Labneh Frozen Yogurt

Creamy, cold, not too sweet, a little savory, salty, crunchy. This frozen yogurt has it all.

Good olive oil and crunchy maldon salt are the best toppings for this creamy frozen yogurt.

I used to be all about vanilla bean ice cream. Then one of my friends took me to Souvla in San Francisco and introduced me to their frozen greek yogurt. It was tart and creamy, just sweet enough. Topping it with olive oil and crunchy sea salt took it over the top and made it my number one frozen dessert. Sweet, creamy, cold, savory, salty, crunchy. It has it all! I’m not above driving 300 miles for food, but I figured it would be easier to learn how to make this at home.

It took me a lot of iterations to get this to the right consistency and sweetness. There are some challenges when making frozen desserts: you need a lot of sugar to keep it smooth and scoopable but not so much that it’s overly sweet. The first batch I made was so so sweet. I mean, I ate it all, but it just felt like too much for how frequently I want to eat this stuff. So I scaled back the sugar but then it turned into an un-scoopable ice block in the freezer. The sweetness was better, but the texture was more popsicle-like. I decided that I needed to increase the fat content. Enter: labneh. It’s the Middle Eastern version of strained yogurt. The texture is awesome, like room temperature cream cheese and the flavor is more tangy, almost like sour cream. Adding it to my frozen yogurt recipe helps the texture stay scoopable when it’s frozen and adds depth and nuance to the yogurty tang.

I will note that the amount of sugar called for leaves you with a crumbly ice cream if you store it for longer than a day. This is best eaten fresh. If you don’t plan on consuming the entire batch the first day try adding an extra 30 grams of sugar. It will be noticeably sweeter but the texture is better for storage. Or, make the recipe as-is and let the ice cream defrost in the refrigerator before scooping. 30 minutes to an hour should be good. An anti-freeze ice cream scoop really comes in handy here.

An ice cream maker is a pretty ridiculous appliance to keep in the kitchen. I really don’t use it that often but it brings me so much joy that I have made the space for it. The benefit of it being a ridiculous appliance is that people get rid of them all the time so you are likely to find a pretty good model second hand for very little money. I think I paid $15 for mine, I have this one. I’m just waiting for the day I find the Kitchenaid attachment at Goodwill. A girl can dream!

Frozen Yogurt

Serves 6-10

1 pound whole milk yogurt; with the simplest ingredients you can find, no fillers or gelatin, etc

1 pound labneh; see above note for the yogurt

½ teaspoon kosher salt

110 grams white sugar; you can substitute honey but will need to adjust the level as honeys vary in sweetness, start with 90 grams and increase as needed

Toppings: good olive oil and crunchy sea salt (such as Maldon), fresh berries or jam are some good options

Large bowl

Whisk

Ice cream maker

Freezable containers for storage

Mix everything (except toppings) together into a large bowl. The labneh will be lumpy at first but will smooth out with more mixing. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. You want this to be as cold as possible before putting it into your ice cream maker.

Put your storage containers in the freezer so they are well chilled. This will help keep the ice cream as cold as possible while it firms.

Process according to your ice cream maker's directions.

You can eat this in it’s soft-serve form right out of the maker. I can’t resist having a few spoonfuls throughout the process, right out of the maker, and can say with confidence that I like it best soft serve texture. It will melt quickly in this form so it’s a good idea to chill your bowls before serving. You can also pack it into containers and freeze it for 1-2 hours to firm it to a more scoopable texture.

Store the remaining yogurt in the freezer. It will harden and get crumbly. Allow the yogurt to defrost in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes before scooping and serving.