Blueberry frozen yoghurt

I heart boats

St Raphael is a French Riviera resort, complete with palm trees, a promenade, golden-limbed goddesses on the beach and a marina (the Old Port) to die for. Boats. Yachts. Cruisers. Schooners. Catamarans. Powerboats. Convertibles. Bowriders. Trimarans. Even jet dinghies for God’s sake.

I am passionately in love with boats of all types. It’s a completely chaste, platonic and unrequited love as I never stand a chance of a serious boating experience (Thames from Marlow to Henley notwithstanding), let alone owning a seaworthy vessel (lilos and inflatables, ditto).

The latter, obviously, as not expecting sudden inheritance windfalls and the former due to being in a relationship with a landlubbing waterphobe. He swims, but not through choice. He’ll go on water, viz. Thames to Henley. But he tends to find his sea feet, rather than sea legs, and misplaces even those more often than not.

So unless we split up (unlikely) or become so loaded I’ll go off sailing my Lazzara while he skis in Whistler (a bit less unlikely but still), I’m basically landlocked and left to wandering in a lovelorn daze around marinas and harbours.

St Raphael fro-yo

Except the boats are not my most indelible memory of St Raphael. It’s the ice cream I had there: a cone with two boules de glace au yaourt aka simply frozen yoghurt, aka fro-yo.

That, in fact, was to die for. And yes, you can make very good one at home. Here’s how.

Fresh or frozen blueberries?

Considering this is in fact ice cream, it’s much easier to start with blueberries already frozen.

By all means use fresh ones but I’d advise popping them into the freezer for half an hour anyway before making the mix, spread on a tray to facilitate freezing.

Not only yoghurt in the mix

There is some double cream in the mix to increase fat content for a smoother texture. The mix is sweetened with corn syrup which is not a very healthy ingredient but it also makes ice cream smoother and stabler. We don’t eat frozen yoghurt for health benefits to be honest, do we?

But that’s it: four ingredients, no cooking, masses of flavour and excellent texture. It can be mixed in a food processor, a full-sized blender or a mini chopper which is also handy if you don’t have an ice cream maker.

Frozen yoghurt churned in mini blender

Use an ice cream maker if you have one, by all means.

The alternative is a manual mixing method, which is all about breaking ice crystals as they form, to keep the texture as smooth as possible. That’s really the difference between a block of ice and ice cream.

So the simplest way is to load the mix into a large-ish container, whack it into the freezer and scrape and roughen it up at intervals. This can be done with a spoon, fork or both.

But if you have a blender that will fit into your freezer, you’re laughing. Every half an hour or so retrieve it, place back on the base and give the fro-yo a blitz. Repeat that until you’re happy with the texture.

That is why the best kind of blender for ice cream is a mini chopper that is cheap, handy and the perfect size to go in and out of freezer.

They come in different makes including Kenwood, Russell Hobbs and Salter (in UK), cost around thirty quid or less and are super useful, not only in ice cream making.

And as far as ice cream making goes, needless to say any kind of ice cream can be churned like this, not just fro-yo.

Flavour variations

Instead of blueberries, other berries or fruit chunks can be used, likewise briefly frozen.

You can omit the fruit and corn syrup, and replace it with honey or chopped honeycomb if available.

Fancy vanilla? Add very good extract directly to the corn syrup for a stronger infusion.

For coconut flavour, skip double cream but add coconut cream instead and sweeten the mix to taste before churning.

More easy frozen dessert recipes

Healthy, relatively low-calorie no added sugar ice cream, yoghurt flavour, totally delicious and sweetened with honey and raisins. No churn yoghurt and honey ice cream, amazing served with chopped walnuts.

Mascarpone sorbet with lemon flavour inspired by a River Café recipe is smooth, creamy and unbelievably refreshing. This is a no-churn recipe.

Watermelon granita with no added sugar makes a fantastic dessert when served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Plus, instructions how to cube a watermelon.

More blueberry recipes

Mascarpone blueberry cake, rich and velvety with a tangy flavour from the blueberries. Adding mascarpone to the cake mix makes it rich, moist and tender and no, it doesn't taste like a cheesecake!

Fancy blueberry muffins; cheffy, posh restaurant-style muffins with blueberries and tender, moist crumb. Made with buttermilk and oil, using fresh or frozen blueberries. Blueberry muffins with pearl sugar topping are quite posh and elegant.

Fragrant blueberry jam made in a small batch with a sprig of rosemary and a little balsamic vinegar, it is a flavour made in heaven. This will be your all-time best homemade jar of jam.