Cherry Frozen Yogurt with Chocolate Stracciatella

I had a bag of cherries. I needed to use them. I pitted them with a pastry tip, and there was no mess because I pitted them in a deep bowl. However, my thumb was very sore. Anyway, I found the recipe for this yogurt off of Mike's Table. The cherry flavor was as intense as it looks in the photo. In fact, the cherries in my yogurt look a lot darker than they do in Mike's. The chocolate bits toned down the intense, cherry flavor, but I still could eat only a little bit at a time. Hence the reason I still have a lot left sitting in the freezer.
I was surprised about how well the chocolate and cherry complemented each other. If you really love cherry, you should try out this recipe. I am entering this recipe in for the Ice Cream Social Challenge hosted by Scotty Snacks, Savor the Thyme, and Tangled Noodle.

Cherry Frozen Yogurt with Chocolate Stracciatella
adapted from Mike's Table who adapted it from Perfect Scoop and Amateur Gourmet

• 3 cups cherries
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 1 Tbsp cognac (OPTIONAL since I don't drink alcohol, I subbed honey for consistency)
  
• few drops of almond extract
• Optional: 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate

With all of your cherries pitted, toss them with the sugar in the saucepan, and crank up the heat to medium-high. Stir this periodically, and the cherries will begin to soften and surrender their juices while the sugar will dissolve and form a delicious syrup. After about 10 minutes or so, the cherries ought to be fairly tender and you should have a good bit of juice. Remove from heat once you do.

Now, while the cherries are hot, transfer this to the food processor or blender. If you want cherry chunks in your final frozen yogurt, don’t purée just yet, but maybe give a quick few pulses. If you’d rather have the cherry completely mixed in to your final frozen yogurt, purée this mixture well.

Let the mixture cool to room temperature before you go any further. To speed things along, you can set the mixture in a bowl over an ice bath for about 20 minutes. Once the cherry mixture is sufficiently cool, add the yogurt, cognac (optional), and almond extract and stir everything together or put in the blender/food processor until well mixed.

Set this aside in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (press it right against the surface), and let this rest in the fridge for about 2 hours so it can cool down.

Once time is up, churn this in your ice cream maker according to the directions that came with your machine.

If you choose to add the stracciatella, about 2 minutes before the churning is done, melt your chocolate in a bowl in the microwave (30 seconds, stir, another 30 seconds, stir, and repeat if necessary until totally and nicely melted down). Once the chocolate is in liquid form, pour a very thin stream into the churning ice cream maker, doing your best to avoid the dasher (but let’s be realistic…). The thin stream of chocolate will resolidify into little chunks on contact with the cold yogurt and it will be quite nicely dispersed throughout the frozen yogurt. Transfer this to an air tight container and let it rest in the freezer over night.