Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt

Sour Cherries

Cherries with pits removed

Cherries and sugar, boiling

Cherries, cooling

In the blender. Forgot to snap a shot when I added the yogurt.

Pouring the chilled yogurt and cherry mixture in the ice cream maker

Almost done!

I always fail to take photos of the finished product in a pretty dish.

Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt (recipe adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop)
3 cups fresh sour cherries

3/4 cup sugar (I used a little less)

2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt (original recipe called for 1 cup, so taste as you add)

3 drops almond extract (measure carefully, this is potent)

Remove the pits from the cherries, and dump them in a medium saucepan with the sugar. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Cook until cherries are soft. The aroma will nearly kill you.

Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. To hasten the process stick the pan in a wide, shallow dish half-full of cold water.

Puree the cherries and their liquid in a blender with yogurt and almond extract until smooth. Chill for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in your ice cream maker. If the mixture is really well-chilled, it only takes about twenty minutes (it won't freeze as solid as store-bought, because it doesn't have all those chemicals).

Spoon it into the container you'll store it in and stick it in the freezer so it can firm up a bit more. I recommend taking plenty of tastes during this process.

Don't have an ice cream maker? You can simply freeze in a container, and stir every half hour until it freezes. The texture won't be quite as smooth, but I doubt you'll care.