Frozen Yogurt Pie (Make-Ahead Summer Dessert!)

This Frozen Yogurt Pie combines a delicious graham cracker crust, creamy vanilla yogurt filling and beautiful fruit topping for a simple honey-sweetened summer dessert.

My summer is certainly shaping up to be better than the last one, and I hope that’s true for you, too! More fun, more safe gatherings, more enjoying every second!

If you have any plans for a cookout or get together this summer, I highly recommend a menu of grilled buttermilk chicken with coleslaw with celery seed and elote salad on the side. Plus some agave lemonade. And of course, you can’t forget dessert.

You probably already know about my love of Greek yogurt in recipes like Greek yogurt mashed potatoes, healthy buffalo chicken dip and Greek yogurt pasta. Well, it’s perfect for a frozen dessert, too!

This Frozen Yogurt Pie is the ideal way to celebrate just how great this summer is really going to be. It combines a delectable graham cracker crust (I mean, who doesn’t love a graham cracker crust?), a creamy yogurt filling, and the prettiest fresh fruit.

First, make or buy the graham cracker crust for this frozen yogurt pie:

Look, you can make the graham cracker crust using the recipe below, or you can buy one of those pre-made ones in a tin. I’ve done both for this yogurt pie, just depending on my mood and how much time I have. Just like I’ll often use store-bought pie crust for brownie pie. Judgement free zone!

If you make the crust for this yogurt pie recipe, you’ll simply be stirring together graham cracker crumbs (buy a box of crumbs, or blitz graham crackers in a food processor), melted butter and honey.

I like honey rather than the plain granulated sugar that is traditional for graham cracker crust, because honey gives it a bit more flavor.

Press the mixture into the bottom of a pie pan and bake it until golden brown. Be sure to cool the crust completely before adding the filling.

Heads up – if you’d prefer a gluten free alternative to a graham cracker crust for this frozen yogurt pie, check out my cranberry curd tart post, particularly the section directly above the recipe box, for tried and true gluten free options.

Then, make the creamy honey-vanilla yogurt filling:

You’ll need an electric mixer (or just a really strong arm) to whip cream for the filling for this yogurt pie recipe – either a stand mixer or hand held mixer is great. Whip the cream until soft peaks form, and then add the yogurt, a touch more honey to sweeten, and vanilla bean paste.

I love buying a jar of vanilla bean paste, because I get all of the vanilla bean goodness without having to cut open and scrape vanilla bean pods, which can be kind of a pain.

If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract works just fine for this frozen yogurt pie (and is also great for vanilla lemonade!). But there’s something so special about the flavor of vanilla bean paste, and I love being able to see the little flecks of vanilla in this filling.

If you do commit to buying a jar of vanilla bean paste, there’s plenty of other uses for it, both sweet and savory. In particular, I enjoy vanilla beurre blanc shrimp and vanilla bean latte overnight oats. I also use it in the fruit dip for my Easter fruit salad and the base for my blueberry cheesecake ice cream.

For even more ideas to use up vanilla bean paste, HuffPost has 25 Recipes That Prove Vanilla Bean Is Worth The Splurge.

Freeze this yogurt pie for up to 3 days!

I love make ahead recipes, especially in the summer, like my acini de pepe pasta salad and Asian noodle salad. This yogurt pie recipe is the same way.

Once you’ve made the crust and filled it with the creamy filling (but before topping it with fruit), you’ll be transferring the pie to the freezer for at least 4 hours to firm up (make some grilled sockeye salmon for dinner in the meantime). But you can also leave it in there up to 3 days! Be sure to cover it tightly so it stays fresh and not freezer burnt.

Before serving, let the frozen yogurt pie stand at room temperature for 20 minutes to soften slightly. Then, garnish it with fruit and serve!

It’s prettiest to garnish this yogurt pie recipe with fruit. But what to do with all the leftover fruit?

This yogurt pie is perfect served simply drizzled with just a bit more honey. But, you can also garnish with fruit(s) of your choosing.

I went ahead and used a ton of fruit and arranged in concentric circles this time because I was nostalgic for the fruit decorating I did in pastry class in culinary school (and it’s much easier than my apple rose tart), but feel free to choose just one or two fruits and simply pile them on instead of carefully arranging.

If you do buy a bunch of fruit to garnish this frozen yogurt pie recipe, and then have a ton of leftovers, I have some suggestions:

• raspberries – use a few to make a beet berry smoothie.
• mandarin oranges – These are great to add a little sweetness to Asian zoodle salad.
• strawberries – Mix up a round of strawberry Moscow mules!
• blueberries – try my bright, fresh blueberry lemon smoothie or buttermilk blueberry muffins.
• blackberries – Cheers to a fun summer with a tequila mojito, or make a batch of blackberry muffins.