Frozen vanilla skyr

Thick frozen yogurt made with skyr — almost 7 g of protein per 100 g, yet properly sweet and creamy.

Skyr and high-protein yogurts are strained, with more protein and less water than ordinary yogurt. In frozen yogurt that helps: the proteins bind water, so no milk powder is needed. Skyr is fat-free, though, so the recipe adds a little cream — without it frozen skyr would be chalky. Unlike a purely “fitness” version, this recipe is sweetened with sugar, so it stays easy to scoop straight from the freezer.

Type: Frozen yogurt · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 100 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 100 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 100 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 40 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 30 g glucose syrup (DE 40, 80 % solids)
  • 1.5 g locust bean gum (carob gum, E410)
  • 5 g vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
  • 550 g high-protein yogurt / skyr 0 % (skyr or high-protein yogurt, chilled)

Making the mix

  1. In a small pan, mix the dry sugar, dextrose and locust bean gum.
  2. Stir in the milk, cream and glucose syrup and heat to 85 °C, stirring constantly. Hold for two minutes.
  3. Cool in iced water, then chill completely in the fridge. Stir in the vanilla extract.
  4. Whisk the skyr until smooth and gradually stir in the cold syrup.
  5. Leave the mix in the fridge for an hour.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl pre-chills.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 25–35 minutes until it has the consistency of a thick cream.
  3. You can serve it soft straight away, like soft-serve. For scoops, transfer it to a chilled container, cover with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer.

Total time: 3 h 50 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours in advance. Take it out just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the thoroughly chilled mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes until the mix thickens. Going on longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Frozen yogurt has less fat than cream ice cream, so it thickens more slowly in a freezer bowl. The mix must be really cold (5 °C or below), otherwise it stays runny.

Total time: 4 h 15 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the chilled mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (one or two tubs, depending on their size), put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
  2. Put the tub in the machine and run the Frozen Yogurt (if your model doesn’t have it, Lite Ice Cream) program.
  3. If the result is crumbly or powdery, run Re-spin — with a very cold freezer even twice (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk or yogurt first).

Programme: Frozen Yogurt (if your model doesn’t have it, Lite Ice Cream)

Total time: 25 h 55 min

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
5 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
1 h
Churning
30 min
Hardening in the freezer
1 h 30 min
Total time
3 h 50 min

Serving and storage

With whatever fruit you have at home — skyr goes well with blueberries, raspberries or a baked plum. From the freezer, let it stand for 10–15 minutes.

In a sealed container, 5 days.

Tips

  • Thick skyr doesn’t combine easily with the syrup — whisk it on its own first and add the syrup a little at a time.
  • Want even more protein and less sugar? See the recipe for protein ice cream with quark and skyr, which is designed for the CREAMi.
  • You can leave out the cream and use milk instead; the frozen skyr will be lighter, but harder and less creamy.

Why it works

Skyr contains about 10–11 % protein, three times as much as ordinary yogurt. Proteins bind water and stop large crystals growing during freezing, which is why the milk solids non-fat (MSNF) here reach about 11 % even without milk powder. The combination of sugar, dextrose and glucose syrup keeps the anti-freezing power (PAC) at about 24 — the ice cream is firmer than gelato but can still be scooped from the freezer.

Sources