Layered yogurt and berry ice lolly

White and purple stripes in one lolly: thick Greek-style yogurt and a raspberry and blueberry purée.

Layering is the most rewarding thing you can do with lollies — and the only technique here that needs patience. Each layer has to set on the surface, otherwise the colours bleed into one pink. The yogurt part is never heated, so it keeps its tang and its live cultures; its body comes from Greek-style yogurt and skimmed milk powder, which binds water and keeps the ice fine.

Type: Frozen yogurt · Servings: 10 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 400 g Greek-style yogurt 10 % (thick, not drinking yogurt)
  • 40 g skimmed milk powder
  • 70 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 20 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 4 g vanilla extract
  • 200 g raspberries (fresh or thawed)
  • 150 g bilberries / blueberries
  • 60 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 10 g lemon juice (fresh)

Making the mix

  1. Mix the milk powder with the sugar and dextrose while dry — otherwise it clumps in the yogurt.
  2. Whisk the mixture into the cold yogurt together with the vanilla and let it stand for ten minutes until the sugar dissolves. Do not heat the yogurt.
  3. Blend the raspberries and blueberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Push the purée through a sieve — raspberry seeds crunch inside a layer.
  4. Chill both mixtures in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Method — No-machine method

  1. Fill each mould about one third full with the yogurt mixture and freeze for 30–40 minutes, until the surface sets.
  2. Add a layer of berry purée on top (about another third of the mould) and return to the freezer for 30 minutes.
  3. Add the last yogurt layer, filling the moulds about four fifths full, and push in the sticks.
  4. Freeze for at least five hours, ideally overnight.
  5. Dip the mould up to its rim in lukewarm (not hot) water for five to ten seconds and pull the lolly out slowly and straight by the stick. If it resists, dip it for a few more seconds — pulling sideways tears the stick out.

Add each layer gently, by the spoonful or down the side of the mould — pouring from a height punches through the set surface and the layers merge. For a marbled effect instead of stripes, simply alternate the mixtures and draw a skewer once from top to bottom.

Total time: 7 h 50 min

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix and churn for 15–25 minutes — only to the consistency of thick soft-serve, not hard.
  3. Churn the yogurt mixture only. Keep the berry purée cold in the fridge.
  4. Transfer the soft ice cream to a piping bag and pipe it into the moulds. Tap the mould on the worktop a few times to release air bubbles and level the surface.
  5. Push in the sticks (the mix already holds them) and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours. Dip the mould up to its rim in lukewarm (not hot) water for five to ten seconds and pull the lolly out slowly and straight by the stick. If it resists, dip it for a few more seconds — pulling sideways tears the stick out.

This gives the smoothest lolly you can make at home: the machine creates many tiny crystals at once and the mould only hardens them. Pipe the ice cream straight away — after a few minutes on the worktop it stiffens and will not fill the mould without holes.

Total time: 3 h 40 min

Stages

Preparation
20 min
Cooling
30 min
Freezing
7 h
Total time
7 h 50 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 7 h 50 min, of which 40 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The making itself fits into a single day — start at least 7 h 50 min before serving.

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 20 min
  • Cool the mix down — 30 min
  • Put the mix in the freezer — 7 h

Serving and storage

The layers show best right after unmoulding. Take the lolly out of the freezer two minutes before eating — the yogurt part is firmer than the fruit and needs a moment to soften.

Wrap the unmoulded lollies individually in baking paper or small bags and keep them in a closed container at the back of the freezer. They are best within two weeks; after that they turn coarse even when wrapped and start picking up freezer smells. Do not refreeze a lolly that has already softened.

Tips

  • You can use plain yogurt instead of Greek-style, but the mix will be thinner and the lolly icier. Drain it through a cloth or add 10 g more milk powder.
  • Redcurrants, blackberries or sour cherries work just as well as raspberries and blueberries. More acidic fruit needs 10–20 g more sugar.
  • The stripes come out sharp only if you let every layer really set. Impatience always shows as a pink border.
  • Keep the moulds level in the freezer and not in the door. A tilted mould gives a crooked lolly, and in the door the temperature swings every time you open it, so the ice grows coarse.

Why it works

Yogurt is largely water, and simply sweetening and freezing it would give a block of ice. Skimmed milk powder adds protein and milk solids that bind water and physically get in the way of crystal growth, while dextrose pushes the freezing point lower than sucrose does. Two layers with different compositions freeze at different speeds — the fruit one holds more water and stays softer, the yogurt one has more solids and is firmer. That is exactly why each layer has to set: the boundary between two unfrozen mixtures blends itself.

Related recipes

Articles that mention this recipe

How we calculate the composition · What PAC and POD mean · Balance this mix in the calculator

Sources