Raise your hand if you’ve ever made a spur of the moment purchase just because – well you can’t help it. We all try not to do that but no one is perfect and my spur of the moment happened at a beautiful pop up food market – with one of those “I’ll never have this chance again” kind of deals. The market, in a small community, featured freshly made feta cheese in a mason jar from goats right down the street and blackberries picked that morning. There was other good stuff like teeny tiny baby squash and homemade peach jam, but those blackberries and that cheese already had my name on them.
We had driven by the goat farm the day before and it was so picturesque I had to stop and spend a moment just enjoying the view. The cheese was everything you dream of in really good fresh cheese. It was tangy and almost sweet with the perfect crumble. It was nearly impossible to not eat it all on the way home – but sadly – without a knife or fork I couldn’t get it out of the jar. (This does not speak well for self-control.) The blackberries were big and fat and juicy and barely made the trip home to the kitchen counter. Picking blackberries is a cherished childhood memory. That’s because in the magic of memories it’s possible to discount the hundreds of itchy chigger bites that we weirdly treated with dots of clear fingernail polish. The real point is that it’s hard to find blackberries like that anymore outside of a local farmers market. The blackberries and cheese did make it to the kitchen and minutes later my son called asking if he could bring company over for dinner. Sure! A blackberry cobbler would be marvelous, but the day was toasty for baking, and that beautiful little jar of cheese was just waiting for a role to play. My cousins had just visited and brought along a jar of South Carolina honey that looked tempting and we always have yogurt in the fridge so there were the perfect ingredients for an amazing four ingredient (okay 5 if you count vanilla) Blackberry and Goat Cheese Frozen Yogurt. If that sounds weird – it isn’t – in fact it’s so good that there isn’t any left and I can’t wait to make it again. The taste is sweet with the honey, a little tangy from goat cheese and creamy from the yogurt. Fruits to try are endless – but I’m really waiting for the figs to be ripe.
That’s a flavor combo that will be hard to beat. Good goat cheese is available at several stores in town – but I’ll still keep my eye out for local. Fruits come and go in season, and the experimentation is indeed difficult – but someone has to do it for heaven’s sake! Why not me! This is so amazing and so easy – you should make it immediately to enjoy over this warm weekend. Make a double batch. Enjoy!
Blackberry and Goat Cheese Frozen Yogurt
Ingredients
3 to 4 cups of fresh blackberries
32 oz low fat yogurt (full fat would be fine – fat free – not so creamy)
2 oz goat cheese (I used goat feta)
1 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Directions
Wash blackberries and press through a sieve to remove seeds. (okay if a few remain)
Combine remaining ingredients in a blender, food processor, mixer, or just really mix it all up!
Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to directions.