Blackberry Skyr Bowl with Toasted Almonds, Hemp, and Cinnamon
Thick skyr streaked purple with crushed blackberries and thickened overnight with ground flaxseed, finished with dark-toasted almonds, hemp seeds, and cinnamon.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the bowl I make on a Sunday evening when I want four mornings taken care of, and it is the one people are surprised by, because a yogurt bowl usually eats like a snack and this one does not. The flaxseed is why. Stirred into skyr and left overnight it swells and pulls the whole thing tight, so what you open in the morning is dense and spoonable rather than loose. Blackberries do the rest. Crushing half of them through the skyr turns it a real purple and gives the tartness somewhere to spread, and the whole ones left on top burst separately as you eat.
Toast the almonds properly and chop them by hand. That is the step that separates this from every soft-on-soft yogurt bowl, and it takes six minutes. Almonds toasted until the insides go from white to pale gold taste completely different from raw ones, more like a nut and less like a bean, and rough chopping gives you big shards and fine dust at once, so some bites crunch and some just taste toasty. Hemp seeds go over last for a softer, greener crunch, and the cinnamon ties the berries to the nuts the way it always does with fruit and toasted things.
It eats like a real breakfast, which is not always true of yogurt. There is a lot of skyr in each bowl, thickened rather than thinned, and between the almonds, the hemp, and the flax there is enough substance that you can spoon it slowly. Blackberries are the right berry here because they are more tart than sweet and they hold their shape, so the bowl never slides into dessert. I keep these in the refrigerator door with the lids on and eat one standing up most weekday mornings.
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups plain nonfat skyr (about 22 oz)
- 2 cups fresh blackberries (about 9 oz)
- 1/2 cup raw whole almonds
- 4 tbsp hulled hemp seeds
- 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Toast and chop the almonds: Spread the almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake the pan every thirty seconds. In five to six minutes they will smell warm and nutty and a split almond will show pale gold inside rather than white. Tip them onto a plate to cool completely, then chop them roughly so you get big shards along with the fine bits.
- Stir the flaxseed into the skyr: Put the skyr in a bowl with the ground flaxseed and one teaspoon of the cinnamon and stir hard for a full minute, until you cannot see any streaks of dry flax. It will look slightly loose at this point. That is correct, because the flax has not taken up its liquid yet.
- Crush half the blackberries through it: Set aside about a cup of the best-looking berries. Put the rest in a small bowl and crush them with the back of a fork until they are broken and juicy but still in pieces, then fold them through the skyr with three or four strokes only. You want purple streaks, not an even lilac, so stop while it still looks marbled.
- Divide and chill: Spoon the skyr into four jars or small bowls, cover, and refrigerate at least four hours and preferably overnight. It will thicken noticeably as the flax hydrates, and the color will deepen and spread on its own.
- Top and serve: Just before eating, pile the reserved whole blackberries on one side, scatter the toasted almonds and hemp seeds over the top, and dust with the remaining cinnamon. Keep the toppings dry until this moment, because almonds left sitting in skyr overnight go soft.
Variations
- Cocoa and blackberry: Grate a little dark chocolate over the top with the almonds for a bowl that eats closer to a dessert.
- Pistachio and mint: Swap the almonds for chopped pistachios and add torn fresh mint over the berries for a brighter, greener finish.
- Coconut: Fold two tablespoons of canned coconut milk into the skyr before it rests for a richer, rounder base.
- Raspberry and lemon: Use raspberries in the crushed layer and stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into the skyr to sharpen the whole bowl.
- Pumpkin seed crunch: Toast pumpkin seeds alongside the almonds and use both on top for a darker, greener crunch.
Storage & Leftovers
The skyr base keeps four days covered in the refrigerator and gets thicker every day as the flaxseed continues to hydrate. By day three you can nearly stand a spoon in it, which some people prefer and some find heavy. A splash of milk stirred through loosens it back to whatever you like.
Store the toasted almonds and hemp seeds separately in a jar at room temperature and add them the minute before you eat. Almonds in contact with skyr overnight lose their crunch completely, and that crunch is most of what makes this bowl worth making ahead in the first place.
The base freezes for up to two months in single portions and thaws overnight in the refrigerator, though the texture comes back slightly grainy. Stir it hard for thirty seconds after thawing and it smooths out. Frozen blackberries also work in the crushed layer straight from the bag, thawed and drained first.
Notes & Tips
- Chop the almonds after they cool: Warm almonds crumble and give you dust. Cooled ones fracture into the shards you want.
- Stop folding while it is still marbled: Three or four strokes is all it takes. Fold past that and you get an even purple that tastes the same in every spoonful.
- Give the flax the whole night: Four hours is the minimum and overnight is better. This is the difference between a thick bowl and a loose one.
- Keep the toppings dry: Store the almonds and hemp seeds in a separate jar on the counter and add them at the table, not the night before.
- Buy the plainest skyr you can find: Vanilla and fruit varieties are already sweetened and will fight the tartness of the blackberries.
- Save the best berries: Set aside the firmest, glossiest ones before you start crushing, since those are the ones going on top where you will see them.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Skyr, blackberries, flaxseed, and almonds each pull the bowl in a different direction. The skyr brings the protein and the density, the berries bring tartness and fiber, the flax thickens everything as it sits, and the almonds give it something to chew.
- Blackberries are among the seedier berries, and those seeds are most of the reason a cup of them carries so much fiber. The deep purple that bleeds through the skyr is anthocyanin, the same pigment that gives the berry its tartness a place to sit.
- Skyr is strained further than most cultured milk, which is what makes it thick enough to hold a spoon upright and why the protein lands as high as it does in a bowl this size. Calcium comes with it, as it does with any strained fresh dairy.
- Ground flaxseed swells into a gel overnight and is what takes this from a loose yogurt to something set. It carries soluble fiber and alpha-linolenic acid, the plant form of omega-3 fat, and grinding is what makes both of those available.
- Almonds toasted until the insides go gold taste like a different food than raw ones, rounder and warmer, and they bring vitamin E along with that crunch. The cinnamon dusted over the top is what pulls the toasted nuts and the tart fruit into the same bowl.
- As you eat, watch for the moment a whole blackberry gives way against the spoon and notice how different that is from the crushed fruit underneath, and let the bowl take longer than a bowl this size usually gets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Greek yogurt in place of the skyr?
Yes, and it works well. Skyr is strained further so it is thicker and milder to start with, which means a Greek yogurt bowl will be a little looser and a little tangier. Give it the full overnight rest so the flaxseed can do its work, and use whole-milk Greek yogurt if you want it richer.
My bowl came out watery. What happened?
Two likely causes. Either the flaxseed was not stirred in thoroughly and clumped rather than dispersing, or the bowl was eaten after an hour rather than after a night. Flax needs several hours to swell. Crushing the berries too far also releases more juice than the flax can take up, so keep them in pieces.
Can I use another berry?
Raspberries behave almost identically and are the closest swap. Strawberries release more water and taste sweeter, so use a bit less and expect a softer set. Blueberries do not crush well and stay whole, so if you use them, put them all on top and skip the marbling.
Should I sweeten it?
Taste it after the overnight rest before you decide, because the fruit sweetness comes forward a lot once the berries have sat in the skyr and the cinnamon has spread. If your blackberries were picked underripe and taste sharp, half a teaspoon of honey stirred through the whole batch is plenty.