For my recent 24th birthday, my ever-awesome-Mama got me an ice cream maker. Ever since I’d tried SNOG, it was my dream to be able to have it whenever I wanted, and without having to dish out £10 for travel and the food.

Anyway, machine is here and today was the day to try it out. So I got some Fage Low fat Greek yoghurt (the big one) and some Groovy Food Agave nectar.

First off you have to put the inner bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer at least 8 hours before. Mine was in for about 18, but our freezer isn’t that great. The manual also suggests you can keep the bowl in there permanently if it’s in a plastic bag. I may try that in Summer when need for ice cream is ever present.

Then you need to prepare your mixture. Do not remove the inner bowl until the mixture is ready. I just emptied the yoghurt into a bowl and then sweetened with the nectar. I tried finding a recipe with a suggested amount of nectar needed, but only found contradicting pieces of information. In the end, I just squirted, mixed and tasted, went urgh, squirted, mixed and tasted etc. To repeat until you like the taste.

Then I plugged the machine in, got the inner bowl out and put in the outer bowl, closed the lid and turned it on. Unfortunately, you have to put the mixture in after the lid is on, so it doesn’t freeze on touching the bowl. So you’re left having to feed it through a fairly small hole. This gets stuff everywhere, although I think I managed quite well.

The machine recommends 15-30min of churning. After 30min, the mixture was still yoghurt, albeit very cold. On the internet several people complained of that, but it appears putting it in the freezer does help solidify the mixture.

When I removed the mixture a few hours later, it looked less like frozen yoghurt and more like icicles, but I guess it was just in too long. If you stir it a little bit it looks better. I served it with a banana, like at SNOG, and I thought it tasted fine, but one of my flatmates thought it lacked sugar. I guess she has quite a sweet tooth as we were two to one.

My next attempt will be Ferrero Rocher frozen yoghurt, so be ready…