How Do I Make Creamy, Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt at Home? Good Questions

Q: I have tried and tried to make low-fat frozen yogurt and low-fat ice cream at home but the end result has always been a hard icy non-scoopable mass, albeit a delicious one. For the yogurt I used 2% Fage but after a few hours in the fridge, it was hard as rock.

My question is, is there such a thing as creamy homemade low fat ice cream or frozen yogurt and if yes, would you please care to share the recipe?

Sent by M

Editor: M — we have a couple of thoughts. First of all, the difficulty with your request is, indeed, the low-fat specification. The more fat an ice cream has, the creamier it will be. Storebought frozen yogurts generally have more air whipped into them, as well as non-fat thickeners and emulsifiers to help keep them creamy.

Another thought, especially with frozen yogurt, is that it's often better to let ice cream warm up a bit before serving. Any frozen yogurt will be better when it has had the chance to soften slightly.

Having said that, we don't have the ultimate recipe for frozen yogurt, but we do have several that take different approaches to keeping the texture soft and not icy. One particularly low-fat approach is to add some alcohol to the recipe.

• Fresh Peach Frozen Yogurt with Only Four Ingredients - Very simple, and best eaten just after it is made.
• Mango Ginger Frozen Yogurt - Includes coconut milk for creaminess.
• Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt with Pistachio Biscotti Bits - Has the yogurt tang, but includes cream.
• Honeyed Blueberry Frozen Yogurt - Includes some alcohol to help keep the yogurt from freezing solid.

Readers, do you have a really good recipe for low-fat frozen yogurt?

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(Image: Faith Durand)

Comments (10)

Lecithin might be an additive to experiment with. I am just guessing here but the properties of lecithin do smooth things out.

Like Faith pointed out, low-fat and creamy don't usually go together.

I used whole-milk yogurt and mine is still a rock. It just requires chiseling!

i am not really sure that you can just pop anything in the freezer and expect it to not freeze solid. i think that your issue is technique: do you have access to an ice cream maker, even if just to borrow?

see this serious eats recipe for frozen yogurt:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/08/ice-cream-frozen-yogurt-roasted-cherry-compote-recipe.html

while it adds a little bit of fat, try cream cheese. Just a couple spoonfulls. I just made a batch using half the yolks called for in the recipe (to reduce the fat) and then I used corn starch to thicken the mixture the rest of the way. This was the most scoopable ice cream I've made to date. I'm not sure if it was the cream cheese or the cornstarch, but it worked (oh and it was a low-fat ice cream, I replaced half of the cream with 1% milk)

In my ice cream preparation (whether I'm making it with cream & milk, with a custard base, with yogurt for tang or calorie concerns, or with coconut milk for vegans) I find that the inclusion of a liquid sweetener like honey or (gasp) corn syrup can help smooth the texture for scooping. That doesn't mean it doesn't freeze like a ROCK in my freezer, but once the temp warms a bit, the scooping/spooning has a more pleasing, smooth (non-icy) texture. I'd sort of guessed this might be because of the emulsifying effect of honey - like how it helps homemade salad dressings stay emulsified...but I'm no kitchen chemist.

As per caliH, cornstarch is what makes it scoopable not the cream cheese. Basically there is a variant of ice cream which is basically frozen pudding (think pudding pop texture or fudgesicle). Cornstarch does need heat though to work---an alternative is instant pudding mix although you will have to be OK with what ever flavoring is in there.

Nuke it for 25 seconds. I make soy milk protein ice creams and a few seconds in the microwave brings them back to scoopable. Also when making non "cream" ice creams if you add your ingredients to the cylinder as its moving helps not freeze up as much on the sides.

can't offer any additional suggestions for scoopability--like many here i let my frozen yogurt thaw for a couple minutes and that seems to do the trick--but here is a recipe for yummy pinkberry-style frozen yogurt that has worked great for me: http://www.goodfoodstories.com/2009/11/05/ask-casey-pinkberry-at-home/

I'm interested in trying this corn-starch idea. About how much do you add?