This healthy frozen yogurt bark is a super easy snack studded with juicy cherries and swirled with cola spices so it tastes like a creamy cherry float! Make it high protein, dairy free or vegan.
Name one food you loved as a kid that you kinda forgot about as an adult. I’ll go first: it’s a float. Usually root beer, sometimes cola. With LOTS of creamy vanilla ice cream.
And then I made myself one recently after ages and I was like….how have I not been enjoying these more?!? So now I’m a wee bit obsessed and I got it into my head that I maybe could make a frozen yogurt bark with cola spices and cherries.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would pull it off but I started looking up the spices in cola (the coriander was a shocker!) and actually had everything in my spice drawer – it’s chaos in there – and now here we are.
A frozen yogurt bark is one of those genius snacks because it takes just minutes to stir everything together and then you just keep it in the freezer for whenever the craving strikes. It’s healthy but also super satisfying.
The hardest part is pitting the cherries but if you use frozen cherries, it’s already done for you!
My dietitian heart agrees with my recipe developer brain: I love any excuse to add more spices to my life. Seriously: spices make food more enjoyable, and they’re packed with a lot of antioxidant phytochemicals so enjoy ‘em by the scoop, not the sprinkle, ok?
Want even more plant-based recipes with the flavour dialled alllllll the way up? Grab a copy of my latest cookbook Plant Magic!
Make this cherry frozen yogurt bark your own:
Let’s talk yogurts. You want a thick, Greek-style yogurt. Not low fat – fat carries flavour and without it, the spices will fall flat.
Here in Canada, our plant-based Greek yogurt options are kinda sad so I go with Yoggu, which is a thick coconut yogurt. It’s SO good – I use it in my frozen blueberry yogurt clusters – but not much protein.
But for my friends in the US, you’ve got so many great options if you want to use a high protein yogurt! So you can make this dairy free, high protein and of course, totally plant-based.
More nourishing and craveable frozen snack ideas:
- Super flavourful blueberry blender popsicles
- 5 Minute Creamy Strawberry Sorbet with Coconut Cream
- Wildly Delicious (and easy!) Strawberry Granita
- Instant 3 Ingredient Blueberry Sorbet
Creamy Cherry Float Frozen Yogurt Bark
Ingredients
- 2 cup thick Greek-style yogurt I use Yoggu vanilla
- 2 cups pitted cherries halved
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup if using unsweetened yogurt, more if desired
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ lemon zest only
- ½ lime zest only
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch ground coriander
Instructions
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In a bowl, stir the maple syrup, vanilla, zest and all the spices into the yogurt. Taste and adjust maple syrup or any one of the spices if you like. See notes for variation ideas.
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Line a small rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the cherries close together on the baking sheet.
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Pour the yogurt evenly over the cherries. Place in the freezer for at least four hours until frozen solid.
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Break into pieces and enjoy right away, or transfer to a freezer bag and store for up to one month.
Notes
If you want a stronger cola flavour, you can A) add another tablespoon or two of maple syrup which will enhance the spices or B) boost some spices.
I would just be careful with increasing the nutmeg or coriander too much but otherwise, go for it! A couple of ideas to get you started:
Vanilla Cola: up the vanilla to a tablespoon, and maybe increase the cardamom to ¼ teaspoon and the clove to a rounded ¼ of a teaspoon if you’re into it.
Orange Cream: Up the vanilla to 2 tsp and add the zest of a large orange as that’s common in cola but I left it out because the ingredients list was already a wee bit long ha ha.
Cherry Cola: up the vanilla to 2 tsp and add just the tiniest bit – ¼ teaspoon – of almond extract to enhance the cherry flavour!
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