How to Make Delicious Protein Fluff With Just 3 Ingredients

Protein fluff has been floating around in the fitness community for many years. If you’ve never heard of it before, you may be wondering what exactly it is.

Protein fluff is a blended frozen treat made with protein powder, and it is very high volume and low calorie. Because it is so filling with so few calories, it’s a staple in many bodybuilding diets or weight loss plans.

The only problem is, most protein fluff out there is terrible. Well, until now.

Most protein fluff recipes you’ll see out there use xanthan gum or guar gum, pudding mix, artificial sweetener, and tons of ice cubes. The result is definitely fluffy, but the flavor is incredibly artificial tasting and tastes like you are eating protein powder.

Some of these recipes even go as far as to call it “protein ice cream” which I take personal offense to as a lover of ice cream. So, I’m here to change the protein fluff game.

We’re going to make our protein fluff with protein powder, but we’re going to pack this protein fluff recipe with tons of micronutrients thanks to frozen fruit.

All you need for this protein fluff recipe is protein powder, frozen fruit, and water. And I promise you, it will be more delicious than any other protein fluff you’ve tried.

Our version has under 300 calories for the entire blender, has nearly 40g of protein, and takes about 2 minutes to make!

Update: Common asks in the comments and through social media have been for chocolate protein fluff and vegan protein fluff, so I’ve experimented with both! Keep reading to find all my notes on what works best.

Ingredients needed for protein fluff

Almost all protein fluff recipes out there will contain xanthan gum, but that’s not exactly a staple ingredient that most people have lying around.

Xanthan gum is used as a thickening agent, so when you blend up ice, it helps to “fluff” it up. However, in my personal experience, it can cause gastrointestinal discomfort, and if we’re being honest, it just doesn’t taste all that great.

We only need THREE ingredients to make our version here.

Ingredient 1: Frozen Fruit

The secret weapon in this recipe is frozen fruit. When you blend ice, it tends to create a slushy, sometimes gritty consistency. But when you blend up frozen fruit, it becomes incredibly smooth and creamy.

I use mixed berries, as they are very easy to find in the freezer section of grocery stores. I prefer some combination of frozen strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

However, ANY frozen fruit will work great to make protein fluff.

Frozen banana will be very creamy, but you can also get creative and use things like frozen pineapple or mango.

Ingredient 2: Protein Powder

Of course, this is protein fluff, so protein powder is a necessary ingredient.

Because we are not using any thickening agents like xantham gum or pudding mix, the type of protein powder you use makes all the difference.

My protein powder of choice is PEScience, which is a blend of whey & casein protein. Whey protein is the most commonly used protein powder out there, but the addition of casein protein is what is going to keep this protein fluff nice and thick with no additional ingredients.

PEScience is the best tasting (in my opinion) and it’s what I use in all my healthy recipes here on my blog. If you want to get some for yourself, you can always use the code “Matt” to save on your order.

I can’t guarantee the same results if you use whey protein powder, but I can give you one tip regardless of the protein powder you use: make sure you use a protein powder that you enjoy the taste of.

I cannot stress this enough.

Protein powder is one of the few ingredients we’re using here, so if you use a vanilla whey powder that you don’t love the taste of, you’re not going to like the taste of the final protein fluff!

 

Ingredient 3: Water (or milk)

If we were using ice as our base, we may need to use almond milk or add Greek yogurt to make the recipe nice and creamy.

But since we are using frozen fruit and a quality protein powder, all we need to do is add water to create a thick & creamy fluff!

I’ve experimented with adding milk and find the difference to be pretty minimal in terms of texture, but if you prefer a creamier flavor, you can swap the water out for milk.

 

Optional Ingredients

My go-to is always berry protein fluff, so that is what this simple recipe is going to reflect.

One of the beautiful things about this recipe is that it is SO easily customizable, and you can change up the flavors however you’d like.

You can use frozen bananas, chocolate protein powder, and peanut butter to create an incredibly rich dessert.

Or, you can blend frozen strawberries, vanilla protein powder, and sugar, then add some whipped cream on top to create a delicious strawberries & cream protein fluff.

Every once in a while I will also add some honey to my protein fluff, which kicks up the sweetness a little bit. Fruit is plenty sweet on its own, but when you add a small amount of honey (just one tablespoon) it can really bring out the flavor.

How to Make Protein Fluff

First and foremost, make sure you have a good blender! I have the Ninja Food Processor/Blender, and it’s incredible. I can’t recommend it enough!

Making your protein fluff is as simple as adding your ingredients to a high-speed blender or food processor and letting it blend up until smooth.

When adding your ingredients to the food processor, I always recommend adding the powder in first. That means adding your protein powder as the first ingredient (along with any other powder you may be using, such as cocoa powder) and then adding your frozen fruit on top of that, then pouring water over the top.

Adding the ingredients in this order helps to blend everything easier in the sense that you won’t need to scrape powder down off the sides as you blend.

But let’s be honest: you just want to throw everything into a blender and be done with it.

I hear ya, so I’ve tried that numerous times and have had no issues.

Adding the powder on top does require scraping down the sides a tiny bit, but it’s a 10 second fix… not really a deal-breaker.

When you run the blender, it’s going to look not-so-pretty at first, but trust the process!

Run the blender on high to mix everything together, scrape down the sides, then run the blender on high for another 2 minutes. As the protein fluff blends, you’ll see the color change as the air whips into it, and it will continue to increase in volume.

As long as you have a powerful blender, it will whip up into a beautiful fluff!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily play with the quantities to match your preferences: if you want this to be closer to a fruit smoothie, you can add more water, and if you want the fluff to be thicker, you can easily add more frozen fruit or protein powder.

You’ll know the fluff is ready when you remove the blade from your blender (assuming your blender has a removable blade) and it’s a struggle to pull it out. You want your fluff to be so thick that it puts up a bit of a fight.

And of course, your protein fluff should always pass the upside-down test. If you can flip the blender over without anything spilling out, you’ve done your job.

How to Make Chocolate Protein Fluff

Many of you have asked if you can turn this into chocolate protein fluff, so I want to show you how easy it is!

Since the base of this recipe is frozen berries, you’re still going to have a slightly fruity flavor, but we can mask it quite well.

We’re going to follow the same protein fluff recipe, but we’ll use chocolate protein powder and add additional cocoa powder to the blender.

To really kick up the chocolate flavor, I like to use chocolate milk in this version, too. You can use water, but using chocolate milk (or a chocolate protein shake) helps the flavor significantly.

Once it fluffs up, it’s not going to look like rich dark chocolate (although it will be darker than the original version), but it will taste awesome.

I didn’t go overboard with the cocoa powder in my recipe because I didn’t want it to become too bitter, but if you’re a fan of dark chocolate and want a deeper chocolate flavor, you can certainly bump up the amount used and compensate with a little sweetener.

For some extra chocolate flavor, I like to add some mini chocolate chips on top. Some chocolate syrup would also be an amazing addition!

And don’t worry, the chocolate protein fluff is still plenty thick.

I wasn’t quite sure how the combination of berries & chocolate would work here, but I love the final result. You can taste the fruit, but it is not at all overpowering.

You can use frozen bananas instead of frozen berries, but that will make something closer to chocolate ice cream than fluff because bananas won’t fluff up nearly as much. Personally, I find the taste of banana to be overpowering, but it’d work!

And hey, nobody is going to complain about chocolate ice cream.

How To Make Vegan Protein Fluff

After posting this recipe, I received a lot of questions regarding a dairy-free version.

Since I’m a man of the people, I wanted to try this out with vegan protein powder to see if we still achieve the same fluff.

To test, I used PEScience vanilla vegan protein, which is a blend of pea & brown rice protein powder.

If you’ve never had vegan protein before, I’ll be honest: it’s not nearly as good as dairy-based protein powder. The earthy flavor from the peas is a strong taste, so it’s not nearly as sweet as regular vanilla protein powder.

Plus, it tends to be slightly gritty.

With that being said, this is definitely the best-tasting vegan protein powder I’ve tried. I much prefer the regular vanilla over the vegan version, but if you eat a dairy-free diet, this is a great option (if you use the code “Matt” you’ll save 15% on your order).

The vegan protein powder did not achieve nearly the same fluff, but it still produced a great result.

When you compare this to the original protein fluff, it’s clear that the type of protein powder you use makes all the difference.

If you want to make your own vegan protein fluff like you see here, I did make some tiny adjustments to the recipe. Here’s how I made it:

• 2 scoops (60g) vegan protein powder
• 1.5 cups (250g) frozen berries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp (about 20g) powdered sugar

I needed to add a tiny bit of vanilla and sugar to enhance the sweetness a bit, but that is certainly optional.

If you go the vegan route, you won’t achieve nearly the same “fluff” that we’re after, but it does make for a nice thick smoothie bowl.

As someone who doesn’t love the taste of plant-based protein powder, I can honestly say that this version still tasted great!

Can You Make Protein Fluff Without Protein Powder?

One of the staple ingredients of protein fluff is, of course, protein powder. But what if you want a delicious fluff without needing a protein powder supplement?

You’re in luck!

While it’s not exactly “fluff,” I have a recipe on my blog for vanilla soft-serve ice cream that is high in protein and doesn’t require any protein powder at all.

This fluffy ice cream has 300 calories for the entire batch with 24g of protein, which is quite impressive considering there is no protein powder involved.

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