Yogurt-Covered Pretzels, Raisins & Nuts Can Be Yours—and DIY'd
You, like me, probably think of yogurt coating as that too-sweet, healthy-sounding white stuff that coats a multitude of snacks in the bulk bin section of the supermarket and far too many energy and “nutrition” bars.
Yogurt coating typically consists of sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, whey powder, nonfat yogurt powder, titanium dioxide, soy lecithin, salt, and artificial flavor. I generally avoid things coated with it because it’s not delicious enough to be worth its calories or complicated ingredient list.
But what if yogurt coating was actually tangy and delicious and had a cleaner ingredient statement? What if it was simply made with yogurt and real white chocolate instead of “confectionery coating”? And what if you could make it yourself?
I found organic yogurt powder (100% dried yogurt) online and mixed it with melted white chocolate. Easy, right? I coated a homemade date-nut bar with it. So good! The leftover yogurt chocolate was irresistible too, all by itself! And the coating is actually yogurt “chocolate” rather than yogurt “coating,” because the base is real chocolate: The only fats in it are cocoa butter and dairy fat, rather than palm kernel or other tropical oils.
What can you do with yogurt chocolate? For starters, you could dip strawberries or cherries in it. You could drizzle or spread it on cookies, coat pretzels, and make nut clusters and all kinds of bark with it, including pomegranate bark or cranberry bark in the fall. You could coat homemade truffles or candy bars or cookie bars or multigrain bars. You could fold dry cereal and nuts into it and make your own yogurt cereal bar. There are plenty of things to do with the rest of the yogurt powder, too—when and if you get tired of making yogurt chocolate.
Yogurt White Chocolate
- 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) white chocolate: do not use white chocolate chips, white compound coating, or candy melts
- 2 to 4 teaspoons (7 to 14 grams) yogurt powder (I used Hoosier Farms)
- A few grams of cocoa butter or drops of neutral vegetable oil (sunflower, or safflower etc), optional as needed to adjust the consistency
What would you coat with yogurt white chocolate—nuts? raisins? the back of a spoon? Share your ideas in the comments!
