Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt Sherbet

Years ago we had a huge blackberry thicket on our family farm. (Not really a “farm” farm—it was more of a hodge podge of large and small pets and a huge vegetable garden surrounded by fields and mountains.)

Blackberries become fully ripe during the dog days of summer—about the worst time to get dressed in jeans, a long shirt, and your old ankle high work boots. The worst time to wade through dense bramble while bees and bugs buzz you. The worst time to bake in the sun for a few hours while scratching your hands as they reach down into prickly bushes that are home to all manner of creepy crawlies.

And the best time for a sweet reward. The blackberries were half the size of your thumb, plump, dark purplish black—the most beautiful dark eggplant color—and fabulously juicy. We ate far more than we ever brought back up to the kitchen. There may have been enough to make blackberry preserves but mostly we just ate them the way they were—warm and sweet from the sun.

We enjoyed the blackberries from that thicket for many years.

I pucker now when eating commercially grown blackberries—they’re so tart. I was lucky recently and found some that were wonderful and sweet. We ate quite a few au naturel but decided to make a blackberry “something” with the rest. You know—a buckle or slump or crumble. Somehow I settled on a cross between a frozen yogurt and sherbet—a yobet (certainly not a shergurt!).

The inclusion of yogurt provides an interesting result adding a bit of a zing and creaminess to this sweet frozen confection. And, just look at that color!

This yobet thing definitely has promise.

Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt Sherbet

This mixed berry frozen confection works well with any combination of blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. I used 4 cups of ripe, sweet blackberries and 1 cup of strawberries. Rinse the berries just before starting. Clean and cut the strawberries, if using them.

Ripe, sweet berries work the best. Adjust the sugar to your liking if your berries aren’t sweet enough or you prefer a sweeter end result. Add additional sugar a tablespoon at a time, carefully tasting (it may be hot!) until the sweetness is to your liking.

Add into a medium saucepan:

4-5 cups mixed berries, cleaned

¼ cup sugar (or more)

¼ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Stir the mixture well. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The juices of the berries will emerge and the mixture will get thick.

Remove the berry mixture from the heat. After it cools, about 15 minutes or so, run it through a food mill to extract the juices. (If you don’t have a food mill push the mash through a sieve using a large wooden spoon.) Discard the seeds.

Stir in:

6 oz container So Delicious Plain or Vanilla Coconut Yogurt (alternatively, use soy or dairy yogurt)

Pour the mixture into a ceramic or glass bowl and refrigerate until cold—overnight is best but if you can’t wait that long a few hours will do.

Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

PRINT RECIPE

Not Your Grandmother's Brown Bread

I’m a daily peruser of recipe blogs and sites. It’s fun to see what fellow foodies are cooking, baking, freezing, canning, and eating.

Always, always, always the photos attract me—just like a kid in a candy shop. I’ll take one of these, two of those…oh, oh, yes, and a big helping of that! Doesn’t matter that I can’t eat most of what I see. Probably wouldn’t have the time to make most of it anyway. I just love to browse.

Yesterday, when my whole schedule got turned upside down leaving a window of opportunity and a growling stomach, this recipe jumped off the page and begged me to make a gluten-free, vegan version right then and there. No “favoriting” for another time. Nope. It yelled, “Now. Right now!”

My spontaneous “what-the-hell” baking adventures don’t always turn out well. Not so this brown bread. It’s simple and quick and performed perfectly even though I added a little bit of this, a little bit of that…just to give it my own touch.

So, thanks to Georgia Pellegrini—and her great great grandma—who’s recipe jumped off the page and inspired me while I was window shopping on FoodGawker.  And, thanks to the women who dreamed up brown bread and who baked when things like cream and butter and eggs were scarce. They created wonderful foods in their kitchens despite their ingredient challenges—not all that dissimilar to those of us who create wonderful foods despite our food challenges.

This recipe is linked to The W.H.O.L.E. Gang Friday Foodie Fix. Check out the other great recipes posted there.

Not Your Grandmother’s Brown Bread

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and flour a standard loaf pan and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl sift together:

2 1/4 cups GF flour blend*

¾ cups GF oat flour*

½ cup almond flour

¼ cup potato starch

1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cardamom (optional)

Add and whisk into the bowl with the dry ingredients:

¾ cups chopped walnuts

½ cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries or chopped dates – optional)

In a separate bowl mix together (stirring after each addition) in this order:

2 cups hemp milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ cup molasses + ¼ cup golden syrup**

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 teaspoons baking soda

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir with a spoon or silicone spatula until just blended. Transfer to the loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes. At 45 minutes check the loaf and if it’s getting too brown tent it with foil for the remaining baking time. Cool in the pan, slice, and enjoy with or without a large dollop of your favorite jam.

*I used Authentic Foods Gluten-Free Multi Blend Flour for the gluten-free flour blend and Laras Whole Grain Oat Flour.

**Most brown bread recipes call for molasses or maple syrup as the sweetener. I didn’t think I’d like the taste of just molasses alone so combined molasses and golden syrup. You might also try molasses and agave or any combination of liquid sweeteners to make up 1/2 cup total. I would personally steer clear of a mix of molasses and maple syrup because the two flavors would probably not complement each other.

PRINT RECIPE