Frozen summer pleasure you probably do not make at home but should be

Close your eyes and train the most perfect fruit-yoghurt popsicle. Think of the qualities that are good now. Are there a vibrant fruity splash from the off-and white sounds of yogurt? Creamy, rich and smooth? Is the texture light or dense?

When searching for these answers, I wondered if there were basic techniques that can be used throughout the forum. To get there, I had more questions to answer. You are simple Greek yogurt Better in Popsicle? Does the fat percentage of yogurt count? Can we make tastier pops with fresh or frozen fruits? If you prefer fresh, should the fruit component be raw or cooked? And then, beyond the two main ingredients of the fruit and yogurt, it is a matter of supplements. Do you always need additional sugar? What about salt or an extra acid content in the form of citrus juice? Finally, do we have to completely mix the fruit and yogurt, or to rotate a vortex?

I tried to answer these questions by elaborating three recipe for different fruit-yogurt-pop: cranberryTo raspberryand mangoAnd I managed to create the ones that checked all the boxes – these frozen foods have a creamy, velvety smooth texture; Only the right amount of bite; And a well -balanced flavor that combines bitter yogurt and sweet, rich fruit.

Although there is no way to provide concrete guidance for all possible fruits, I am sure that the following guidelines will help anyone to achieve the right way when choosing a fruit-jogurt popsicles from scratch.

The yogurt

The first step of the Great Fruit Rogurt Popsicle is to select the best yogurt. For test purposes, I focused on smooth and Greek yogurt – FAGE and Stonyfield, which are both widely available national brands.

The most basic, They make a simple yogurt with milk and live active cultures. Greek yogurt is basically a simple yogurt that has been stretched to remove water (in the form of whey), which results in extra thin and rich consistency. For this guide, I tried lean and fat versions of smooth and Greek yogurt to see how they behaved when they were frozen.

When trying to make a similar decision on frozen yogurt, Max Falkowitz found this A full fat smooth yogurt makes the best frozen yogurt– The full -fat smooth yogurt contributed to the soft scoopable texture and the vibrant fruity taste. Max also tested the Greek yogurt, but found that when freezing, he created an unpleasantly thick and heavy texture that he chewed on the sour cream (aa Food she refuses to touch as a child and still will not be to this day).

As it turned out, Popsicles does not follow the same rule book – Greek yogurt was a clear preference between the small group of tasters in all tests. I suspect the rotation may have contributed to the too dense texture of the Greek yogurt in Max fro-yo tests. However, as popsicles is frozen solid, without the natural texture that causes the rotation, the extra-cream texture of the Greek yogurt was actually crucial.

When it was frozen in solid pops, the smooth yogurt resulted in an extremely iced texture-the Skim was the worst, mouth-watering cake, while the full-fat version was only slightly better.

When using the Greek yogurt, the greasy version led to rough -flavored pops, which have too dense textures. The full -fat Greek yogurt, on the other hand, had a pleasantly bitter taste and smooth, creamy texture, though it had a slight chalk. We had the winner, but I had to look at this chalk. The solution came from a heavy cream splash that helped to round up the taste and smoothed the texture perfectly.

Although this is a bit confusing, I suggest you stick to heavy cream; Replacing the milk results in Icer popsicles. The same applies to a full-fat Greek yogurt also avoids low-fat and lean versions, and instead look for brands that contain only milk and active cultures, such as Fage and Chobani (gums or pectin artificially thickened with more moisture).

Even so, just because the full -fat Greek yogurt appeared on top of my taste tests, it does not mean that it always applies when they are coupled with a fruit, but since this is our favorite with three different fruits, probably the journey is most, if not always.

Treatment of fruit

Another critical element of the success of the fruit-rogurt popsicle is the choice of fruit and how to treat it. Of course, there is no practical method of testing all possible fruits, so I focused on three popular options that cover the flavors of many fruits, each of which was widely available in fresh and frozen forms: mango, blueberries and raspberries.

What about this fresh and frozen question? During my tests, freshly frozen when the fresh fruit was ripe properly. The fresh, ripe fruit was extremely full, with a bold taste and sweet-resistant puncture, with which the frozen fruit could not compete. However, a lace can be pulled off the delicious pops with frozen fruits – just note that you may need extra sugar or otherwise set the balance to get into the sweet spot.

After the square, it was more of a rude fruit or a better throw than their cooked equivalents, and finally this part really leads to the given fruit. With mango, a fruit that is almost always consumed raw, I was sure to do best when it keeps it raw, and my intuition was right – that the bright and sweet tropical mango taste without cooking comes best.

I was less sure for cranberries and raspberries: with a delicious hand, but often cooked in pie fillings or jams. Finally, testing showed that both are more tasteful when they first cook them slightly. Black blueberries and raspberries were very beneficial from gentle cooking and taming their raw content while concentrating their fruity sweets. But one has to run easily because even careful boiling can turn fresh berries into pops, unattractive cooked taste – a discovery I made when testing The final strawberry popsiclesOr

I learned the following with each of the tests under the belt:

• Although fresh fruits taste best, frozen fruits work with a pinch, especially if it is easier to find out within the season. You may need to add some extra sugar to work.
• If you find it difficult to think of the cooked formulations of the selected fruit, then keep it raw. Mango, watermelon and melon are all examples of fruits, which are probably the best crude.
• For fruits that work well, both raw and cooked (such as strawberries and peaches), you need to experiment and determine which version you like (or even a raw and cooked combination!). Note that during cooking, the taste of the concentrates is risking that you lose fruit delicacies and shades during the process. Stick to short, gentle cooking to avoid boring pops.
• If you cook the fruit, it is important to consider the water content of the fruit. For fruits with water content above 90%, you do not need to add extra water. For slimmer fruits of less than 90% water, it is often a good idea to install some water as it will have a “too creamy” textured popsicles risk if they cook too much water. Adding water helps to check the balance.

The role of sugar, acid and salt

What separates the big popsicle from the mediocre is sugar. As a sweetener, sugar compensates for the natural content of a lot of fruits, such as blueberries, raspberries and cranberries, and pushes their concentrated fruity aroma at the forefront, which is key because freezing dampens the perception of sweets.

Sugar also affects the texture. When the counterfeit yogurt is frozen, it becomes a brick, but adding the sugar is soft, smooth and creamy. This is because The sugar is hygroscopicThat is, it means attracting water and reducing the freezing point. The result is less ice crystal formation, so the more sugar it adds, the softer the popsicles will be.

Because different sweeteners can affect not only the texture but also the taste in different ways, some of them have been tested: simple syrup, corn syrup, honey, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Syrups, such as simple syrup, honey and corn syrup, can add smoothness and creaminess, but are much less sweet than dry crystalline sugars such as granulated and brown sugar, as they usually contain 20% water and 80% sugar. In addition, corn syrup, an invert sugar that discourages crystallization can dilute the flavors as it contains starch chains that trap the flavor molecules.

My tests identified the preference of granulated sugar, which contributes to the taste of sweet, cleaner fruit. Plus, you don't need much – you do a small way; These popsicle calls are called three to five ounces of sugar per recipe, although the exact amount depends on the fruit used.

Acid incorporation in the form of citrus juices gives a brightness and another layer of flavor to popsicles. Creative can be here, you can choose from lemon between lime, orange, grapefruit, Meyer Lemon, Yuzu and Calamansi. I found that the sweet spot is 3/4 teaspoons of citrus juice per recipe, regardless of the Citrus type. If you want a more dominant taste, experiment with increasing quantities; Just be careful, the more you add, the more you risk creating a bitter, astringent pop.

In my recipes, I paired the mang with lime as it is a classic combo; The lemon juice worked well with that deep, sweet blueberry taste; And the raspberries are well coupled with the fresh orange juice, which pulls out the berries' own fine citrus notes. Nevertheless, you have a lot of flexibility here to play with combinations.

Meanwhile, adding the salt comes up. As Taste: “Potentator”, Salt brings desirable flavors in food. Think of chocolate chips cookies with fluffy sea salt or salted caramel sauce. Even if this is not an obvious ingredient, this salt content pop is an important element of almost any sweet. Its purpose is roughly a teaspoon of diamond crystal kosher -salt (here is Why are we so specifically with salt) in a recipe that results in six pops.

If you want to go beyond the basics, other accessories such as herbs, spices and extracts are a wonderful way of taste. I often find myself to reach a The flavoring thesaurus For inspiration that breaks the flavors by category, then in this category, each ingredient is fitted with multiple pairs (blueberries and almonds?).

To tighten

The last stop of the perfection of the fruit-yogurt popsicle was whether to create a vortex or not. The swirling pop is definitely more attractive, but apart from the sight, it is more of a mixing. Between the fruit and the yogurt, in a swirling pop, you will never find a good balance between the two. In one minute the fruit is too loud; The next, yogurt is too hot. By mixing (using the fruit and yogurt 1: 1), the appearance obtains a monochrome but coherent aroma experience that provides a perfectly creamy, rich and fruity mixture during every bite. However, if you want to pull a swirling version, all our recipes offer alternative instructions for this.

With this schedule to create the final fruit yoghurt pops, and To review the best popsicle forms– You will enjoy them soon.

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August 2020