Wednesday, 23 January 2013

BSFIC - 3 Ingredient Nutella Frozen Yoghurt

It is cold at the moment. Very, very cold. We've had  several inches of snow, which has been sticking around. There has been transport chaos, Paul has had to work from home for a couple of days and warming stews and suet puddings have been called for. It was -8C at 7am yesterday.

So it goes without saying that it was time to make my entry for this month's Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge. Nothing says ice cream like 4" of snow on the ground (I have actually seen recipes for snow ice cream).

He was sort of supposed to be a bear
The challenge ingredient was dried fruits or nuts, and Kavey wouldn't let me re-run my Amaretto Nougat Glacé from last month, even though it contained both dried fruits and nuts (and I had loads leftover).

The other thing I still had in abundance were Ferrero Rochers. They'd been a gift that we hadn't got around to eating and since they contain nuts it seemed like a good fit for the challenge.

If you haven't encountered a Ferrero Rocher (which is impressive, because they spend a lot of money on marketing), they come in several varieties, but the classic one is hazelnut. A whole hazelnut, enclosed in chocolate hazelnut filling, a wafer shell and then more chocolate and hazelnuts.

Chocolate and hazelnuts. Like nutella? Well, yes, since they are made by the same company.

Combining the Ferrero Rochers and nutella seemed like a no-brainer, but how to turn them into a frozen treat made me scratch my head a little. My inspiration came from all the tedious January turn-over-a-new-leaf, detox-and-lose-weight articles. My ice cream would be a frozen yoghurt. Health food.
Nutella and yoghurt

And lo! It came into being. I microwaved (lid off) a 200g jar of nutella in short bursts until it was quite runny, then whisked it into 200ml of 2% fat Greek yoghurt until it held soft peaks.

I just liked how this picture turned out

At this stage it was incredibly delicious. It was actually very tempting to just eat it like that, as a mousse, but that wouldn't have used up the Ferrero Rochers and wouldn't have met the challenge.

So I cut the chocolates in half with a sharp knife, lined a plastic bowl with cling film and arranged the halves around the base and sides. It took 15 whole chocolates to get up around the sides. Which was convenient since I had 16 chocolates. I have no idea what happened to the last one. Honestly.
Some of the chocolates already starting to crumble

I filled the middle up with the nutella yoghurt mixture, covered the top with more cling film and froze it over night. I was pretty tempted just to stick it outside the back door, but I had enough space in the freezer.

Slicing the frozen chocolate hazelnut igloo proved a little challenging. The chocolates shattered and fell off, ruining the appearance a bit, and the frozen yoghurt was very firm. It really needed 10 minutes out of the freezer before serving. It also ended up being too high a ratio of chocolates to fro-yo. The tangy yet rich frozen yoghurt was overwhelmed by the very sweet chocolates.

So - not 100% successful, but still pretty darned good. I think if I were to make it again, if I knew I was going to be able to serve it all at once, I would use fewer chocolates and cover the base of a loaf tin, to give more yoghurt per portion. If it was going to be cut-and-come-again like this one, I would put a row of whole chocolates down the middle of a loaf tin, like eggs in a Gala Pie so that they were a surprise in the middle of the portion. I would probably also add some booze to the mix - Frangelico or Creme de Cacao or rum - to help keep the texture a little softer. But the mixture of yoghurt and nutella is a very, very good one.

After several days of snow, Urchin is feeling confident.


Kavey said...

I love Ferrero Rochers. I tweeted a few pics of my finger nails adorned with stickers, and possibly my forehead, bindi style...

Love the idea of gala pie style with whole rochers down the centre!!!

GingerSnap said...

Looks delicious!

And -8 is nothing, we've had -25 here in Finland last week ;)

Foodycat said...

Kavey - I think that would definitely be the way to go for next time!

Gingersnap - that is crazy! I would not cope with that at all.

Mary said...

This was a really original idea. Kudos! Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

The Cat's Mother said...

I have obviously been reading the wrong new year resolution detox articles!

Choclette said...

You are so inventive. Your igloo might not have given you the right proportion of yogurt to chocolate, but it was so right for this weather and time of year. And proper snow too. We had less than 24 hours of covering down here and it was nothing like as thick as yours. The pile of chocolate papers had me giggling - no idea why ;-)

Foodycat said...

Mary - thank you!

Mother - this is unexpectedly low-calorie, because of the low fat yoghurt.

Choclette - thanks! It's mostly melted now and all looking a bit tawdry but the snow was fun while it lasted.

Annes S said...

Looks amazing!! Love nuts! And weirdly craving ice cream in the snow...

Me and my new man got through half a mixed box of ferrero rochers the other night, the coffee table after looked distinctly similar to your picture showing the wrappers!

leaf (the indolent cook) said...

I've always loved hazelnuts and chocolate together. Also, Urchin is seriously gorgeous. x

mscrankypants said...

Snow bears, frozen Rocher and yoghurt and Urchin -- some of my favourites things in the one post!

grace said...

even though there were some issues, this is an absolutely fantastic idea!
also, urchin is beautiful!

Susan said...

Beautiful dessert! I'm in love with your cat - what a wonderful photo!

Foodycat said...

Anne - I really like the mixed boxes!

Leaf - she is a bit, isn't she?

Cranky - oh thank you!

Grace - the actual flavour of the fro yo was perfect. Definitely to be repeated!

Susan - thank you!


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