Leftovers...

Seems we always have some of these in our house and i would rather use them up than throw them out. Yogurt is always one of those things that I tended to buy in the supermarket when it was marked down, but then it would get to the use by date before we managed to eat it all.
I found this recipe that helps to use up the excess of yoghurt as well as the one or two apples in the fruit bowl that no-one seems to want. I made a double batch of these today to use up said items, including 400ml of easiyo Greek yoghurt. I also added in the remains of a packet of frozen berries as the yoghurt was plain and an extra tablespoon of sugar.

Fruit and Yoghurt Muffins
makes 12 muffins

2 cups SR flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
200g tub flavoured yoghurt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped fruit (pear, apples)
cinnamon sugar (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 12 hole standard muffin tin.
2. Sift flour, cinnamon, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
3. Make a well in the centre. Add yoghurt, egg and oil. Stir until mixture has nearly come together. Add fruit and stir a couple of more times. Mixture should be quite lumpy.
4. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired.

I have even substituted tinned (drained) fruit in these and they still taste great.
Not overly sweet but just right.

As far as the yoghurt goes I have started to make my own and must thank Crazy mumma for her simple instructions.

"In traditional yoghurt making, the milk is heated to just below boiling point to kill off the "bad" bacteria, then cooled to "blood temperature" or around 38-44'C, and the starter culture is added. Keeping the mixture at this temperature for a period of time then forms the yoghurt.

The Easiyo yoghurt maker gets around this by using a powdered milk and starter culture mixture, where the "bad" bacteria has been killed off by heat treatment already. Using UHT milk and a starter, in theory, is the same process, as the UHT process also kills off the "bad" bacteria. So I tried this out last night and ended up with fabulous, thick homemade yoghurt this morning! Success!
My recipe was:
1 litre organic UHT milk
2 dessertspoons powdered milk to thicken
2 dessertspoons biodynamic plain yoghurt.
I mixed the yoghurt and powdered milk together with a small amount of UHT milk until it was smooth and then added it to the rest of the milk in the Easiyo container and mixed well. I then added boiling water to the thermos, sealed and let it sit for 14 hours (overnight). This morning I put it in the fridge and tried it this afternoon after it had cooled - it is a lovely thick yoghurt that is difficult to distinguish from the Jalna yoghurt I bought last night! Very happy :-)"

I didn't have organic so I just used the skim UHT milk I bought on special last week along with skim milk powder I already had. I used some yoghurt from the last batch of Easiyo that I had left. After doing a bit of reading I may well buy some plain bio dynamic yoghurt just to make sure my next batch has a good start in life. In total my litre of yoghurt cost me about $1.05.

All up a productive day.
Off to get my beauty sleep.
Take care of you.