in the back of the freezer and prayed.
At around 1 am we checked, still not done so we decided to give it another hour…unfortunately the ice cream maker was not frozen solid but we decided to see if it would work anyways. We were dead set on having frozen yogurt that night and turning back or waiting till the next day was not an option. We set up the machine and poured the mixture in and waited. We even decided to put the machine outside so it would be cooler! At 30 minutes the yogurt had expanded properly but was still very liquidy so we decided to let it sit out for another 20 minutes to see if it would firm up. Around 3 am we turned it off realizing that it wasnt going to firm up any more so we pulled it out…what we had created was actually more liquid than when it started, we had effectively created a yogurt soup of sorts.
We stared dumbfounded and defeated at our blackberry yogurt soup, it was an abomination.
“This is what we get for toying with nature! You cannot beat the Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker! No one can!”
Rob slammed his fist down in the counter and said, “No! We cannot be defeated! We cannot let this thing beat us! We’re going to Safeway and getting ice cream and putting this stuff on top of it.”
So we jumped in the car and drove off in search of a 24 hour Safeway and ice cream to exact our revenge on the ice cream maker. We got back to Rob’s place at around 4:00 am and dumped out yogurt soup abomination on the vanilla yogurt and enjoyed our small victory in eating a hodgepodged blackberry frozen yogurt. We still couldnt help but feel defeated so we cleaned off the ice cream maker and decided to regroup the following day.
After poppping the maker into my freezer for about 3 hours it already firmed up (our fridge/freezer is super powered) so we’re ready for round two tonight. We will attempt to make Banana and Dark Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt…I’ll report back on that once we’ve completed it but so far we are right on track!
Moral of the story is, dont mess with the Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker…it will always win. If it says to wait until the bin is fully frozen you wait…or you will only be left with heartache and yogurt soup (and not the good kind from Greece).
Domestic Geek 