Thursday, March 3, 2016

Making Homemade Yogurt TASTE like you BOUGHT it!



For all of you yogurt purists out there - good for YOU!  I wish I was more pure in my love of plain yogurt.  For all of you who are like me and prefer your yogurt, sweet and fruity - this one is for you!

Ok... I love to make homemade yogurt.  I love the idea that I'm not getting BPA in my body from the plastic container.  I love that I made it and I know what's in it.  I love that - I did it myself!

But to confess - I'm not always a fan of how it tastes for breakfast.  I have this thing for those little plastic cups of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt.  I love them!  I want my homemade to taste just like that.

After much trial and error and lots of combinations - I tried making the yogurt with a packet of lime jello - Nope; I tried sweetening it and adding vanilla - Nope; I tried straining it so that it would be more like greek yogurt; Nope.  None of these things really worked for me.  Sure, drowning my yogurt in sweetened strawberries is delicious but I don't always have strawberries.  I needed a more "pantry loving" way to eat breakfast using my homemade yogurt.

Ding-da-ding, ding ding!  This morning I hit the jackpot!

I made yogurt this weekend using this SMALL-batch method with one quart of milk.  My plan was to use it for making these Vanilla Scones


Vanilla Scones - Just like Starbucks!

some ranch dressing/dip:



 and to replace sour cream in some other casserole type recipes.  I was also bound and determined to find a way to like it for breakfast!  

Hey-I found it folks!  The key is jam/preserves.

What is fruit in the bottom of store bought yogurt cups, but sweetened fruit?  And, what is sweetened fruit but preserves or jam?  Duh...

This morning, I put a healthy scoop of homemade blackberry preserves in the bottom of my half-pint canning jar.  In went a couple of scoops of my Small Batch Homemade Yogurt.  Next was some Perfect Granola and a few dried blueberries.

It was a feast, I tell ya!  Swirl it around and the preserves actually sweeten the yogurt.  Double plus!

This post isn't a recipe.  It's just a way to eat plain or homemade yogurt - so that if you aren't a yogurt purist, you too can enjoy the fruits of your labor from homemade yogurt or, to save a little $$$ moolah and buy the big container of plain yogurt - to mix up your own fruit-on-the bottom yogurt.

Here's how I made Homemade Sweetened Fruit -on-the Bottom Yogurt Cups AT HOME MY WAY:

Yogurt with Fruit-on-the-Bottom
  • Plain/Homemade Yogurt-unsweetened
  • Preserves/Jam (I used homemade)
  • Optional:  granola, dried fruit

Instructions:

Place a few scoops of preserves in the bottom of your container.  I used a half-pint canning jar. Top with homemade/plain (unsweetened) yogurt. Add any toppings/granola/dried fruit when ready to eat and stir to swirl all of the flavors together.


Yum!  Enjoy!


Gina