Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt

This Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt recipe is fat-free, only four ingredients, and just over 100 calories per serving. This soft-serve fro-yo churns in 10-15 minutes with your ice cream maker for a fresh, creamy, and fruity frozen dessert. Plus tips for making, freezing, and scooping frozen yogurt.

Frozen Yogurt vs. Ice Cream

I have been tinkering with making a healthier version of ice cream that is still creamy, but doesn’t use heavy cream, and isn’t ice milk. So I opted for frozen yogurt, aka fro-yo.

Basically the variations I have tried are all delicious straight out of the ice cream maker, but don’t freeze very well. I guess that is something you forfeit when you go “healthy.” But I do have some tips and tricks to help, if you want to freeze it.

This mixed berry frozen yogurt recipe is my favorite creation thus far with my experiments and is just over 100 calories per serving. It’s definitely creamy just like soft serve ice cream and makes four generous servings. So for a small family, it’s the perfect fresh, creamy, and fruity frozen dessert.

Tips and Tricks for Homemade Frozen Yogurt

Yogurt, fresh from the carton, is nice and creamy, but actually contains a good amount of water and not a lot of fat. When you freeze regular yogurt, the water inside of it forms crystals — that make it icy. This also makes it challenging to scoop.

There are options to help prevent homemade fro-yo from crystallizing and improve the overall texture.

Dairy Options

• Use Greek yogurt instead of regular. Greek yogurt is strained a number of times, and in doing so, loses the majority of its water content making it thick and creamy. Bonus! Greek yogurt has about twice the amount of protein as regular yogurt.
• Use whole milk yogurt. I always use fat-free Greek yogurt in this berry frozen yogurt recipe. But if you aren’t worried about calories, or are going to freeze the majority of it, you need some fat to make it easier to scoop. It’s still going to be better for you than regular ice cream.
• Use cream instead of milk. While frozen yogurt is made with, well, yogurt, some milk or cream is added to the mix. If a less icy fro-yo is desired, use heavy cream instead of milk.

Sweetener Options and Tips

• Add sugar. Sugar controls the amount of ice formed during freezing and keeps the frozen yogurt creamy while also adding sweetness. Just keep in mind, freezing dulls sweet flavors, so add more than you think you should. About 1/4 cup of granulated sugar per cup of plain yogurt. Or half the amount if using pre-sweetened yogurt.
• Add corn syrup. Not to be confused with high-fructose corn syrup that is more processed and extremely sweet. Corn syrup is made by adding an enzyme to cornstarch (a known thickener) that breaks it down into sugars. Adding 1-2 Tbsp of light corn syrup (i.e. Karo) to your frozen yogurt will help prevent crystallization and enhance the consistency, without adding a ton of sweetness. Honey, maple syrup, or agave may also be used, but just know that they add flavor as well as sweetness, whereas corn syrup is extremely mild.

Berry Frozen Yogurt

Now that you know some tips about making homemade fro-yo, you have options when making this triple berry frozen yogurt.

My recipe makes fat-free frozen yogurt, which is best eaten directly after churning it for a soft-serve texture.

Since all the ingredients are cold, there’s no need to chill the fro-yo base before churning it. For this berry fro-yo you will need:

• 1 cup Fat-Free Vanilla or Plain Greek Yogurt⁠
• 1 cup Skim Milk⁠
• 1 cup Frozen Berry Blend (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)⁠, thawed but still cold⁠
• 2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar or Honey⁠ (add more to taste for plain Greek yogurt)

How to Make Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt

1. Freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker ahead of time. At least 24 hours in advance. ⁠
2. In a blender, process the yogurt, milk, thawed berries, and sugar until combined. ⁠
3. Start the ice cream maker and then add the yogurt mixture.⁠
4. Let yogurt churn in the ice cream machine for 10-15 minutes or until it thickens and balls up. Scoop and serve immediately for a soft-serve texture⁠.⁠

To Freeze

Pour the berry frozen yogurt into a shallow, wide freezer-safe dish/container and smooth the top. An 8×8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round cake pan works great.

The shallow, wide dish helps it freeze fast, and provides a long surface area to scoop the fro-yo into balls.

Additional Tips for Freezing Fro-Yo

To freeze: Freeze the frozen yogurt for 20-30 minutes in a shallow dish, to firm it up just enough to scoop. OR press a piece of parchment paper against the top of the fro-yo (to help prevent ice crystals from forming) and freeze completely.

To scoop from frozen: Allow the frozen yogurt to thaw at room temperature for 20-30 minutes first.

For pre-portioned scoops: Scoop frozen yogurt into balls on top of a parchment lined baking sheet after pre-freezing the fro-yo in a shallow pan for 20-30. Cover with plastic wrap and return balls to freezer until frozen completely. Then transfer the frozen scoops to a freezer-safe container with an air-tight lid using parchment paper between layers.

No Ice Cream Machine? Try These No Churn Recipes:

• Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt
• Blueberry Frozen Yogurt
• No Churn Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Recipe
• No Churn Coconut Ice Cream
• Oreo Fudge Ice Cream
• No Churn Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
• Coconut Lime Ice Cream
• No Churn Cake Batter Ice Cream

If You Make This Recipe, Please Rate and Review it in the Comments Below. THANKS!

*Originally published 3/6/12. Updated 8/8/21.