Brandy Strawberry Yogurt Ice Cream

Food Scavenger has stumbled upon a surprise: brandy is very good with fruit. Also, Food Scavenger has stumbled upon the perfect ratio for fruit ice cream.


Awesome and fruity since 2011... (background orange is brandy peach compatriot ice cream - new and improved)

Brandy Strawberry Ice Cream 1 to 1 1/2 c. strawberries (halved or quartered or diced)
1 c. yogurt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. brandy
2 tbsp. sugar

Soak strawberries in brandy and sugar overnight.

Blend with yogurt and milk.

Pour into ice cream maker per ice cream maker's instructions.

10-15 minutes in, add diced strawberries.

Now, the general ratio for brandy fruit ice cream is:

Brandy Fruit Ice Cream
1 to 1 1/2 c. fruit (more if incorporated pieces of fruit too)
1 c. yogurt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. brandy
2 tbsp. sugar (more depending on sweet preference)

Brandy Banana Yogurt Ice Cream

Per usual, Food Scavenger has been on a food craze. There are some flavors that surprise her. Banana, for one. It is after all banana. What could be more innocent, more bland, more there to be tried and gotten over with than banana?

But that is where Food Scavenger was sorely wrong.

For Banana Ice Cream, while not bad-ass like peach or a heady caffeine kick like coffee is truly Food Scavenger's best friend. And the best friend to all ice cream flavors. It's simpatico. It's just that nice.

Brandy Banana Ice Cream
3 bananas
1 c. yogurt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. brandy
2 tbsp. sugar

Soak bananas in sugar and brandy overnight. 

Blend with yogurt and milk.

Pour into ice cream maker per ice cream maker's instructions.

Serve as you please alone in a cone or with an ice cream buddy.

The Banana Ice Cream (the four scoops below) is topped with a scoop of Coffe Irish Cream Ice Cream and chocolate cheerios.

Here, Banana Ice Cream plays second fiddle to the beautiful color of Strawberry Ice Cream (in the forefront on the right) and Peach Ice Cream (in the back, left-hand top corner).

And from the man himself...

Brandy Peach Yogurt Ice Cream

So Food Scavenger has her own camera now.

What does this mean? Badly lit, unprofessional images will now abound! Why? Because the Food Scavenger makes food at night and the lights in the Food Scavenger's home are always on the fritz when it comes to showing off food.

Although, oddly enough, shadowy corners, like so, look quite pretty:

The darkly lit tulips, a romantic, organic contrast to the modernist glass-cut stand of the lamp and just to pique your curiosity the dated photograph of a young woman, head angled towards you, expression unreadable.

Now, though, the Food Scavenger hastens you towards another darkly lit scene: brandy.

Oh, brandy. So beautiful. So tasty. So good to peaches.

Brandy Peach Ice Cream
5 peaches
1 c. yogurt
1/4 c. brandy
2 tbsp. brown sugar

Soak 2 peaches in 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 cup brandy overnight.

The next day, blend with 1 cup yogurt. The yogurt should preferably be original and plain and therefore containing fat. Food Scavenger knows people throw words around like "Greek" and "mesh strainer" and "cheese cloth."

But Food Scavenger is lazy and thinks the world of Costco so there you have it: Mountain High Plain Yogurt.

Blend with 1 more peach.

Toss into blender.

Then toss into ice cream maker.

10-15 minutes in, add 2 diced up peaches.

See yonder soft serve ice cream in ice cream bowl?

5 minutes later, shovel into a ice cream cone and run around the house trying to find the right source of light to take a good picture of the brandy peach ice cream.

At the living room table...

In front of the refridgerator...

Fail utterly.

Fail to resist licking at ice cream (oh, you may wonder, why is the ice cream so shiny and oddly shaped?).

Flail at various passerbys (blood-related) to try the ice cream.

Realize already half the ice cream is gone.

Panic.

Realize, though, that there's always another day to make ice cream. Cuddle ice cream maker bowl. Clean it. Dry it. Store in freezer for the next day.

Other considerations for the considering: why so many peaches? Taste. Making use of the natural color of the peaches. Creating different textures in the ice cream.

Why not skin the peaches? Food Scavenger likes the skin of her fruits.

WHY so many peaches? Food Scavenger rails against frozen yogurts and ice cream that declare themselves "fruit-flavored."

Whenever Food Scavenger reads something like that Food Scavenger's mind starts and stalls.

Wait.

Why would Food Scavenger eat a frozen dairy dessert that was merely "fruit-flavored?"

Food Scavenger: Putting the peach in yogurt peach ice cream.

So Brandy Peach Ice Cream is completely Food Scavenger-indulgent. Like so many food-related projects in Food Scavenger's life.

Strawberry Cabernet Sauvignon Sorbet

Revisiting Food Scavenger's tendency to roam amongst the un-opened, ignored bottles of alcohol in her house. Food Scavenger and family do not drink for pleasure. Alcohol is reserved for a much higher calling: flavoring food.

There happened to be an opened bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Last time, this was used to flavor ground beef in a Shepherd's Pie. Taking a leaf from Food Scavenger's dining hall, the Shepherd's Pie contained a bottom layer of ground beef, a middle layer of corn and caramellized onions (plus some green and red bell paper for color), and a top layer of mashed potatoes. After combining all three layers, Food Scavenger broiled the top, which was sprinkled with garlic powder, cheddar cheese, and slices of jalapenos. The only "leaf" taken from the dining hall was having three layers: beef, corn, and potatoes. Everything else was sheer scavenger inspiration.

This time, though, Food Scavenger eyed it up in combination with a box of fresh strawberries. This led to this fruity delight:

There used to be a full bowl, but in the course of taking pictures, Food Scavenger became a little hungry...

Strawberry Cabernet Sauvignon Sorbet
1 1/2 to 2 c. strawberries (sliced in halves or quarters)
1/4 c. Cabernet Sauvignon
3 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 c. yogurt
Optional: 1 tbsp or more of brandy.

Soak strawberries in the Cabernet Sauvignon and sugar and lemon juice. Store in refridgerator for a few hours. Then, blend with yogurt. Chill. Add to ice cream maker per ice cream maker's instructions.

At first, Food Scavenger and family was... it's okay. Light, fruity, a nice break from the heaviness of everything else they'd been eating. Oddly carbonated (the Cabernet Sauvignon in attendance?). Then slowly, but surely the request for ice cream was just strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry.

Then, things got a little crazy and Food Scavenger found herself finishing off an entire container*. It was just so easy to eat at night, when the summer's heat bore down on you and coffee and chocolate seemed too heavy a flavor.



* Food Scavenger reuses 32 oz yogurt containers. She finds them to be the perfect size for chilling and storing an ice cream batch.