Frozen yogurt is a delicious and healthy alternative to ice cream, which is why we decided to share some of our favorite frozen yogurt recipes with you below. Even when frozen, the bacteria that make yogurt probiotic are still effective – they merely go into a dormant state when frozen and then when eaten by you go back to their usual busy selves to give you the health benefits you need.

Freezing your yogurt is also an easy way to get a thicker consistency if your first few batches don’t turn out exactly as planned. The easiest thing to do is to simply make it as usual and then transfer it to the freezer instead of the refrigerator. You can let it stay in the freezer as long as you’d like – and many people will even freeze their plain yogurt as is to save it as a starter for their next batch they plan on making.

Most commercial flavors that you see for sale in stores or the ever growing in popularity frozen custard shops typically have a few more ingredients added to them to give it a creamier and smoother texture and of course to add additional flavorings such as chocolate, vanilla, or fruit flavors. Others love to add different things to their mixes and batches, such as chocolate chip cookie dough or walnuts and caramel. Really the possibilities are endless – you are only limited to your creativity and time to experiment!

For the creamiest recipe, we’ve found that we absolutely love using strained yogurt, also commonly called yogurt cheese or Greek Yogurt. It’s thicker and quite tasty. It’s also just as easy to make – the only additional step is to strain the yogurt through cheese cloth. (See our directions for Greek Yogurt). If you don’t have the time to make the thicker kind though, that’s perfectly okay – you can still make it with it plain and as you’re used to. You can also always add thickeners such as pudding or unflavored gelatin and others.

Here’s Our Basic Frozen Yogurt Recipe:

You Will Need:
4 cups strained yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract (imitation vanilla will work – we just prefer the authentic “real thing”)

Directions: Mix together all of the ingredients and place in freezer for 3-6 hours or until frozen. You can also use an ice cream maker if you prefer. The time it takes for the mixture to freeze completely will greatly vary on the thickness of the yogurt itself. If you go with plain, non strained varieties, you may notice it will take a little longer. Of course, everyone also has different freezer temperatures – someone might have their at 31 degrees, another person might have theirs set at 29 degrees – that two degrees in difference isn’t going to make a HUGE amount of a difference, but it can affect it from anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. We’ve found sometimes its better to let it stay in the freezer overnight to resist that temptation of not being able to wait for it to completely freeze through!

Now that you have a good basic vanilla recipe, you can add anything you want to the mix! Don’t be afraid to be creative – you can copy similar ingredients from your favorite store bought brands or ice cream flavors or you can try something completely wacky, different and new.

Here’s some fun ideas:

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Strawberry Banana
Peaches
Blueberry
Turtle Carmel Fudge (Nuts, Chocolate Syrup & Caramel Syrup)
Coffee (add 1/2 -1 cup of your favorite coffee – may want to add more sugar if need be)
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Raspberries
Lemon

And these are just a few ideas we’ve tried before and can think of off the top of our heads! If you need any inspiration, check out sites like TCBY Flavors.

Do you have a favorite frozen yogurt recipe you’d like to share? Tell us about it in the comments section below!