Homemade Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

Again, I've been away from the kitchen for a bit, helping with harvest in Kansas. It was really great to spend time with family, but it's also really wonderful to be back home.

My mom sent me home with an ice-cream maker and my sister-in-law sent me home with some rhubarb. With my new yogurt-making habits (I'm on batch #3 now), I decided to make frozen yogurt.

While I let the base of the ice cream maker get nice and cold in the freezer, I strained the yogurt by removing the lids, placing a couple of coffee filters over the top of the jars and securing the filters with a rubber band, and flipping the jars over into a larger glass to drain the excess water. I left them in the refrigerator overnight to ensure the yogurt would be nice and thick and creamy.

The recipe I used was simple:
Mix 3 c. yogurt, 3/4 c. sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. Refrigerate 1 hour to ensure coldness. Then, freeze in ice-cream maker.

The soft-serve straight from the ice-cream maker was delicious!

I decided to follow the advice of a comment by leanergourmet that suggested adding a little vodka to the mix to keep it from freezing too hard in the freezer. I added the vodka late in the process, though, and I don't think I added a full shot so I'm not sure it will be effective, but I'll let you know tomorrow!