Homemade Frozen Yogurt Has Never Been Easier

It's no secret that we (okay, one editor in particular) are obsessed with frozen yogurt. You can keep your cupcakes and macarons — we'll be sitting alone at Pinkberry in the dead of winter and love it. Always on the lookout for a DIY dessert, we wondered if it was possible to make legit froyo at home, without shelling out for an ice cream maker (who has room for all these things?!). Turns out, it's stupid-easy. With just a few basic ingredients and a couple kitchen tricks, you can easily create frozen yogurt tasty enough to satisfy our soft-serve habit. We used a simple combo of berries and honey for this recipe, but feel free to try your own healthy (or not) combos.

Trick #1: Strain your yogurt well. You can use an ultra-fine sieve or line a strainer with cheesecloth and fill with your yogurt. Even if you start with Greek yogurt (which is already strained), do it anyway. You want to remove as much excess liquid from the yogurt as possible, which will prevent it from getting too icy in the freezer. We recommend leaving it to strain into a large bowl placed in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight. After removing, blot the outside of the sieve or cheesecloth with a paper towel to get any leftover liquid.

Trick #2: Freeze your berries (or other add-ins, especially if they're fruits) in advance. This will also help it to not get rock-hard and icy in the freezer. There's no reasonable explanation as to why this makes such a difference, but it does. It's frozen yogurt voodoo.

Trick #3: Once all ingredients are thrown together and mixed, use a food processor, blender, hand mixer, or immersion blender to finish the job. This will help the honey and berry flavors to really infuse the yogurt, blending in a way you just can't do by hand (unless you have a turbo-charged arm). Do this quickly, before the frozen stuff softens too much.

Trick #4: Pop your goodies in the freezer for one to two hours — definitely check after one. We find it's best not to leave overnight, or you may have to defrost the yogurt a bit. This recipe is at its best when eaten same day. But, we have a feeling it will be gone even faster.