No need for an ice cream maker machine!

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How do you feel about frozen yoghurt? I think it’s ice cream’s fresher, healthier and rather underrated cousin and also a great chill summer dessert to make at home. Unlike for ice cream, you don’t need an ice cream maker machine to make it well.

This time I partnered up with Rastoča Jablana, a small Slovenian eco healthy food shop, and I’ll have some more recipes coming up in the future. I used their cranberry juice for this cranberry frozen yoghurt recipe, so if you’re in Slovenia, go check them out, they have quite the selection of goodies!

Now, the first thing to know about frozen yoghurt is that yoghurt has a much higher water content and less fat than what you’d normally put into ice cream, so if you just freeze plain old yoghurt with some blended fruit it won’t be the thick and creamy goodness you’re used to. The water in yoghurt freezes into ice crystals, which can be rather large and annoying, so you’ll either need an ice cream maker or some other way to break apart the crystals during the freezing process.

You can compensate by either straining the yoghurt to remove the water (you’ll need a lot of yoghurt and it will take time), or by using Greek yoghurt, which has a much higher fat content. You can also add 1:3 parts cooking cream for extra creamy goodness like I did in this recipe. If you’re using fruit juice or blended frozen fruit for flavour, I recommend adding the cooking cream to ensure the final result will be creamy despite the added water.

Cranberry frozen yoghurt recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups Greek yoghurt
• 2/3 cup (1.5 dl) cooking cream
• 16 – 20 tablespoon (about 1 cup – 2.5 dl) 100% cranberry juice
• 6 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon peel
• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon konjac flour to thicken

For 4 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Freezing time: 1-2 hours

Instructions

Put all the ingredients except cranberry juice into a food processor/blender. Blend until it’s completely smooth, then start adding cranberry juice by the tablespoon and adjust to taste. Since cranberry juice is very tart, the quantities included in this recipe are only a guideline. If you’d like to make it sweeter, you can also add more honey.

If you have an ice cream maker machine, use it to churn the mixture and freeze according to the instructions of use. If you don’t, make sure you blend it very well. You can add an optional 1/2 teaspoon of konjac flour or something similar like guar gum to thicken the consistency, but it works just as well without it. Pour the mixture into freezing containers; I use small repurposed glass food jars for single portions, you can also use a larger container.

Freeze for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of your container and your freezer, then serve with dried cranberries and cashews. You can also freeze overnight, but it will freeze solid because of the high water content, so you need to take it out about 20 minutes before eating. Enjoy!

I chose cranberry flavour because I prefer sour, fresh fruit flavours that pack a punch over sweet, heavy cookie dough ice cream types, although that’s nice sometimes too. Also, cranberry juice is incredibly healthy, with lots of vitamin C, and is commonly used for treating and preventing urinary tract infections, so that’s an added benefit for sure. Any excuse to eat desserts, right? What’s your favourite frozen yoghurt flavour?

Download printable PDF here