Rich lemon curd frozen yogurt

Pucker up! It's another virtual blog party, this one hosted by my friend Di with the spring theme of Citrus Sunday.

Ever since I first made the amazingly-easy instant lemon curd posted by KAF, I really wanted to make lemon curd ice cream, which we enjoyed multiple times last summer. But I also had a carton of plain yogurt in the fridge, so I began searching my ice cream books for a lemon frozen yogurt recipe. I found one in Jeni's book: she uses a lemon syrup for hers; I subbed in a tiny batch of instant lemon curd instead.

The result is an incredibly thick and creamy frozen yogurt with a prominent lemon flavor, definitely a new favorite here. This recipe uses both cream and milk with the yogurt, so it's much richer than our usual frozen yogurt which only includes strawberries and yogurt (and therefore probably not quite as healthy). :) But oh man, is it lemony-delicious!!!

Rich lemon curd frozen yogurt
lemon curd adapted from King Arthur Flour 
frozen yogurt adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

for the lemon curd
30 g (1/2 large) egg
60 g (1/4 c) sugar
30 g (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted
60 g (1/4 c) freshly-squeezed lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)
zest of 1/2 a lemon**

for the frozen yogurt
275 g (1 1/4 c) drained plain yogurt*
375 g (1 1/2 c) 2% milk
125 g (1/2 c) heavy cream
130 g (2/3 c) sugar
44 g (1/4 c) light corn syrup
zest of 1/2 - 1 lemon**
22 g (2 T) cornstarch
35 g (2 T) 2% milk
50 g (4 T) cream cheese, softened
55 g lemon curd*** (recipe above)

1. For the lemon curd, whisk the egg and sugar together in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Whisk in the melted butter and then the lemon juice and zest. Microwave on high in one-minute increments, stirring well after each minute, until the lemon curd is slightly mounded and coats the back of a spoon (it takes 3 minutes for me).

2. For the frozen yogurt, combine the milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and lemon zest in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for four minutes. Turn off heat.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the 35 g milk. Add cornstarch mixture to the saucepan, and return to boil, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula, for one minute.

4. In a large bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add the hot milk mixture, whisking vigorously until all of the cream cheese lumps are gone.

5. Whisk in the drained yogurt and the lemon curd. Chill and then proceed according to the directions of your ice cream maker.

Notes:
*To drain the yogurt, Jeni instructs you to use a quart container of plain yogurt. Cover a sieve with a couple layers of cheesecloth and set it in a strainer over a bowl. Pour the yogurt into the sieve, cover with plastic wrap, and let it sit overnight in your fridge. I never plan ahead that well. My process of draining yogurt is a little messier, but much more quick. I dump my yogurt (I used 682 g, about 2/3 of a container) into a clean, white, floursack towel. I wrap it up and squeeze the towel over the sink, which gets rid of all the liquid. Then I open the towel on the counter and scrape out the drained yogurt.
**If you don't like the texture of the zest, you can leave it out of the lemon curd and/or strain it out of the ice cream base.
***The second time I made this, I just used all of the mini-batch of lemon curd (about 75 grams); I couldn't tell a difference.

Check out Di's post for the other great citrus links!