Rich and indulgent Chocolate Frozen Yogurt has a sweet-tart flavor and the perfect creamy, light consistency. This frozen yogurt is so easy to make — blend everything up, pour into an ice cream maker, and enjoy!
Try our other favorite frozen yogurt recipes — this vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe or Strawberry Frozen Yogurt.
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
Growing up, my favorite dessert was frozen yogurt from a local fro-yo shop near our home. You know the kind: where you pick a flavored yogurt base and load on practically endless toppings. I’ll admit my toppings often got a bit out of hand and the resulting concoctions were barely edible. Even so, I can guarantee I never wasted a bite.
As you probably know, these frozen yogurt shops can get fairly spend-y, which is maybe why it was such a special treat for me. And as an adult now, I still think of frozen yogurt as somewhat of a delicacy (ha!), so it’s still a dessert I get ridiculously excited about.
That said, I prefer to make it exactly how I like it at home and avoid the sticker shock. And maybe it’s because I’m a grown-up now, but I really prefer my froyo plain, without the myriad of candy and cereal toppings. Over the years, I’ve worked on perfecting a chocolate frozen yogurt, tweaking it to contain my ideal ratio of sweet to tart, and working to achieve a rich, fudge-like flavor while keeping the texture nice and light. And finally, it is here — this is our perfect Chocolate Frozen Yogurt recipe.
While this recipe is seriously quick and easy, I’ll admit that it does require some fairly specific ingredients for the best results. I’ll discuss those in depth below.
Frozen Yogurt Ingredients
- Yogurt. Choose a really great-tasting yogurt to wind up with a delicious and rich tasting Chocolate Frozen Yogurt. I don’t recommend a low-fat or fat-free yogurt; they won’t thicken as nicely. We’ve tried a lot of different yogurts and hands down our favorite (and what we continue to use in this recipe) is Noosa’s® vanilla bean yogurt.
- Heavy cream. While yogurt is the main ingredient for the base, the cream adds some thickness and a contrast to the yogurt’s tartness.
- Dutch-process cocoa powder. Regular cocoa powder won’t give this yogurt the depth of flavor and chocolate intensity that the Dutch-process will. Any Dutch-process cocoa powder works, but the one I’ve found most readily available at grocery stores is Hershey’s® Special Dark. You’ll see on the label it’s “Dutched cocoa” which is what we’re looking for. My personal favorite is this Extra® brute cocoa powder — it has an amazingly robust flavor, but you aren’t likely to find it at the local grocery.
- Vanilla extract and salt. These two ingredients add a depth of flavor and work to balance sweetness with tang. A little salt goes a long way, and while it may seem like a strange ingredient in a dessert, it helps this yogurt achieve a more robust, balanced flavor.
- White sugar. The sugar sweetens the mixture and is an ingredient you may want to play around with a bit. If you’d like a tart yogurt, reduce the amount of sugar just bit. For a sweeter yogurt, add a bit more sugar. You may also need to adjust the amount of sugar, depending on how sweet the yogurt you are using is.
Recipe tips
- Pay special attention to the ingredients. With regular cocoa powder and a low-fat, less flavorful yogurt, you’ll end up with some fairly lackluster frozen yogurt.
- Freeze the ice cream insert ahead of time. An ice cream insert takes a good amount of time to thoroughly freeze which is a requirement for the yogurt to set up — otherwise, it may never reach the consistency you’re looking for.
- Chill the mixture. Depending on the quality of the blender used, the blender may warm up the mixture as it works to combine the ingredients. If this is the case, I’d recommend chilling the mixture for 30 minutes to an hour before adding it to the ice cream maker.
Ice Cream Maker
- For this recipe, you’ll need an ice cream maker. Here’s the one I use and love.
Quick Tip
It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the yogurt to develop a good consistency in my particular ice cream maker. Depending on personal preference, and the ice cream maker used, you may reach the consistency sooner. If the frozen yogurt is still too soft for you after being churned, you can transfer the contents into an airtight container and freeze until further thickened. Note that freezing the yogurt too long will end up with a more icy texture, like less creamy ice cream.
Topping ideas
While we love this chocolate frozen yogurt as is — straight from the ice cream maker if you’re at my home — there are always fun ways to spruce it up with various toppings.
- Chocolate shavings. Use a vegetable peeler to “peel” the backside of a plain chocolate bar onto the yogurt.
- Fruit. If you like chocolate-covered strawberries or bananas you’ll probably love fruit added to the frozen yogurt.
- Whipped cream. Go for extravagance with a scoop of coconut whipped cream or regular whipped cream (how to make whipped cream tutorial here) on top.
- Cookie dough. Roll tiny balls of edible cookie dough and add as a topping– or use this peanut butter cookie dough for a chocolate-peanut butter treat.
- Brownie batter. Roll tiny balls of this edible brownie batter to add as a topping.
- Chocolate or caramel sauce. Add a drizzle of some homemade (or a store-bought) chocolate fudge sauce or caramel sauce.
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt FAQs
If you freeze plain yogurt, it will harden and solidify into a brick, with an icy consistency.
To get a similar frozen yogurt consistency to what you’ve had in frozen yogurt shops, there needs to be sugar in the mix. Just like ice cream and sorbet, the more sugar, the softer the yogurt will be.
Typically frozen yogurt is lower in fat and calories than ice cream, but it can also have more sugar.
Frozen yogurt provides protein and probiotics from the yogurt that you won’t find in ice cream.
It depends on the recipe and also what yogurt you use. The yogurt used in the recipe can have a good amount of sugar.
This particular recipe calls for 2/3 cup of added sugar and one serving contains 38 grams of sugar (natural and added).
Frozen yogurt is a dessert made with yogurt and additional ingredients to add sweetness and result in a creamy texture when frozen. Frozen yogurt is more comparable to ice cream, but with a tangy, sweet taste and a creamier (softer) texture.
Regular yogurt is essentially fermented milk– milk that is heated and mixed with live bacteria. Regular yogurt can also have sugar and other ingredients added, but it’s refrigerated, not frozen.
More chocolate desserts
- Chocolate Dip for Fruit with Nutella
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Mix with Reese’s candies
- Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with chocolate buttercream frosting
- Chocolate Pudding Pie with an Oreo cookie crust
- Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats with a chocolate topping
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups vanilla bean yogurt see note 1
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder see note 2
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a large powerful blender and process until completely smooth. If the mixture is warmed up by blending, thoroughly chill it before adding to an ice cream maker.
- Use an ice cream maker to freeze the mixture according to the manufacturer's directions. It takes my machine about 35–45 minutes to get to frozen yogurt consistency. Enjoy the yogurt straight out of the ice cream maker.
- If desired, transfer the mixture to an airtight container and into the freezer to further harden. Note that the longer it is in the freezer the icier the texture becomes.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this yesterday, and it is delicious! Since I used my homemade plain Greek yogurt, I upped the vanilla to 2 tsp, but followed the other measurements exactly. Perfectly decadent!
I am so happy to hear this! Thanks Maggie! 🙂
What an amazing Reciepe ! So easy to whip up and makes the most incredible froyo ! Family already asking for More !
Oh yay!! I’m so happy to hear that 🙂 Thank you so much for the comment!
I made this recipe exactly as instructed and the frozen yogurt is amazing. Thank You for the recipe. I did want to share one tip for avoiding the ice crystals that form after you leave left over home made ice cream or yogurt in the freezer. I add 1 / 3 cup of alcohol (for this recipe I used Creme de Cocao because the yogurt was chocolate flavorerd ) The frozen yogurt stayed soft and can still be scooped with a spoon.
I use vodka if I am making vanilla ice cream or don’t want to change the taste of the recipe. 1 / 3 cup alcohol works with recipes that make one quart of ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Yay! So thrilled to hear you enjoyed this frozen yogurt recipe! Thank you so much for the tips to avoiding ice crystals — appreciate it 🙂
Finally, something I can eat, it’s my stomach you see. This has everything I want!!! Thank you so much.
what kind of ice cream maker do you have ?
Hey Cheryl! I updated my post with a link to the exact ice cream maker I own and use. The link to check it out is right above my recipe!
I would love to try this but substitute ~ 1/2 cup Nesquik chocolate powder ~ with 1/2 a cup of Carob Powder or 1/2 a cup of Cocoa Powder. I’ll report back if I give the substitutes a try:)
Yes, I’d love to hear how the substitutes work out! Cocoa powder is (IMO) much stronger than Nesquik, so you may want to reduce it a bit and add some kind of other sweetener to make up for the sweetness that Nesquik has. 🙂
can i sub hot chocolate powder for the nesquick?
I haven’t tried that substitution so I’m not sure. I think nesquick is quite a bit sweeter so if you did try it you might need more of the chocolate powder or sugar. Sorry to not be of more help!
Hello! This looks absolutely delicious! I’m eager to try it! I have a few questions first. Can I just freeze it in my freezer, or do I need to use an ice cream maker? Secondly, PEANUT BUTTER!!! Can you add it also? Add some protein to your chocolate for breakfast! Thanks for any help!
It doesn’t set up by just leaving it in the freezer, so you do need an ice cream maker. Or you will need to continue to stir the freezer mixture for every 30 minutes to an hour until it has set up. (Even still the consistency is a little off with that method.) You could definitely add some peanut butter – 1-2 tablespoons should be great but feel free to do it to your taste preference.
Has anyone made this with real sugar instead of truvia? Or another sweetener?
I made this with 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp honey (to minimize refined sugar in the recipe) instead of truvia and it turned out fabulous!
Can I substitute honey for the trivia,if so how much