Watermelon Mint Frozen Yogurt

Lately I have been on a watermelon kick...I've been making watermelon salad, pickled watermelon rind and a number of other things.  I think my husband decided to go on a mission to find the perfect Ice Cream maker and get me away from the watermelon recipes.  

We had a particular one in mind. I say we, cause Will wanted one that made ice cream really fast.  We learned some of the local cooking schools are using the Berville Smart Scoup.  After William Sonoma was out of that one.  We finally found the one at Sur La Table.  They even held it for us while we went out to eat at a wonderful local Brooklyn styled pizza place across the street.

Will might have bought me a new gadget, but in my mind it wasn't hard to figure out what to make.  With my watermelon fever clearly out of control.  I came up with this idea:

Watermelon Mint Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients:

4 cups cubed Seedless Watermelon
1 cup Plain Greek Whole Milk Yogurt
1/8 cup Raw sugar
4 packets of Stevia in the Raw
.5 oz Peppermint Schnapps
1 banana(optional)

First I blended up all of the watermelon in my Ninja Blender.  I felt that it was smooth enough not to have to run it through a sieve.  If you don't like the consistency of your pureed watermelon, run it through a sieve.  I then placed all of my ingredients in the ice cream maker and turned it on.  With my machine 45 minutes later it was completely done.

If you don't have frozen yogurt settings on your ice cream maker, the consistency should be slightly softer than gelato.   Why did I use peppermint schnapps instead of fresh mint?  Trust me fresh mint was my first instinct.  But with the high water content of the watermelon, I needed the alcohol to help keep the frozen yogurt less icy.  This will still be icier than most frozen yogurt, but it's really a trade off.  Watermelon flavor and slightly icy or add more Greek yogurt and have a creamier smoother frozen yogurt with not as much flavor.

You probably also see this has a mix of sugar and stevia.  I don't like the flavor of straight stevia in things.  So I stole the idea from Halo Top ice cream.  They have some of the best tasting ice cream with the average calories being 60 calories a scoup.  Problem is they are almost $5 a pint, with teens in my house wanting ice cream.  I seriously can't justify it.  Now I can make my own versions and all of the usual flavors that are hard to find as well.

As for the banana it gives a creamier flavor and consistency to the frozen yogurt. 

Per Scoup(with banana):

Calories:  56
Fat: 1.9g
Sodium: 19.5mg
Potassium: 143.7mg
Carbs: 8.2g
Protein: 1.6g
Vitamin A:  10%
Vitamin C:  10.4%
Calcium: 4.9%
Iron:  1%

Weekend wrap up....

We went walking along Acequia Park, in San Antonio.  The whole ice cream idea came about because I also give my dog ice cream.  I believe all of her food should be from the best ingredients like the rest of her family.  She decided walking in the Texas heat required bribery.  Apparently Duck jerky, Apple chicken and oatmeal protein bars for dogs, and carob oatmeal cookies weren't going to cut it.  Normally I would give her this lactose free beef/vanilla ice cream that Schwan's carries specifically for dogs.  I would like to give her more variety.  With this new machine I can do that.  Even though I plan to make plenty of my own ice cream as well, lol.

Even though we went in the morning, she just didn't want to go.  So we spent most of our time sitting in the shade looking at the wildlife around us.

It might sound funny but my dog loves smelling flowers.  Sunflowers and roses being her favorites.  Lucky for her Sunflowers are everywhere in San Antonio.

Have a wonderful Summer and Thank you for reading!

More Summer recipes:

Guacamole
Put The Lime In The Coconut
Key Lime Pie Martini
Blueberry Frozen Yogurt(for dogs)
Potato Salad
Cucumber Avocado Soup

Summertime is always the best of what might be.

- Charles Bowden