Trying the Viral Japanese Cheesecake Trend

 

Fro-yo girl here. I must have seen the viral cheesecake recipe a few dozen times one week on Instagram. It seems so easy, and yogurt is the main ingredient, so I decided to try it. The basic recipe is yogurt that you put crunchy cookies in and let soften for a few hours. It’s supposed to be like cheesecake.

I went with Siggi’s Icelandic Style Whole Milk Yogurt - Lemon, which is thick and rich. And I added Trader Joe’s Speculoos cookies. I love both.

After letting the cookies sit in the yogurt overnight, I tried the combination. It was good, like a cookie dip, but not as sweet.

It comes down to whether you like your Speculoos cookies crunchy or soft. I like them crunchy. I’d rather have the yogurt with crunchy Speculoos cookies on top.

I tried the method again, using crunchy granola this time. I liked the softened granola better than the softened cookies. But do I prefer the softened granola to the crunchy granola? I do not.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Siggi’s Triple Cream Skyr Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. In my area, many grocery stores that carry Siggi’s do not carry their newer Triple Cream Skyr Yogurt product, and it’s unfortunate because Triple Cream is fabulous. I found it at Whole Foods for $1.59 (regular price). Each cup is 4 oz.

Siggi’s Triple Cream Skyr Yogurt is inspired by a concoction created by Siggi’s mom, which featured half skyr mixed with half whipped cream. Siggi’s version is made with whole milk and pasteurized cream. Like their other products, it’s low sugar, high quality, and made with a few simple, all-natural ingredients.

* Vanilla: It’s richer, creamier, and smoother than their regular skyr. The vanilla had visible vanilla specks throughout and a strong vanilla flavor. It was tangy with a sour, clean finish. While the size was smaller than average, the richness made it filling. You can definitely taste the cream.

* Raspberry: Raspberries are blended throughout and they add tang and flavor. Love it. 

* Lemon: The lemon flavor is there and it adds extra tang, but it needed more lemon flavor. The cream flavor was stronger.

One serving of vanilla contains 170 calories, 10g total fat, 10g total carbohydrates, 8g sugars, and 9g protein.

Available flavors: Vanilla, Raspberry, Plain, Chocolate, Lemon

Ingredients (Vanilla): Pasteurized whole milk, pasteurized cream, organic agave nectar, Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fruit pectin, live active cultures. 

Triple Cream would be perfect for breakfast or a snack.

5 out of 5 stars.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Siggi’s No Sugar Added Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. Earlier this year, Siggi’s introduced a new no sugar added strained yogurt product. I didn’t see it at the places that I normally shop, but then I found some at Whole Foods Pasadena for $1.59. One cup is 4.4 ounces of strained whole milk yogurt. No sugar is added but the yogurt is sweetened by the addition of fruit. Each cup contains 5g of sugar and 10g of protein. The product is all natural, like all Siggi’s products. The product does not use sugar alternatives, preservatives, or gelatin.

* Peach & Mango yogurt: The peach and mango bits are blended into the yogurt. The bits are teeny. Otherwise, the yogurt is thick, heavy, smooth, and rich. It was definitely pretty sour. Because of the cream, it coated the tongue. I think I’d need to have it with granola or fresh fruit to add a little more sweetness. One cup is 120 calories.

Ingredients: Pasteurized whole milk, pasteurized cream, peaches, mangos, fruit pectin, live active cultures.

Is it skyr? I guess not, since it doesn’t say that it’s skyr on the packaging.

Available flavors: Peach & Mango, Banana & Cinnamon

4 out of 5 stars.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Trader Joe’s Adds Icelandic Yogurt and Yogurt Cheesecake

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve mentioned Icelandic stye yogurt (known as skyr) on this blog quite a few times, because I’ve been a fan since the first time I tried Siggi’s in 2010. Since then, I’ve tried every brand of skyr that I’ve run across. Skyr is strained until it’s rich and thick.

Trader Joe’s has two flavors of skyr, Plain and Strawberry. Both are nonfat. The 8-ounce cups are $1.39 each. Trader Joe’s describes the product as follows, “Just like traditional skyr—which has been a staple of the Icelandic diet since it was brought over from Norway a millennium ago—our Icelandic Style Nonfat Yogurt is strained so that it’s exceptionally thick and creamy. It’s reminiscent of nonfat Greek yogurt, but even smoother and with slightly less bite.”

* Strawberry Icelandic yogurt: This is a blended style yogurt. One container is 190 calories with 0g fat, 26g carbs, 24g total sugars and 20g protein. TJ’s version has more sugar than Smari or Siggi’s, but it’s still got a sourness to it that I like. It’s tangy, sour and pretty sweet at the same time, with intense yogurt flavor. The texture is smooth and thick. Since it has more sugar and isn’t quite as thick as Siggi’s, it doesn’t seem different from Greek yogurt to me. I wish it had less sugar.

Ingredients: Nonfat milk, cane sugar, strawberry puree, strawberries, water, natural strawberry flavor, fruit pectin, locust bean gum, carrot extract (color), streptoccus thermophilus (culture), lemon juice concentrate.

I also noticed that Trader Joe’s now has Chocolate Swirl Icelandic Style Yogurt Cheesecake. It’s huge (650g), so I probably won’t get it but it does sound good, if it’s tangy and not too sweet. You can find this new cheesecake in the frozen foods section with the other frozen pies, cakes, puddings, etc.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.



Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Starbucks Spring New Yogurt Offering, Lemon Chiffon Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. Starbucks recently introduced new spring menu items, including a gluten free breakfast sandwich, vegan bagel and two yogurt offerings are the Berry Trio Yogurt and Lemon Chiffon Yogurt.

Berry Trio Yogurt is “a nonfat creamy vanilla yogurt with sliced strawberries, whole blueberries, raspberries and honey oat granola. It has 14 grams of protein per serving.”

Lemon Chiffon Yogurt is a “creamy, flavorful parfait (that) includes vanilla whole-milk yogurt and a traditional lemon curd for the perfect balance of tart and sweet with a bright lemon flavor.”

I tried the Lemon Chiffon Yogurt ($3.75 for a 7.2 oz cup). It’s made exclusively for Starbucks. The lemon curd is on the bottom. The vanilla yogurt has vanilla bean specks throughout. The yogurt has a strange, slimy, gummy texture that I didn’t find pleasant. It’s probably because the yogurt is made with thickeners like carob bean gum and pectin. It’s very sweet and rich. The lemon curd does have some tanginess which is nice but there’s too much sugar (35g). One serving is 340 calories, 13g of total fat and 38g of carbohydrates.

Ingredients: Vanilla yogurt (cultured pasteurized grade A milk, agave syrup, vanilla extract, carob bean gum, vanilla beans, pectin, water), lemon curd (sugar, lemon juice, pasteurized eggs, butter (cream, natural flavors), modified food starch).

I recommend getting the Siggi’s yogurt that they carry instead.

3 out of 5 stars.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Lucky Layla Farms Yogurt Drink Review

Fro-yo girl here. Yogurt drinks that taste like Yakult are far too sweet for me and I gave up trying all the different brands that I spot in Asian supermarkets. Yogurt smoothies tend to be too sweet as well. Middle Eastern yogurt drinks are actually salted and take some getting used to. I spotted Lucky Layla Farms probiotic yogurt drinks at Whole Foods and decided to give the plain one a try.

I was stunned by the natural sweetness and luxurious thick smoothness of Lucky Layla’s plain yogurt drink. They don’t add sugar to the natural plain yogurt drink. Their drinkable yogurt drink is naturally sweeter than the other plain yogurt drinks that I’ve tried (for example, Siggi’s has a similar plain yogurt drink with no added sugar).

Is it the cows that make the difference? They use milk from award-winning Guernsey and Jersey cows that are free to roam on Texas grassland and cool down in lakes. They don’t use water, powdered milk or thickeners.

Lucky Layla’s drinkable yogurt comes in 10 fruit flavors (made with real fruit of course) such as mango, blueberry, blackberry, pina colada and strawberry. Look for it at Whole Foods, Sprouts and Central Markets. I haven’t seen it in any San Francisco Whole Foods locations but they had it in Seattle ($1.99 regular price, 2 for $3 on sale for an 8 oz. bottle).

Rating: 5/5

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Yogurt Review: Skyr & Eros

Fro-yo girl here. During my Whole Foods shopping trips, I found two yogurt lines that are exclusive to Whole Foods, Skyr.is and Eros. Technically you can get Skyr.is elsewhere (Iceland) but in the U.S. only Whole Foods carries it.

Skyr.is is imported from Iceland and at $3.39 each (6 oz. cup), the most expensive yogurt I've seen (though I think the price has dropped to $2.99). Whole Foods SF had three flavors: blueberry, plain, strawberry. There's a vanilla one too, but I didn't see it there. I tried blueberry. The list of ingredients is short: milk, sugar, blueberry juice, elderberry juice, citric acid, live & active cultures.

* Skyr.is blueberry yogurt: very creamy, smooth, dense and thick, more tangy than sour, liked the bright fresh fruit flavor but it was definitely sweeter than Siggi's...I still prefer Siggi's. 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Eros Organic Greek Yogurt is made for Whole Foods and it claims to be the first and only yogurt made with Certified Humane Raised and Handled organic low fat cow's milk from small family farms. It uses an all natural evaporation method to thicken the yogurt, not powdered milk solids or gelatin. It comes in Plain, Vanilla, Honey, Strawberry and Blueberry and is $1.99 for a 6 oz. cup. I chose honey which is made with 2% milk, wildflower honey, pectin, live & active cultures.

* Eros honey yogurt: definitely tangy, very thick, creamy, and heavy. The texture was oddly sticky (in an unpleasant way) and the honey had a bitter aftertaste. 3 out of 5 stars.

Skyr is even thicker than Greek style yogurt. It's technically a soft cheese.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Siggi's Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. I've found my favorite yogurt: Siggi's Icelandic style skyr strained non-fat yogurt. I didn't know about skyr (the traditional yogurt of Iceland) till I found Siggi's. Skyr is thicker and creamier than the usual yogurt. Siggi's is available in the following flavors: blueberry, orange ginger, plain, vanilla, pomegranate & passion fruit, grapefruit, and acai.

* Grapefruit: It's so thick that the spoon stands up easily in the yogurt! The yogurt is so rich and tart, with the sourness of grapefruit. I bet it would taste incredible in fro-yo form.

* Orange ginger: It's amazing with tiny chunks of candied ginger. Ginger and orange go so well together. Love the tartness. The ingredients list: skim milk, agave nectar, candied ginger, orange extract, live active cultures, vegetable rennet



The yogurt is made with a few choice ingredients, with no artificial coloring, no preservatives, and no gelatin. It's expensive at $2.49 each (makes fro-yo seem reasonably priced) but delicious. I found Siggi's at Whole Foods. See skyr.com for a store locator.

5 out of 5 stars

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.