Nutella Yogurt Marble Cake!

Nutella Yogurt Marble Cake

Official Post № 9:

Right now you may be asking yourself, Why do you make everything with yogurt? Well, there's lots of reasons:

• It tastes good.
• It's healthy.
• It tastes good.

Your next thought is likely along the lines of, "But yogurt and Nutella don't sound like they would taste that good together." And that's exactly what we thought when we first encountered the recipe

So there I was, perusing the interwebs (OK, so I was basically looking at fantastic food recipes on Pinterest making myself more and more hungry). I wasn't searching for yogurt recipes, but Nutella recipes. As fate would have it, one of the first recipes that came up was for some kind of yogurt Nutella cake. Sadly, the link was broken. Was I stumped? No! I had the entire internet at my fingertips! In just a few quick searches, I found out that there are many recipes out there for Nutella yogurt yogurt cakes, so it's not that strange after all! And for good reason too! As soon as you try out this recipe (which, in my humble opinion, is the best one out there :), you will understand why!

Here is what you will need:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1/3 cup Nutella (may increase to 1/2 cup)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 butter
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease an 8X8 glass baking dish or round cake pan. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. Melt butter and whisk into mixture. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir or whisk into yogurt mixture. Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of the batter into the greased cake pan. Stir Nutella into remaining batter. Pour the Nutella batter into the pan. Gently marble the two mixtures together. Bake for 40 minutes at 350°. Refrigerate leftovers (if any).

Expert tip: Microwave Nutella for a few seconds (10-12), but not too long. When it's just right it will easily slide right out of your measuring cup and mix in quickly.

Enjoy!

Whisk together all wet ingredients except for the Nutella!

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients

Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of mixture into prepared pan. Now get out the good stuff:

I would recommend microwaving briefly before combining with the remaining cake mixture. Pour on top of the batter in the pan.

Marble the two mixtures together. A butter knife worked great!

You know what needs to be done with this :)

If anyone can enlighten me about this phenomenon, please do. Every time we have baked this, the Nutella mixture gathers while baking in the center, and in an outer ring:

The first time we baked it, it looked done after about 30 minutes, and even a toothpick test said it was done. But, alas it was not!

The cake turns out wonderfully moist. Awesome with ice cream:

Thanks for tuning in! Please let us know how the recipes turned out! Happy yogurting!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the Peach Jam from a few weeks ago? Or maybe some refreshing Orange Drinkable Yogurt?

Still curious how to make your own yogurt? It's easy!

Blueberry Buckle (with yogurt of course!)

Blueberry Buckle

(with yogurt, of course!)

Official Post № 7:

Well, it's been a while, welcome back! A lot has happened since our last post, and it's been way too long!

The best news for us is that Mami has recently accepted a music therapy position! She's working for a number of different clients around the Bloomington, Indiana area, for both children and adults with developmental disabilities. She gets paid for about ten hours a week but spends around thirty hours total with all of her preparations and reports for each client. This is on top of working as a cake decorator. Yep, she's busy! We are both very excited that she is able to work as a music therapist again!

Since blueberries have been in season recently, we've been having many a good blueberry adventure recently with our yogurting. This is just one of the many that have turned out to be a success! Keep checking back and you'll find a recipe for a delicious Blueberry Yogurt Pie which Mami found on a Japanese website, which we think is originally from Sweden. We'll get back to you on that one!

Blueberry Buckle:

The cake turns out nice and moist, and the best part that there is no butter or oil in the cake itself (although there is butter in the crumbly topping). The original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of shortening.

Hungry yet? :)

Here's what you'll need:

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown both work well)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

Start preparing by heating your oven to 350 F. Also grease an 8X8 glass baking dish or round cake pan.

Fresh berries are obviously the best choice, but we aren't ashamed of using frozen berries when fresh berries aren't available, as is evident by our Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies recipe.

Rinse your blueberries (if using fresh berries). Now, set the berries somewhere out of reach, or they will somehow disappear.

Cream yogurt and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with the 1/2 cup of milk.

We tried the next part two ways, and we enjoyed the second option much better. First we tried it with the all of the batter on the bottom, and all of the blueberries on top. On our second try we layered the cake with the blueberries, and we liked how it turned out this way better than all blueberries on top.

If you bake like I do, you will need to wash another cup of blueberries at this point. I'm really not sure how half of them disappeared before they made it in the cake! :)

Combine all topping ingredients until crumbly. White or brown sugar both work.

Sprinkle over top of cake mixture and bake at 350° F for 45-50 min. Use a toothpick test to make sure it's done in the center. If you have the patience to wait, let cool a little before devouring. It's great served warm or cool, with or without ice cream or whipped cream. Just eat it! :)

It won't be hard, but we recommend eating within a few days, and refrigerate after cooling. Enjoy!

That's it for now! Now we're off to Utah to visit family, it's going to be a great week!

Thanks for tuning in! Please let us know how the recipes turned out! Happy yogurting!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the fantastic Yogurt Lover Mixed Berry Pancakes recipe or the Orange Drinkable Yogurt from a few weeks ago?
Still curious how to make your own yogurt? It's easy!

Yogurt Lover Mixed Berry Pancakes

 Yogurt Lover Mixed Berry Pancakes

No butter, no oil!

Official Post № 5:

Over the past year or so, Mami and I have tried a number of pancake recipes that include yogurt. Most were decent. Some were, well, meh. But, just the other day we found a recipe that has made our top list! They turned out so well, that we've eaten them for four days in a row!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt*
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar*
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 cup or so fresh or frozen berries**

*You don't have to use plain yogurt for this recipe - you can add your favorite fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt instead. Depending on the sweetness of the yogurt you use, alter the amount of sugar in the recipe.
**We recommend blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries. The last couple times we used a combination of blueberries and raspberries.

Directions: Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the yogurt, egg, vanilla, and milk. Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients. Right before frying gently fold in the berries. Fry like you would any other pancake. Eat. Enjoy! Be happy! Makes about 14-16 pancakes.

Expert tip: Add white chocolate chips! :)

Your batter should turn out about the consistency of the following picture. We used some really thick yogurt our first time around, and it turned out too thick. So, we added a couple tablespoons of milk at a time until the batter reached the desired consistency.

If you are using berries (they're also great berry-less!), add them right before you fry your pancakes, and only gently fold them into the batter. As with our recipe for our Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies (check 'em out, they're super good!), we microwaved our frozen berries for a few seconds to allow the juices to seep out, which then color the batter. If you don't like it that way, just mix them in still frozen, or use fresh berries!

Gently fold in berries. Most of the purple streaks disappear as the pancakes are fried, but some coloration remains.

While visiting Mami's family in Japan last summer, we picked up a handful of these heart shaped silicon molds from a Japanese dollar store (well, actually a 100 yen store). They're meant for eggs, but work great for pancakes!

And, they turned out great!

The recipe posted above is a modified (and better!) version of a recipe from the Chobani website. Thanks to them for the idea!


Enjoy! Let us know how they turned out! Did you try anything different?

Thanks for checking it out!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the fantastic Yogurty Orange Julius recipe from a couple weeks ago?
Still curious how to make yogurt? It's easy!

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies!

 Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies

No butter, no oil!

Official Post № 4:

As we all know, the best part of any muffin is the top. If I had the choice and if I had enough muffin tops, that's all I would eat. So, why make the rest of the muffin if it is just going to be a waste?

Apart from these muffin-top cookies being wonderful, this is a good first example of yogurt as a substitute in baking. Check out the recipe ingredients below, and notice that there is no oil or butter. But how can cookies taste good without butter you ask? Try this recipe and you'll find out!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions: Combine dry ingredients. Beat the eggs, then add all wet ingredients (except blueberries). If using frozen blueberries, microwave for a few seconds (20 would be plenty) to let the juices seep out. Gently stir in blueberries. Bake for roughly 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

You can find the original recipe here that was used as a basis for this recipe.


The batter turns out to be a little thicker than a cake batter, but not as thick as cookies. The only variable here is the thickness of the yogurt you use.

Of course fresh blueberries would be best. But, using frozen berries turns out very well. In fact, that's what we used. If you use frozen, zap them for a few seconds in the microwave (20 seconds or so). This lets out all of those beautifully rich purple juices to color the batter.

We used a baking sheet, but a greased pan would have worked just fine.

They do expand a little while baking, and some of the purple disappears :(

And they turn out oh so good! I was so excited to have Mami try them (she works on Saturdays when I'm home) that I hopped on my bike and rode to her work to have her try them. She was so surprised!

One of the cookies didn't make it long enough for the next picture :) It turns out they're good warm and cool!

Enjoy! Let us know how they turned out! Did you try anything different? Maybe some lemon juice or zest?

Thanks for checking it out!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the fantastic Yogurty Orange Julius recipe from last week?
Still curious how to make your own yogurt?

How to Make Yogurt - The Basics

Blackberry yogurt

Welcome to Yogurt Yogurt Yogurt! As you guessed, most posts are going to be centered on, well, yogurt!


The point of this blog is two-fold:

• Show how easy it is to make your own yogurt, because most instructions out on the web make it sound tough!
• Show off awesome ways to use yogurt in daily recipes. Using yogurt in cooking means tasty, healthy, and inexpensive!

Official Post № 1:

Yogurt Making Basics

• Boil milk.
• Add yogurt start.
• Incubate.
• Done!

That's it! OK, there are some specific temperatures, a need for a live bacteria, and certain durations. But, I try to keep it pretty simple so that I don't have to worry about all of that science-y stuff :)

You will need:

• 2% Milk (I use 7 1/2 cups, but this will depend on how much you will make)
• Other fat contents work as well. We'll talk about that at a different time.
• Yogurt start
• Plain yogurt with live bacteria. If you want a recommendation for a good start, I like Dannon Oikos plain Greek yogurt. It costs a little more than $1 for a small cup. Lets talk about different kinds of yogurt starts at another time.
• About 30 minutes
• Yes, I have it down to an art - milk boiled, cooled, start added, and dishes washed in under 30 minutes. I'm kind of proud of that one! :)

Kitchen items:

• Yogurt maker (optional)
• The yogurt maker helps, but all it does is keep a constant temperature. This can be done without one by wrapping a pot that contains your milk mixture with a blanket or two, then put it in the oven (don't turn it on!). Since ovens are insulated, this will keep its temperature fairly constant. A thermos will also work well because it is so well-insulated.
• Pot for boiling
• Tightly woven strainer
• Plastic fork or whisk
• Another small bowl

Instructions:

Boil milk: This gets rid of unwanted bacteria that can interfere with the good yogurt bacteria during the incubation process. It only needs to reach boiling (or close to it), and does not need to stay at that temperature.
Tips:

• Scalded milk makes the yogurt taste scalded. Ewwww!
• To avoid scalding my milk, I start warming it up in the microwave (10 minutes or so total), then I finish boiling on the stove.
• While your milk is warming up, place a scoop of yogurt in a separate bowl. I use about 1 1/2 tablespoons. This lets the yogurt start warming up to about the same temperature that you will cool the milk to. 
• If you have a yogurt machine, turn it on now to let it warm up.

7 1/2 cups of 2% milk

Our *awesome* stove, complete with "blender" buttons!

Cool milk: Cool the milk down to roughly room temperature.
Tips:

• Prepare a cold water bath to cool your milk quickly. Fill your sink with cold tap water and float the pot with milk in it. This takes roughly 10 minutes, depending on how cold the water bath is.
• Do the pinkie test - stick your pinkie in the milk once it is getting close to room temperature and count to 10. If you can count to 10, this means it is cool enough. Too hot of milk will kill the good yogurt bacteria that you are going to add. Too cold of milk will take a little longer to warm up and is not the end of the world.
• Strain milk through (preferably plastic) strainer to get rid of any inconsistencies.

Add yogurt start: Boiling the milk killed unwanted bacteria. Now it's time to add good bacteria. There are different kinds, and all make good yogurt.
Tips:

• I use about 1 1/2 tablespoons. Slowly whisk your cooled milk into the yogurt start until you have added a cup or so (a plastic fork works great - they say that metal isn't very good for the yogurt bacteria). Pour this mixture into the rest of your cooled milk and gently stir.

That's about a tablespoon and a half of yogurt start

Incubate: An actual yogurt maker keeps this part nice and simple. All this does is keep your to-be yogurt at a constant temperature
Tips:

• For the last couple years we have been incubating our yogurt for 8 hours and 15 minutes. This is something that can be changed depending on how thick or tart you want your yogurt.

Our magic number: 8 hours, 15 minutes.

Refrigerate: I'm not a big fan of warm yogurt. I found this out the first time I made my own yogurt - I was way too excited to wait until it was cool! Cool your brand new yogurt until it's, well, cold, then eat it!

Before you eat all of it...
Make sure to save a spoonful of this yogurt for your next batch. Yogurt cultures can last a long time. Some sources say to get a new start every few cycles, but it's not necessary. I have been using my current start for the past 6 months!

But what now?
So what do I do with plain yogurt? This, my friend, is the main question that we will try and answer in as many ways as possible through this blog. My first recommendation is to toss in some fresh fruit, a little sugar, and a little vanilla. A spoonful of jam and a little vanilla also make a very easy sweet yogurt.

The following is a list of future posts. We will add links here as we post recipes.

• Simple flavorings - Yogurt 'n fruit
• Yogurty Orange Julius
• Frozen yogurt
• Cheese balls
• Yogurt substitutes
• Super healthy (and more importantly, tasty!) yogurt ranch dressing
• Smoothies!
• Greek yogurt
• Lassi
• Baking with yogurt
• Muffins w/ yogurt
• Strawberry banana yogurt cake
• Pancakes
• Soup
• etc.
• etc.
• etc.

That's all folks! Please let me know what does and doesn't make sense. Also, feel free to send in ideas for future topics. Thanks!