…Eating Her Curds and Whey

I am in love with greek style yogurt, also called strained yogurt. You make your yogurt, or buy store-bought, put in a sieve with a paper towel, or a strainer, or in cheesecloth and drain the whey off. The result is a thicker, creamier, milder yogurt. It makes the perfect replacement for sour cream, mayonnaise, or any place you want  a rich, creamy ingredient. I use it in taco’s, chili, and sandwiches. People are in love with it for the greater protein content, but it is simply because you’ve gotten rid of much of the water, so ounce for ounce, it’s more concentrated. This makes it better for using it as a replacement for some of those fattier ingredients as far as the texture goes. It’s naturally low fat, if you are using low fat milk, so once more it’s a win- win- you are are eating something good for you as a condiment.

However, I am frugal to a fault, and the idea of throwing all that whey away bothered me. I googled uses for it, and came up with the Prairie Homesteaders blog. She suggested  using it in baking, so I tried it. I love ciabatta bread, but I don’t like keep sourdough going in my fridge. I thought, “Hmmm, whey is sour, why not try it?” So I did. It worked very well. All sour dough starter really does is add flavor, you still add yeast to make it rise. I did let it rise longer than the recipe called for, to allow for greater fermentation. I just replaced the water with whey and the bread is so good, my husband even asks for it. You also have to increase the flour slightly, at least in the recipe I used.