Cold Cherry and Cinnamon Skyr Shake with Hemp and Flax
Sweet cherries blended with thick skyr, milk, hemp seeds, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, and lemon into a dark, spoonably thick drink that pours slowly and keeps for two days.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the one I make on the mornings I am not going to sit down. It goes into the blender in about four minutes, it pours straight into a jar with a lid, and it can be drunk standing at the counter or in the car without the usual compromises that involves. Frozen cherries are what I reach for nine times out of ten, since they are picked ripe, they cost a fraction of what fresh ones do in February, and they make the drink cold and thick with no ice at all. Ice is what turns a good blended breakfast into a watery one.
What keeps this drinkable rather than chalky is the order things go into the jar. Liquid first, then the skyr, then the seeds, then the frozen fruit on top, so the blades always have something soft to grab. Hemp seeds break down almost completely and leave a faint grassy sweetness under the cherries. Ground flaxseed does something else again: it keeps thickening as it stands, so a glass poured at seven is noticeably heavier by eight, which is either a feature or a reason to drink it promptly. Cinnamon and a tablespoon of lemon are the two things that stop the glass from tasting flat, and the lemon is the one people skip.
I make a double batch on a Sunday when cherries are on sale and keep it in two lidded jars, and it holds two days without separating badly. Shake it hard before you pour and it comes back together. Through the winter I use frozen dark sweet cherries and nobody at my table has ever noticed. A drink this thick has to be sipped rather than gulped, which is most of the point, and there is enough in a glass that it eats like a meal rather than something you have alongside one. The color alone is why my kids will drink it.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups plain nonfat skyr
- 3 cups pitted sweet cherries, fresh or frozen
- 1 1/2 cups 2% milk
- 3/4 cup hulled hemp seeds
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Pit the cherries if they are fresh: Press each cherry onto the tip of a chopstick over the sink, or halve them and flick the stone out with your thumb. Frozen pitted cherries skip this step entirely and go in still frozen. Fresh cherries want fifteen minutes in the freezer first so the drink comes out cold and thick.
- Load the blender in order: Pour the milk and the lemon juice into the jar first, then add the skyr, then the hemp seeds, ground flaxseed, and cinnamon, and put the cherries on top last. Loading it this way gives the blades liquid to work in from the first second, which is the difference between a smooth jar and a stalled one.
- Blend low, then high: Start on the lowest speed for about twenty seconds until the fruit is caught and moving, then run it on high for a full minute. The sound changes as it goes, from a chopping rattle to a steady low hum, and the hum is what you are listening for. Stop when you can no longer see pale flecks of hemp against the red.
- Check the thickness: It should pour in a slow ribbon and briefly hold the mark of a spoon. If it is too stiff for your blender to move, add milk two tablespoons at a time with the motor running. If it is thinner than you want, add half a cup more frozen cherries and blend for another twenty seconds.
- Pour and let it stand: Divide among four tall glasses or jars and let it sit for two or three minutes before you drink it. The flaxseed pulls things together in that time and the cinnamon stops tasting dusty. Stir once, and serve very cold.
Variations
- Cherry and cocoa: Blend in two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for a darker glass that tastes like a cherry cordial.
- Ginger and cherry: Add a tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger with the cinnamon for a sharper, hotter finish.
- Spoonable bowl: Cut the milk to half a cup, blend thick, and eat it out of a bowl with chopped almonds and a few whole cherries on top.
- Berry swap: Use frozen blackberries in place of the cherries and add an extra teaspoon of lemon, since blackberries need less sharpening but more sweetness.
- Almond butter version: Blend in two tablespoons of almond butter for a rounder, nuttier glass that drinks more like a milkshake.
Storage & Leftovers
It keeps two days in a sealed jar in the refrigerator, and it thickens noticeably by the second day as the flaxseed carries on working. Loosen it with a splash of milk and shake it hard for ten seconds before pouring. Fill the jar close to the top, since less air in the jar means less browning at the surface.
For a longer run, freeze the blended drink in a wide container for up to two months. Move it to the refrigerator the night before, then shake or briefly re-blend it, since freezing and thawing separates it more than a night in the cold does. The flavor holds up better than the texture, and the texture comes back with ten seconds in the blender.
Frozen cherries themselves keep six months in the freezer, so I buy several bags when they go on sale and treat them as the pantry item they are. Pitted fresh cherries freeze well too, spread on a sheet pan until firm and then bagged, which is worth doing for about three weeks each summer.
Notes & Tips
- Liquid goes in the blender first: Every seized-up blender jar I have ever had to scrape out started with frozen fruit sitting on the blades. Milk first, fruit last, every time.
- Buy cherries frozen: They are picked at full ripeness and frozen within hours, they are available all year, and they are what makes this thick and cold without ice.
- Do not skip the lemon: One tablespoon across four glasses is invisible on its own and it is what makes the cherries taste like cherries rather than like sweet red.
- Listen to the motor: The pitch drops and evens out when everything is moving freely. That steady hum is your cue that it is smooth, better than looking through the side of a jar full of red.
- Ground flaxseed, not whole: Whole flax goes through a blender and out the other side unbroken. Buy it ground, keep it in the freezer, and use it within three months.
- Fill the jar to the top: If you are keeping some for tomorrow, less air above the drink means less browning at the surface, and it pours a better color the next morning.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Cherries, skyr, and the two seeds are each doing a separate job in the same glass. The cherries bring the color and nearly all of the sweetness, the skyr gives the drink its body along with the protein and calcium, and the hemp and flaxseed thicken it while carrying fiber and iron.
- Sweet cherries taste as good frozen as fresh, because they are picked ripe and chilled fast, and the deep red pigment in their skins is where their anthocyanins live.
- Hemp seeds are soft enough to break down completely under a blade, so they leave no grit behind, and they bring a real share of the protein and iron in the glass along with a mild, grassy sweetness.
- Ground flaxseed keeps thickening for an hour after the blender stops, which is why a glass poured early tastes richer later, and it is where the omega-3 fats and much of the fiber in this drink come from.
- Cinnamon and a tablespoon of lemon are what keep the glass from tasting flat. The cinnamon arrives warm at the back of the sip, the lemon sharpens the cherries at the front, and you notice both of them most on the morning you forget one.
- As you eat, slow the first few sips enough to taste the cinnamon sitting behind the cherries, and set the glass down between them rather than drinking it straight through on your feet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a high-powered blender?
It helps but it is not required. In an ordinary blender, use fresh or thawed cherries rather than frozen ones, blend for two minutes rather than one, and let the jar rest for a minute halfway through. Hemp seeds are soft and break down in almost anything; it is the frozen fruit that strains a small motor.
Can I use Greek yogurt in place of skyr?
Yes, and the drink will be a little thinner and milder. Cut the milk back to one cup and taste before you add more. Anything looser than Greek yogurt, such as a drinking yogurt or kefir, gives you a thin glass no matter how much seed you put in.
Can I make it the night before?
You can, and it is thicker and rather good in the morning. Blend it, fill the jar to the top, seal it, and shake it hard before pouring. What it will not do is stay bright red, since the surface darkens overnight. That is only color, not flavor.
What other fruit works here?
Frozen dark berries of any kind, or halved frozen plums, both of which take the cinnamon well. Banana makes it sweeter and much thicker, and mango turns the color muddy against the cinnamon, so I keep those two for other mornings.