What is Frozen Yogurt?
Frozen yogurt is a dessert similar to ice cream, but lower in fat. It is typically made with yogurt, but non-dairy versions also exist. Frozen yogurt may be sweet or sour and may or may not contain the live bacteria cultures present in regular yogurt. Like ice cream, frozen yogurt can be made in nearly any flavor imaginable. Frozen yogurt is often sold as soft serve, but may also be purchased in cartons like ice cream.
Frozen yogurt is made in the same way as ice cream, constantly churned at a very low temperature. In addition to yogurt, most recipes include gelatin, some sort of sweetener, and additional flavors and colors. Fat-free and sugar-free frozen yogurt recipes also exist.
While frozen yogurt was originally fairly sour, with Dannon producing one of the first commercial frozen yogurt products in the 1970s, the dessert became sweeter through the years. Frozen yogurt shops like TCBY and Penguin's, offering soft serve in a rotating variety of flavors with an offering of wet and dry toppings, led the trend of sweeter frozen yogurts. Frozen yogurt gained in popularity throughout the 1980s and 1990s as a lowfat alternative to ice cream.
In recent years, sour frozen yogurt has seen somewhat of a resurgence. Pinkberry, a frozen yogurt shop founded in Los Angeles in 2005, quickly gained a loyal following in love with its sour, fat-free frozen yogurt topped with fresh fruits. Locations have been added in many Los Angeles neighborhoods and in New York City, and the store has even inspired copycats.
Frozen yogurt is easy to make at home with an ice cream maker, and you can make it sour or sweet to suit your taste and experiment with your favorite flavors. Keep in mind that yogurt is slower both to freeze and to melt than cream, so mixing time will be a bit longer than for ice cream. Some ice cream makers include a frozen yogurt recipe or two in their literature, and many recipes -- from the standard chocolate and vanilla to unusual creations like lemon-ginger and vanilla-lime, can be found online.
Written by Niki Foster
