May the Schwartz be with you

Today we're talking about Yogurt.


No, no, not that Yogurt. Although, Spaceballs was on tv the other day. What a wacked-out movie. I hadn't remembered most of it from when I was a kid. Very strange. But I'm talking the stuff you eat. I made some last week. Homemade yogurt. And it was good.

Here's the short version:

Homemade Yogurt

• One quart (that's 4 cups for the conversion-challenged) whole milk, plus a couple tablespoons more
• 1/2 cup cream if you want it richer.
• 1-2 tablespoons active plain yogurt (Yes, you need yogurt to make yogurt. It's the 'live and active cultures' part that you need. And no, they don't sell plain yogurt in the little containers. You'll have a lot of yogurt for a while.)
  

Heat your milk to boiling while stirring, reduce heat and simmer ten minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

When just warm (about 110 degrees for those with a thermometer), remove a couple of tablespoons of the milk and mix with 1-2 tablespoons of the yogurt to liquefy. Stir it back into the pot.

Pour into a clean container, cover, and leave it in warm place overnight. Put in fridge to chill and enjoy.


The more detailed version:

I put 4 cups of whole milk to boil and didn't stir it enough, so I got some sticking and browning. When I reduced the heat, I did constantly stir for 10 minutes. After it was cool enough, I used only about 1 tablespoon of yogurt as it was supposed to make a thicker product than if you use 2 tablespoons. I poured it into a reused yogurt container through a sieve to remove the sticky bits. (The stuff left over in the sieve was really good on its own by the way.)

I wrapped the container in a towel and put it into a small cooler with a jar of very warm water. In the morning, viola! Perfect yogurt. Better than store-bought I think. Next time I'll experiment with sweetener and flavors.

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I also got two new recipes from the yogurt container that were good. Since they're free to see on the container, I suppose I can post them here without the yogurt company minding. I did make a few modifications for clarity.


Melt-in-your-mouth Strawberry Muffins

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Stonyfield Farm yogurt (Plain in my case. Vanilla might be good too.)
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking soda. In a second bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture to coat. Next, pour yogurt mixture into flour mixutre and stir. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields: 12 muffins.


Melissa asked about hummus a while back. I've always made it from a box but when I found this one, I liked it much better.

Yogurt Hummus

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
• 1 - 15oz. can garbanzo beans - drained (or do you call them chick peas?)
• 1/2 cup Stonyfield Farm Organic Plain Yogurt
• 3 tablespoons tahini (seasame seed paste) (I omitted this.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Place garlic and parsley in a food processor and chop until finely diced. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Serve with pita chips, bagel chips, tortillas or fresh veggies. Yields: 10 servings