Fro Yo

« Mämmi frozen yogurt. (Those unfamiliar with mämmi might read "Warm Cowpies".) »

Mämmi is that pre-digested-looking substance that rarely finds friends outside of the native Finnish population. It's a pity, really, as once you get past the way it looks it's delicious. It's like the browner, less chocolatey, more viscous cousin of Whoppers. I've often thought that mämmi is a perfect substance to use as an ingredient in other things given its unappetizing looks and distinctive flavour. It usually is only available around Easter, but with some creativity, it could be enjoyed all year long.

Last year, Jarkko, Arabella and I left work early to visit the Häme fair in order to try mämmi ice cream. I couldn't wait to try it and I was totally crushed when it was all gone by the time we arrived. I vowed that I'd make my own if I had to since I thought it was a brilliant idea to take the mämmi and the cream it is traditionally served with and make it into a frozen dessert.

Two months ago I went in search of an ice cream machine and, after sizing up the very few models available in the shops downtown, went with the smallest and cheapest model; the Braun. I can't say that I'm impressed with the performance, but it works and produces a manageable amount of ice cream in a short amount of time. It's a pain in the ass to stick the tub in the freezer for 24-hours before I want to make ice cream and the stirring paddle is suspiciously flimsy but, given the choice between a 350eur Italian model vs. a 40eur Braun, I can't really complain that I didn't get what I paid for. I have fond memories of the old hand crank variety that used ice and rock salt, but I don't honestly remember if it made better ice cream or not. Now that I have spoken critically of the Braun, it will promptly break the next time I try to use it. :)

I first tried a recipe for mämmijäätelö I found on MTV3 (that is now lamentably gone) that was a cooked custard base of milk, cream, sugar and 8 egg yolks. There are a lot of recipes that simply use vanilla ice cream with mämmi mixed in, but really good store-bought vanilla ice cream is hard to find and it's much more fun to make your own. It tasted terrific but it was a bit too heavy. What about frozen yogurt? Yogurt is very popular but I've been somewhat surprised at the limited popularity of frozen yogurt, especially given that it is often much lower in fat than ice cream. I went looking for a frozen yogurt recipe, but nothing really fit with what I wanted so I sort of made one from various ideas I liked in several recipes. What results is something that tastes a bit like a light version of a malted milk shake for those who are old enough to remember what a malt is. After making this stuff I wonder why Valio yogurt hasn't introduced a mämmi-flavoured yogurt before or maybe the Valio Bar in Kämppi could consider offering a mämmi milk shake during Easter and beyond.

The Kymppi Company who is a major producer of this brown malty goodness offer a bunch of mämmi recipes on their website (or a free booklet if you write to kymppi@kymppi.laihianmallas.fi and request a copy). Some of them, like the mämmi shot, are...not so inviting, but the letut and muffins look good. Kymppi also hosts the mämmi eating contest in Toijala, but they only hold it every other year so perhaps in the off years of the eating contest they could host a mämmi bake-off to inspire people to cook/bake with mämmi throughout the year.

Behold the power of mämmi! :) Hmm...I wonder if it tastes good with cheese.

Mämmi Frozen Yogurt

Makes: about 1 litre/4 cups
Time: about an hour, including the ice cream maker

• 170g or 6oz granulated sugar
• 80ml or 1/3 cup light syrup
• juice from one large orange
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 litre or 4 1/4 cups unflavoured yogurt (whole or low-fat), drained
• zest from one large orange
• 300g naturally sweetened mämmi (you can use the sweetened kind, too, but you may want to adjust the amount of granulated sugar.)

1. Pour yogurt into a sieve lined with cheesecloth and place over a bowl to drain. Allow to drain for a few hours or until it loses about 1/3 to 1/2 its volume. (note: low-fat yogurt will yield much more water than whole-fat yogurt)
2. In a saucepan, bring the syrup, orange juice and half of the sugar to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.
3. Beat the egg yolks lightly and stir in a small amount of the hot syrup to temper the yolks. Add the remaining syrup and let cool to room temperature. Stir in orange zest.
4. Whip egg whites until they are foamy. Gradually add the remaining half of the sugar and whip to stiff peaks.
5. Pour the drained yogurt into a bowl and whisk in the syrup and egg yolk mixture until smooth. Whisk in mämmi until smooth and evenly distributed. Fold in egg foam with a spatula. (At this point you can cover the yogurt and refrigerate it for up to 24 hours to allow the flavour to 'mature' before processing it into frozen yogurt.)
6. Process in an ice cream freezer according to directions.