All About Yogurt

by Diana Rosen

This week Martha Gee wants Kitchen Sleuth to investigate all aspects of home-made yogurt and writes:
Dear Kitchen Sleuth:
I'm interested in making homemade yogurt for my family, but need some recommendations for the amount of sweetener and fruit to add. Any suggestions?

Dear Martha:
Congratulations! You're off on a great taste adventure. Reading the labels of fruit-in yogurts can be a bit of a shock when you learn many contain corn syrup plus additional sweeteners, stabilizers, and other chemicals necessary to sustain a longer shelf life in the refrigerator.

Yogurt's natural tang was a revelation during the 1960s when commercial yogurts became a more common presence in U.S. grocery stores instead of being the exclusive product of specialty markets. It wasn't an easy sell despite its benefits for digestion, so ... you guessed it - manufacturers decided to add sweeteners to soften the natural bite of yogurt. From there, they added fruit (often pre-sweetened) and additional syrups and sweeteners and expanded with both natural and artificial flavorings from maple syrup to coconut altering a traditional dairy dish to pure dessert.

Choices Are Aplenty
Today, we are fortunate to have access to many unflavored yogurts of very high quality from triple-strained, thick Greek yogurts, thick creamy versions in Lebanese, Greek, Armenian styles, and organic choices from nearly every region in the country. Add to that the choice of fat levels (nonfat, lowfat, and whole milk yogurts) and you can suit any diet and please any palate. Whether you eat plain yogurt just as it comes from the container or re-strained to create a thicker, version, the yogurt should taste smooth, creamy and, yes, have a little tang.

Mixing Fruit and Yogurt at Home
To flavor commercial yogurt, cut up pieces of your favorite fruits like banana, peaches, nectarines or kiwi, to name a few. Taste. If the fruit is sweet enough to eat, use as is. If not, sprinkle ½ to 1 teaspoon of sugar over the fruit and let sit for a few minutes. You can do the same for berries.

To assemble, put one or two heaping tablespoons of yogurt in a small bowl, add the regular or sweetened fruit, stir and eat! That's all there is to it. Sweet citrus fruits like tangerines or oranges are possible additions, but they should be eaten promptly as the acidic quality can add more tang than you want to the yogurt.

Sweeteners
While we all want to keep calories down, using artificial sweeteners offer no nutritional benefit and, surprisingly, not much in the way of saving calories. We suggest liquid or powdered Stevia or liquid Agave for the most healthful (and natural) sweeteners. For an extra-rich taste, consider brown or dark brown sugar, molasses, or maple syrup. White sugar is 18 calories per teaspoon and you only need 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sweetening per cup of yogurt, especially if you're adding the sweet goodness of fresh fruit or berries. If you're adding bananas, you may not need any additional sweeteners at all! Remember, taste the fruit first before adding additional sweetening.

Making Your Own Yogurt
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, you can make your own yogurt from scratch. It's pretty straightforward using milk and a yogurt starter. The end results are delicious. Commercial yogurt makers are available in culinary shops or housewares sections of department stores, but you don't really need any special equipment. What you do need, however, is a starter dollop of commercial yogurt that contains a live culture in it. Among the most commonly found are L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei, L. Reuteri, Streptococcus Thermophillus, and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus. These are the friendly bacteria that make yogurt so healthful for digestion. The more bacteria the more quickly the new batch of yogurt will ferment (a good thing) although it can have a watery whey run-off which can be mixed in with the yogurt or poured off. When the yogurt ferments more slowly, the whey is integrated into the milk proteins with much less or no watery run-off. To make sure the bacteria is still live use commercial yogurt well under the expiration date.

Homemade Yogurt
Ingredients:
1 quart (32 ounces) whole milk
2 tablespoons of commercial plain yogurt with live culture
2 additional tablespoons of whole milk

Instructions:
Use very clean, sterilized equipment for best results. Use a candy thermometer to check temperatures because too much heat will kill the bacteria and impact both taste and texture.

Heat the milk in a saucepan almost to boiling, about 170°F. then pour into a heatproof ceramic or glass bowl. Allow to cool to 100-05°F.

Mix the commercial yogurt-starter and the additional tablespoons of milk together and let sit until it is about 100°F., and carefully add to the heated milk as close to the inside wall of the container as possible so as not to disturb the "skin" (coating) that covers the heated milk. Cover the bowl with a heavy linen tea towel and place it in your oven with only the pilot light on. Leave there overnight until it is quite thick. The longer you keep it in the oven, the more sour the yogurt will taste. Leave the bowl in the over for at least eight hours yet no longer than 12 hours for best results. You can also taste it at eight, 10 and 12 hours to see which fermentation time pleases your palate best.

Strain the yogurt through cheesecloth or muslin into a clean non-metallic bowl, cover, and store in the refrigerator where it can keep for up to four days. To make more yogurt, save several tablespoons from your homemade yogurt for the next batch. The creamy "skin" is totally edible.

Yields about 4 cups.

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