Blackberry Frozen Yogurt and Nutella Hazelnut Ice cream

The sound of rain does something to my spirit. Or our spirit to put it rightly. Be it a light drizzle or heavy rains, we took it upon us to enjoy every minute of it, for we never know how long we had to wait to see rain again. Good thing we kept our rain coats handy before heading to India.

In India monsoon means a time to celebrate, a time on sipping more hot masala chai  than ever and indulging in some fresh hot deep fried goodies, both sweet and savory. We rode our bikes and wandered into unknown yet beautiful nature, with my hands full of food to eat on the way. As you would imagine, it was messy, we almost drowned our mobile phones, we caught cold, but we cared less, we just wanted to make most of the rains. 

The first day we landed in Kuwait was a rather tough day. The temperature in the car ticked on 40 C, warm almost hot air touched my face and I felt a sudden urge to cry. I wanted to go back, I wanted spring if not rain. I don't know what I was expecting, I thought it would be cooler. May be it was slightly cooler, but I yearned for the sound of rain. And mom's hug.

It was late for dinner when we got home. After freshening up and a quick scan of the fridge, I took the huge leftover tub of blackberry frozen yogurt I made before leaving, headed to my bedroom, ate my way through it all and called it a day.

Days are getting better now. Early mornings are greeted with cool crisp air and a deep breath reminds me of all good things in life. Though, there is still room for ice cream around here, there always is. Even at the peak of winter, I'm known to curdle up in my blanket with a heater on and a tub of ice cream. 

Both the recipes are the ones that got featured in the Bazaar magazine last month and I promised to share with you. The frozen yogurt is my go to recipe for and other berries can be easily substituted. The nutella hazelnut ice cream is easy and requires no ice cream maker besides being perfectly creamy, airy and sweet.

Tell me about you - Do you eat ice cream all year round?

Nutella Hazelnut Ice cream

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

¾ cup sweet condensed milk

¾ cup nutella plus 2 tbsp more

½ cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Method

Whip the cream to stiff peaks. Combine hazelnuts, ½ jar nutella and condensed milk.

Fold the whipped cream with condensed milk mixture with a light hand. Pour half the mixture into a 2 liter airtight container. Drizzle1 tbsp of nutella on it.

Pour rest of the mixture and the drizzle with remaining nutella. Cover and freeze for upto 6 hours or until frozen.

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

1 cup hung yogurt

200 g blackberries

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Method

Hang regular yogurt about 2 ½ cups in a thin cotton cloth overnight to make hung yogurt. Mix yogurt and lemon juice and keep aside.

Mix the blackberries and sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Blend the blackberry and sugar mixture and strain to remove the seeds.

Whisk the blackberry mixture and yogurt together. Refrigerate the mixture for a couple of hours. Then, churn it as per your manufacturer’s instructions on the ice cream machine.

I like to serve it soft but if you prefer it harder, refrigerate for another hour in air tight container.