Mixed berry yogurt gelée

It’s gotten awfully nippy in London in the last week, and I’ve had to start wearing scarves again. I’d been holding off on my scarf wearing, simply because in the strange world that is my mind, it’s not autumn until I have to resort to scarves. But sadly, summer is now well and truly over, and my (rather extensive) scarf collection will be put to good use again.

As some of you may know, I have an immense backlog when it comes to blog posts. As I was looking through it, I saw photos of the mixed berry yogurt gelée that I made recently – and thought it was the perfect post to bid goodbye to summer.

I’m a huge fan of yogurt (there’s always yogurt in my fridge), and I use in many ways – a simple snack, dips, curries, desserts… And the list goes on. So, its no surprise that I was immediately drawn to the idea of yogurt gelée when I saw it on Heather’s blog.

Rather coincidentally, the people at Total contacted me, and asked if I would like to try their range of yogurts. Maybe they knew of my love for yogurt? Anyway, what caught my attention was the claim that their 2% and 10% greek yogurt would not split when cooked. As I mentioned above, I use yogurt to cook curries (because its muchhh healthier than using coconut cream regularly), but have always found that they split – leaving a slightly “bitty” curry. It doesn’t affect the taste, but let’s face it: it’s not very attractive.

Photo courtesy of Total

So, I figured that the best way to “test” Total’s yogurt was to put it to the hob. And I am pleased to report that it is a lot more resistant to splitting than any other yogurt I’ve used in the past. After using the whole range (they do it in full fat 10%, 2% and 0%) in a number of recipes, I found that the full fat version was beautifully un-splittable even when heated over high heat. The 0% version did split, but this was only after a good few minutes of it bubbling happily on the high heat (plus, they never claimed that the fat free version was unsplittable anyway).

Of course, the gelée requires the yogurt to be heated, and I’m very glad I chose to use the full fat yogurt as it turned out beautifully. The mixed berries are placed into the containers first then flash frozen in the freezer before the yogurt layer is poured on top of it. This gives you lovely distinct layers. If you get impatient and do it before the berry layer is properly frozen, you get slightly ‘smudged’ lines (like me)…

Do note that I didn’t use any gelatine in the berry layer, which means that tastes like a chilled berry coulis when you come to eating it. If you want to have both layers in jelly form, add 1/2 tsp gelatine (dissolved in 1 tbsp water) to the mixed berry mixture.

Mixed berry yogurt gelée
Adapted from this recipe on Sprinkle Bakes

For the mixed berry puree layer:

• 250g mixed berries (I used frozen mixed berries from Waitrose)
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp sugar (you may need to use more/less depending on how sweet/tart your berries are)

For the yogurt gelée layer:

• 2 cups Greek yogurt (I used Total)
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste – optional (you can also use vanilla extract/half a vanilla bean)
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp gelatine
• 2 tbsp cold water

1. Place berries and the honey in a food processor or blender, and whizz until it forms a smooth puree.

2. Taste the puree, and add the sugar according to how sweet you want it to be.

3. Pour the mixed berry puree into your containers (you can use anything from ramekins to glasses to mugs – obviously something see through will be best so you can see the layers and colours), and place in the freezer.*

4. Whilst your mixed berry puree is setting in the freezer, make the yogurt gelée. Pour the water into a small bowl, and sprinkle the gelatine over the bowl. Set aside for a few minutes to allow it to bloom.

5. Combine the yogurt, vanilla (if using) and sugar in a pan and stir to combine. Heat over medium high heat until it thins, this should take anywhere between 3-5 minutes.

6. Add the gelatine mixture to the yogurt mixture, and stir to combine. ** Remove the pan from the heat, and let the yogurt mixture cool slightly. (It should not be piping hot when you pour it into the containers.)

7. Remove your containers from the freezer, and layer the yogurt mixture on top of the mixed berry puree.

8. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and serve. This recipe makes 6 ramekins/5 ramekins + 2 shot glasses worth of gelée.

*To make a ’tilted’ layer: When freezing your mixed berry layer, place your glasses/containers in a larger bowl so it is tilted – and gravity does the rest for you!

** Heather microwaves the bloomed gelatine mixture for 10 seconds (it will turn liquid), but I didn’t do this as errr…. I have the tendency to burn things in the microwave.