Cooking with Chef Jo: Quick Yogurt Dough

I've been playing around with yogurt dough. Don't know what that is? Have you seen the latest quick bread recipes that call for two ingredients? That's it. It's self rising flour and yogurt. I prefer plain Greek yogurt. I had Mel buy some to try it out. I figured I can make my own yogurt, if it's as versatile as its touted to be.

Now, when I buy my 5lb box of baking soda, I always pull a quart sized canning jar worth just for baking. Five pounds of baking soda? Why on earth would you buy five pounds? Well, we make our own laundry soaps. Baking plain baking soda at 350 degrees for 20 minutes results in washing powder. Plus, we use baking soda in a lot of products we use like tooth paste and cleaning supplies. I could write an entire post for uses for baking soda around the homestead. We'll go through roughly 15 lbs a year of just baking soda. So why do I separate it? Baking soda is great for absorbing odors and moisture. This is why you put a box in your refrigerator. By keeping it in a quart jar, it's handy in the kitchen and it doesn't get a chance to absorb anything. Moisture reduces the effectiveness of baking soda over time.

You long time readers know that I don't buy ground flour either. Well sometimes I do for ease. I buy organic wheat, sprout it, and then grind it myself. You get a more easily digestible/absorbable nutrients from sprouted grains. I can decide how fine to grind my wheat for different uses. To make it self rising flour take 1 cup of flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda or powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. That's it. I just saved you from having to buy another flour. That's why I do it this way.  I do all the flours I make this way. So instead of buying multiple flours, I just alter what or how I grind it. It's quite a bit of work, but hey, I'm worth it.

The recipe for two ingredient dough is simple. It's 1 cup of self rising flour and 3/4 c Greek yogurt. That's it. So, one 16 oz container of plain Greek yogurt yielded me plenty of dough to experiment with.  I made biscuits, pizza crust, rolls, and I even made my hot cross buns for Good Friday with it. (recipe below)

 I've been substituting the yogurt dough for regular yeast doughs in recipes to save time and with the shortages of yeast, it's nice to have an alternative other than sour dough. The yeast I ordered from Amazon (my usual vendor) was put on back order for two months. I canceled the order and started searching for alternatives when I hit upon the yogurt dough recipe.

Hot Cross buns are traditionally made on Good Friday and/or Easter, but I make them several times a year because they are so tasty. You can add additional dried fruits, but for this recipe I just used raisins. I've added figs and apricots, pears, cherries, or peaches as variations of this recipe. I'll reorder the yeast after this virus hoop-de-la is over. I don't think many will continue making their own bread when they can find it in the stores and go back to work ...unlike us "insane" homesteaders.

Quick Hot Cross Buns
Makes 4 small buns

What you'll need

1 cup self rising flour
3/4 c plain Greek yogurt, you can substitute any plain yogurt
1/4 c sugar
3 TBS raisins, rehydrated and drained
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Egg Wash
1 egg yolk
2 tsp water
Mix together and set aside.

Icing
2 TBS powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp milk
Mix together and set aside.

Putting it all together

• In a 1 cup measuring cup, mix the vanilla extract, rehydrated raisins, orange zest if not fresh, and yogurt together and set aside.
• Sift flour, cinnamon, and sugar together in a bowl. If using freshly grated orange zest, stir it into the flour mixture. Make a well into the center of the flour mix.
• Pour or spoon yogurt mixture into the flour well.
• Mix until combined to form a ball. If too soft and sticky add flour 1 TBS at a time. If too dry add yogurt 1 TBS at a time.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until a smooth ball forms. About twenty turns.
• Divide dough into 4 equal pieces and form each piece into a ball.
• Place on a grease/buttered baking sheet and cover with plastic for 10 minutes.
• Brush on egg wash.
• Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Or, in an air fryer at 310 degrees for 10 minutes.
• Place buns on a rack to cool.
• When cool, frost a cross on top of each bun with the icing.

Now for my review of using this method instead of using my old method.

1. It's a lot quicker! Made and eating it within an hour versus three hours.
2. Used fewer ingredients. No eggs (except for the egg wash for that classic brown color), fats, or yeast.
3. Same fluffy, tender texture as the yeast risen rolls.
4. It's a winner! A great substitute for yeast risen recipe.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo