Coffee Frozen Yogurt {recipe} + essie 'Mochacino' mani with 'Hors d'oeuvres' Glitter - Churn Down for What?

One summer, I had a full-tilt fling with the ice cream maker that I received as a birthday gift.

It was natural, of course, as you always do the same sort of obsessive thing the first few months with any shiny new boy toy. I scoured the internet into the wee hours of the morning for recipes. I couldn't get the inner bowl re-frozen fast enough after making each new batch of ice cream. I didn't attempt the more complicated recipes with custards and eggs, or get into fancy flavors; I just made batch after batch of basic chocolate, vanilla with various easy add-ins, and strawberry ice creams, simple sorbets, and the one somewhat more exotic ice cream, fig. I was simply mesmerized by the churning action of the maker itself, and pretty much just wowed by the magic of transforming basic ingredients like milk cream and sugar into ice cream, ice cream, which had previously always been the magic itself.

Those wild-eyed, late nights of 'churn and burn' into long summer days are past now, though I still have the ice cream maker. Every summer since then, I have dutifully pulled it out of storage and set it out on the countertop with a big bowl of intention of not only making homemade ice cream every few days as a proper food blogger should, but making homemade ice cream with ever increasingly interesting, ever increasingly "foodie," flavors and textures. Roasted strawberry and thyme! Rose with salted pistachios! Sweet corn! Avocado! Olive Oil!

But every year, the excitement of making ice cream at home faded a little more from the year before, and the homemade batches became fewer and farther between dizzying visits to every new "small-batch," "artisan," "farmers-market driven" ice cream boutique that opened in LA. The last two years — maybe three? — I hoisted my ice cream maker onto the countertop from the deep within the cabinet underneath, then subsequently shoved it into a visible but not easily accessible corner to make sure I was giving enough space to the new flavor of the month, the juicer.

I made raspberry frozen yogurt with my niece once last summer.

This summer, I didn't even think about the ice cream maker because by Spring, I already had an ice cream project churning a hole in my brain that didn't require one. In fact, the whole point of the project was to make ice cream the old-fashioned way, or at least more old fashioned than plugging an electric machine into a wall. I added "Ice Cream in Two Coffee Cans" as Number 44 on the list of 94 Things to Eat, Drink, Do and Wear this Summer, thinking it would be a little bit of childhood nostalgia for me and a fun, if not educational, way to spend an afternoon with my nieces and nephews.

There was a problem, though, child labor or whatever notwithstanding. Those big metal cans of Folgers and Maxwell House coffee grounds that I remember from my youth had all but been replaced by molded plastic tubs with easy pour handle and spouts. Granted, I didn't shop that hard, but coming up empty-handed after the fourth store was enough to copyedit my original list.

I couldn't make ice cream in coffee cans,  but I can make coffee ice cream.

(It's actually frozen yogurt, because I'm not eating dairy these days. I know.)

Most recipes out there for Coffee Frozen Yogurt call for not just yogurt, but a little bit of milk or cream or both as well. The milk/cream keeps the texture of the frozen yogurt creamy, and is oftentimes where either instant coffee gets dissolved, or coffee or espresso beans get "brewed." I made my Coffee Frozen Yogurt with straight up yogurt, and added the coffee flavor in the form of a very strong espresso syrup — just espresso (or very strong brewed coffee) and sugar, reduced over low heat into a syrup.

All-yogurt along with slightly less sugar than most recipes make the flavor and texture of my frozen yogurt a lot tangier and a little icier than say, a store-bought coffee frozen yogurt, but I love it. I tried Haagen-Dazs Coffee Lowfat Frozen Yogurt and Stonyfield Organic 'Gotta Have Java'  to compare — both contain other ingredients that contribute a soft, smooth, creamy consistency. My frozen yogurt freezes hard, so it has to sit out on the countertop for at least ten minutes before it's scoopable.

It makes a great ice cream sandwich with Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

It also matches perfectly with a mocha-hued manicure with sparkling silver and gold glitter at the "moons."