I’ve been thinking about making this for ages; well, trying it out and seeing how it worked. I’ve taken to buying packs of frozen mixed organic berries regularly from Waitrose, which I have with my breakfast, taking a few out at night to thaw in the fridge in a small bowl for the next morning. I’ve also taken to regularly buying frozen blueberry yogurt – organic Yeo Valley – to give to the little grandsons when they come over. It’s seems a healthy way to give them ‘ice cream’ – although they do sometimes get the real thing! This all made me remember that when my kids were little – definitely school age – I used to often make an orange yogurt ‘ice cream’. It was a really simple recipe. At that time – I don’t know if you still can – you could buy smallish tubes of frozen concentrated orange juice and the recipe just added this to some yogurt. It was so long ago I made this, I can’t remember where the recipe came from or whether I added more than the two ingredients. But I do remember it was incredibly easy to make and very delicious. So, I thought, could I use a pack of the frozen berries to make home-made frozen berry yogurt?

I hunted in old cookery books for the original recipe; I looked online. Some recipes added cream; others didn’t. I happened to have half a pot of extra thick double cream left over from making a chocolate ganache icing for grandson Freddie’s 7th birthday cake at the weekend. So I was definitely going to go with the idea of adding some cream – for extra indulgence. I wasn’t really trying to be ‘healthy’; I was just trying to make a home-made version of something I buy regularly, thinking it should be superior and extra delicious – and it was!

I say it’s almost instant because I made it early evening, just before eating, and by the time I’d had my supper and was ready for a dessert – a dessert simply because I’d made the frozen yogurt, given that it’s midweek and dessert isn’t usually on the menu – I was able to scoop a spoon of nicely iced yogurt from around the edge (the middle was still quite soft) no more than half an hour later. The other bonus – apart from speed – is that you don’t use an ice-cream making machine. I do have one but don’t keep it in the freezer in winter, and it needs a good 24 hours to get cold enough to work well. I didn’t even need to whisk the mixture with a fork – a common suggestion for ice cream made without a machine. I just made it, put it in a container, and half an hour later had the most delicious frozen yoghurt ever. Well – that I’d ever had!

Frozen Berry Yoghurt – Makes 1 litre

• 300g Greek yogurt (proper Greek yogurt, like Total, not ‘Greek style’)
• 300g frozen berry mix (mine had raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants)
• 2 tablespoons runny honey
• 150ml double cream

Yes, it really is this simple. Just those four ingredients.

You don’t thaw the fruit. That’s partly the point – it’s why you can make it so quickly. And because the fruit isn’t going to be cooked, it’s best not to thaw it and then refreeze.

Just put all the ingredients into a food processor.

Process until it’s all mixed well together and you have a nice creamy consistency.

Transfer to a 1-litre freezer container and put in the freezer.

As I said, I tried this out almost immediately but scooped a spoonful from round the edge of the container where it was more frozen. You’d need longer to serve more people, and if it was well frozen, you may need to take it out for a few minutes before serving to soften a bit.

I’m sure you could probably make this without the cream, but it did add a gloriously luxurious note. I added one tablespoon of honey at first, but then a second as the berry mix is quite tart and I felt it needed a bit more sweetening. But it wasn’t sweet. I think berries of this kind – especially with the blackcurrants – are quite tart and I like them that way. For extra indulgence I added a chocolate biscuit on the side too.

I think this must be the simplest dessert I’ve ever made – apart from that lost orange frozen yogurt recipe! – and without doubt one of the most delicious. I just loved it and can’t wait to see if the grandsons love it too.

P.S. When I took this out of the freezer a couple of days later, it had frozen very hard so needed some time to soften enough to scoop out. Doing that too often isn’t a good idea (I once got my worst food poisoning from doing this with a pot of ice cream) so next time – if I’m not using fairly instantly – I’ll freeze in smaller, maybe even individual, portions.