Peanut Butter Fro-Yo

A gift to the Yasso fanatics among us

At our house, we have a passion for Yasso frozen Greek yogurt bars. Do you know them? They are so satisfyingly creamy, cold, just desserty enough, and refreshingly light, generating quite a bit of excitement whenever we pull them out of the freezer. Thankfully Vincent and I agree on the best flavor, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip.

But that flavor is bizarrely difficult to find, and also Yassos are a bit expensive, so thanks to a project over the past few weeks that had me churning out many batches of ice cream (it’s a tough life), I sought to make a homemade approximation that’d scratch the Yasso Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip itch. I hadn’t really ever thought that nut butter and Greek yogurt would go together, but it actually works brilliantly.

Every time I bust out the ice cream maker, I ask myself why I don’t do it more often. Ice cream (or frozen yogurt, or sorbet) is really easy, and really impressive, and even mediocre homemade ice cream manages to thrill and delight whoever is lucky enough to eat it. And what freedom there is to experiment, to craft your own batch without the stabilizers and emulsifiers, using whatever seasonal fruit or add-ins you like, to really take matters into your own hands.

If you’ve never made frozen yogurt before, you’ll be happy to find that unlike custards and simple-syrup based sorbets, there’s typically not any application of heat when making the base, which means less accounting for chill time, aka faster fro-yo. I found this piece by Max Falkowitz helpful in coming up with this recipe — he points out that Greek yogurt can sometimes be too fatty as a frozen yogurt base (like “chewing frozen sour cream,” yummy). But by factoring in the strained whey that Greek yogurt is missing, there’s an opportunity to reincorporate liquid in the form of flavored syrups and sweeteners. Hence, this base is sweetened partly with maple syrup.