From YoGo To Yoghurt
About as close as I got to yoghurt growing up was the chocolate confection known as YoGo. I remember trying real yoghurt for the first time as an early teen and wondering how there were so many passionate lovers of the stuff given it’s acidy, sour taste. How things change. I persisted and weaned myself off sugars and flavourings to the point where I was more than happy to eat plain yoghurt with a little honey and sliced banana every morning for breakfast. In fact, I was quite addicted to the stuff.
Given I practically live off yoghurt in summer I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to cotton on to homemade yoghurt. It has to be the most dead simple food to prepare. The best thing is it can be perfectly runny, unlike most commercial yoghurts that add stabilisers, starches, gums and gels to thicken and provide a ‘creamy’ texture. I make my homemade yoghurt is so runny I’ll be using it as a replacement for milk on cereal, which is good news for my granola breakfasts. And good news for people with lactose intolerance. During the fermentation process cultures (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) break down lactose to lactic acid meaning yoghurt is the only dairy food people with lactose intolerance can eat.