Sunday, March 25, 2012

Dehydrating Yogurt

The most successful dairy product I’ve dehydrated so far is Greek yogurt.  Check the page on yogurt to see the pictures of how it turned out. 

One of my problems in the past has been that sometimes the yogurt goes bad before I can use it all.  for years I was reluctant to buy yogurt, even on sale, for that very reason. However, once I learned to dehydrate yogurt, I no longer hesitated to buy it. 

I had first heard of commercially prepared yogurt drops as a snack. So I decided to give it a try. I put small blobs of yogurt on my fruit leather trays and dried them. They shriveled up into a thin mess and cracked on the fruit leather trays.  It was impossible to get them off the racks.

 Then I made ¼ cup portions. I used a portion scooper to plop them onto the racks.  I took an egg mold (the kind used by restaurants to keep a uniform shape on the eggs) and leveled the blobs into a standardized shape and thickness.

   


These dried beautifully!  They were easily removed from the trays and made a wonderful, chewy snack.  It’s a great way to get that acidolphus needed for digestion. 


If you happen to get it too thin, it will tend to crack a bit more.



Although my husband and I prefer the plain yogurt, it will be a simple matter to make fruit yogurts. 

  • Simply buzz the fruit of your choice into a puree and blend with the yogurt before dehydrating.
  • For a fancier treat, try inserting a slice of canned fruit onto the top of each blob of yogurt and dehydrate together.
  • If you like, mix in a little powdered cinnamon before dehydrating.
  • You are limited only by your imagination!





13 comments:

  1. Great post Linda, I am gonna try this, just gotta think of something to use in place of the egg mold.

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    1. How about cookie cutters? anything like that.

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    2. I realize this is an old post, but my mother used to cut the tops and bottoms off tuna cans and use them for frying eggs for muffins. If you want something that has an open bottom and a pourable top for almost free, there you go.

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  2. Moy, you dont' necessrily need an egg mold. I just happened to find one in the thrift store.

    Simply measure out portions and level them out a bit with the back of a spoon.

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  3. Thank you for your post :) would love to know the temp. and how long you dehydrate the yogurt for? Thank you!!

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. I always dry things like this at a lower temp. 115 to 120 should work.

    Sorry it took so long to respond... the comments weren't showing up on my blog. I'll check my comments list from now on.

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  6. So the yogurt maintains it's good bacteria after being dehydrated? That would be super awesome! How do we actually know that it is in tact and not destroyed but the process? Thanks so much!

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  7. Beth, I cannot say for sure that it does keep its bacteria after dehydrating. Not at this point in time. I have yet to try and rehydrate it for a culture. It doesn't stay around long enough... we keep eating it.

    To answer your question, it seems to me that if you rehydrate the yogurt and use it as a culture to grow more, then you know the bacteria is intact.

    I've got a big batch of meat that needs dehydrating right away, but some time later (end of August maybe?) I'll be able to dehydrate some more yogurt. I definitely will try to rehydrate it and find out if it will grow more yogurt.

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  8. Hi, I am trying to dehydrate yoghurt using your recipe but somehow they always crack on me and the sides burn. I saw pictures on the internet where the dehydrated yoghurt looks like fruit rolls. I am not able to roll my yoghurt. Any ideas? Thanks

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    1. In my experience, the cracks are normal. If you have them spread too thin, they will crack. They will turn a bit yellowish brown, but if yours are burning on the edges, you probably have the temperature too high. What temp are you using?

      Mine don't turn out like fruit rolls. I measure the portions into 1/4 cup servings (see the pics above.) The reason I don't spread them out like fruit rolls is because it's hard to tell how much is in a serving.

      Are you using plain yogurt of fruit flavored yogurt? That may make a difference. I don't know for sure. I never use commercially prepared flavored yogurts because most of them have high fructose corn syrup in them, which is extremely bad for you.

      You can sweeten them with honey or puree them with your favorite fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries, bananas, etc.)

      Please let me know if you're still having problems.

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  9. I have never dehydrated dairy products. Would these keep okay for a week or so unrefrigerated?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Konalani,
      Yes, they will be shelf stable for many months.

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