We all have different beliefs about the afterlife, but there is one thing we all agree on: Heaven has frozen yogurt. There is something so satisfying about dipping one of those neon frozen yogurt spoons into your cold and tangy treat, and putting it in your mouth.
In fact, frozen yogurt spoons not only deliver joy in every bite, they also come with health benefits! The creamy and flavorful product that each bite your frozen yogurt spoons put in your mouth might taste akin to ice cream, but it is packed full of probiotics. You’ve probably heard of probiotics since they are one of the biggest hits in recent food trends. People are drinking products kombucha and kiefer in mass to get those good guy probiotics into their system. Unlike kombucha and keifer, frozen yogurt spoons give you a taste of goodness that your mouth AND your body benefits from.
If you are an ice cream maker, you might think that making your own frozen yogurt is as simple as replacing the cream in your ice cream recipe with yogurt. However, it’s not quite that easy. While yogurt tastes creamy when you eat it, it actually has a lot more water in it than the heavy cream you use to make ice cream. As you know, when you freeze water, the molecules create crystals that give it a crunch instead of the creamy mouth-feel that you want from your (not) ice cream cups.
There are a few ways to remove the water from your yogurt before making frozen yogurt, if you’re up to the task:
- Put the yogurt in a cheesecloth in the fridge, to let the water drip out of it. In the morning, replace the amount of milk that drained from it with heavy cream to return it to the consistency of yogurt so your fro-yo doesn’t turn out chunky (ew!).
- Mix some cornstarch into the yogurt to soak in the water, so the frozen product doesn’t develop ice crystals.
- Add some tempered egg yoaks into it, just as you would if you were making a traditional ice cream recipe.
- Add some cream cheese into the recipe to in crease the fat content which keeps it creamy, without losing that tangy flavor you’d expect from a bite of fro-yo.
If these solutions don’t fit with your idea of a good fro-yo, we’ve put together an alternative fro-yo recipe that preserves the integrity of the star of the recipe: the yogurt.
Classic Frozen Yogurt
Frozen Yogurt Supplies
- 3 Cups– Full-fat Plain Yogurt
- 1/2 Cup– Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Cup– Sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, cream, and sugar. Mix thoroughly, until all of the ingredients are combined and the sugar is absorbed, so that it doesn’t have that gritty feeling, approximately two minutes.
- Cover the the mixture and chill in the fridge until it is cold to touch. If the ingredients are at room temperature going in, this might be overnight. If the ingredients just came out of the fridge and are still cold, it will only take about 30 minutes to bring the temperature back down. The colder your mixture is going into the ice creamer churner, the faster the molecules will link together and the creamier your your end product will be. If the ingredients are warm going in, the ingredients will be runny when churning is complete, which will create those darn crunch crystals when frozen.
- Once chilled, pour the contents into your ice cream machine and churn in accordance to the instructions of your machine. You want the frozen yogurt to reach the texture of soft-serve ice cream in the machine, before freezing it.
- Remove contents from the ice cream machine and press firmly into the container you’ll freeze it in. Smooth the surface and press a piece of plastic wrap over it before putting the lid on top. This prevents air from getting in and creating the crystals that we’ve spent this whole recipe trying to avoid.
- Freeze for six hour or overnight before serving.
Additional Fro-Yo Tips
- Although your fro-yo is a healthy alternative to ice cream, you want to use full fat yogurt to maintain a cream consistency.
- Adding the cream is also important for the creamy texture and avoiding ice when frozen. Alternatives are cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, which offer a richer flavor.