Valerie's Yoghurt & Yoghurt Cheese

[Thermomixer]

Good work JulieO - it is always good when you succeed - think that is one good thing with the forum, you just get encouragement and ideas to improve what you're doing.

How many people must have tried once and thought - YUK - NEVER AGAIN !!! 

[cathy79]

hehe Julie... It's not looking too promising at the moment!!!  It was liquid when I poured it in and it looks the same now! LOL

Snoozie, when you pour it in your thermoserver, it is supposed to look like milk, with maybe a tiny froth from all the stirring.

[judydawn]

It is 9 days since I made my first successful 2 litre batch of Valerie's Yoghurt and this is how I used it all (keeping back 1/4 cup as my next starter)

Ranch dressing (used it on a potato salad)
1 cup yoghurt                             
2 tblspns mayonnaise
1 tblspn fresh dill or a sprinkle of dried
pinch of curry powder
3 tblspns milk
1 teaspn apple cider vinegar

Strawberry smoothies
1/2 punnet strawberries
1 cup milk
1/2 cup yoghurt
2-3 tspns sugar
2 ice-cubes

Iced Coffee
3/4 cup milk
2-3 tspns sugar
1-2 tspns coffee powder/granules (or to taste)
1/4 cup yoghurt
1 tblspn vanilla ice-cream
2 ice-cubes

Fruit Yoghurt
Equal quantities of yoghurt mixed with drained, blended, canned peaches (or fruit of choice)

Steak with plum sauce  (from the Easiyo Yoghurt Cookbook) Serves 4 or 2 very big meat eaters
500g oyster or blade steak (I used blade steak)
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/4 cup plum sauce
2 tsp plain flour
1 red onion, sliced thinly
Trim the fat from the meat and cut into 4 servings. Line an ovenproof dish or tray with foil and place a piece of baking paper on top of it. Mix the yoghurt, plum sauce and flour together.  Place half the yoghurt mixture in the centre of the paper and lay the
meat on top.  Place the sliced onions on top of the meat and spoon over the remaining yoghurt. Fold the alfoil over to make a parcel so that there is no leakage.  Cook 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours 180^o or until tender. I opened the parcel for the last 10 minutes to let some of the liquid evaporate.  The meat was tender as could be and we had the leftovers the next night - it reheated beautifully and was probably even tastier.

Final recipe was the Yoghurt Chicken from the forum which serves 6 and lasted us 3 nights.

I made a couple of other drinks which I wasn't happy with so I haven't posted them.  Looking forward to making my next batch so that I can do lots of the other recipes I have gathered.

[Snoozie]

hehe Cathy it was 5 hours later and still milk but I left it overnight and it was all good the following morning so it is now in the fridge yaya... had the same deal with using the easiyo

It tastes yummy... can't believe I have like 2lt/kg yoghurt for $2.50!  (Used organic milk that was on sale because it was nearly out of date).

[JulieO]

Judy thanks so much for doing this.  I have now copied all of these to try.   

Snoozie, great news that it worked in the end. 

[Very Happy Jan]

Thanks for all those recipes JD. Just can't keep you down - Thank goodness!!

[Thermomixer]

Good work Snoozie - great when it all yogs. 

[CarolineW]

Just an update.  I made the fruit yogurt as couple of days ago I was talking about earlier in the thread (to Judy, I think?).  At the last moment I saw that it called for milk powder, which I didn't want to use, so I just tried it without.  Also, the fruit puree was probably a bit liquid as I'd used frozen fruit and hadn't defrosted and drained it.  Anyway, I was well unconvinced that it would work, but thought that it might produce drinking yogurt, so I made it in my EasyYo drinking yogurt container just in case. 

It made the most perfect drinking yogurt, and was a huge hit with the whole family.  If I make it successfully as drinking yogurt again, then I'm going to post the recipe.  It was all gone within 24 hours, as we all loved it so much!  DD was really proud of me, bless her, saying how much better than actimel or any of the shop bought drinking yogurts it was (high praise, as she loves actimel).

Once I'm sure I've got the drinking yogurt recipe off pat, I'll work on the fruit yogurt proper 

[cathy79]

Has anyone tried the yoghurt cheese yet?  Made some today - a few points.
Don't underestimate how long it takes to drain off the whey - it can be done ahead of time, so make sure you do.
Tricky with just a melon baller.  Certainly don't have perfect balls, but no one but me knows what the experts look like.
I've marinated some in oil and herbs, and some in sweet chilli sauce.  Will give the verdict when I get it officially tomorrow night.

[judydawn]

I tried making low fat yoghurt today and am pleased to say it was successful.  Only made 1 litre using Long Life skim milk with
1/4 cup yoghurt from my previous full fat batch of yoghurt.  It is not quite as thick as the full cream milk batch was but is so close, it doesn't matter.  I poured it into my Easiyo container and let it sit in the Easiyo thermos for the 5 hours.  I didn't want to tie up my thermosaver for another week or more.

Haven't tried the yoghurt cheese yet CB79 but will try it with this batch as I have a cheesecake recipe I want to do.

[andiesenji]

Has anyone tried the yoghurt cheese yet?  Made some today - a few points.
Don't underestimate how long it takes to drain off the whey - it can be done ahead of time, so make sure you do.
.

That's the exact reason that I began using a salad spinner to expel the whey.  I had a fresh batch of yogurt and needed the cheese immediately!   It was desperation time and that was the only solution.

[cathy79]

I poured it into my Easiyo container and let it sit in the Easiyo thermos for the 5 hours.  I didn't want to tie up my thermosaver for another week or more.

I understand it's best to keep it in the thermoserver, but as I only have one, it's not an option.  Pouring it into another container after the 5 hours has never caused me any grief.  Still works beautifully.

By the way, to me the yoghurt cheese tastes a lot like a cross between sour cream and cream cheese.

[judydawn]

Made the yoghurt cheese this morning and then 6 little lemon cheesecakes made in a muffin pan.  1 litre of yoghurt only yielded 1 cup of yoghurt cheese so I had to halve the original recipe.  They were only about 2cm deep, I sat a fanned strawberry on top and poured over some coulis.  Not enjoyed by 5 year old GD but the adults didn't mind them - low fat and cheap to make although a fair bit of fiddling to get to the end product.  I think people prefer full on cheesecakes made with cream cheese not those made with yoghurt cheese so don't know if I would make them again.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Don't forget Bron's icecream (frozen yoghurt) recipe if you have excess to use or if your yoghurt hasn't thickened well.  We really love it and I find it scoops reasonably well straight out of the freezer without being churned. 

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=852.0

[CarolineW]

Don't forget Bron's icecream (frozen yoghurt) recipe if you have excess to use or if your yoghurt hasn't thickened well.  We really love it and I find it scoops reasonably well straight out of the freezer without being churned. 

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=852.0

Thanks for the tip Chelsea.