Reduced Shakespeare, er, Yogurt

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Labneh Chocolate Pudding.
This is a combination recipe.

3 cups yogurt (I used house-made full-fat)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used 2 Tbsp Dutch and 2 Tbsp black)
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup regular and 1/4 cup caramel sugar)

Place a piece of cheesecloth in a colander. Pour in the chilled yogurt, bring up the corners of the cloth, and tie them together. Hang this bag in the fridge with a bowl underneath for 2-3 days. At the end of that time you will have a product that is very close to cream cheese in texture, but not in butterfat content. Cream cheese is 32% butterfat, and yogurt cheese (labneh) is a tenth of that amount. So enjoy.

Mix together cocoa and sugar, then stir into labneh to combine. Mold into balls and chill. Eat chocolate without guilt!

What worked: The base labneh was good - like a firmer cream cheese, but with the tanginess we've come to expect from the goat cream cheese we buy. It would do well as a spread or as a base for an herb/garlic cheese, like a Boursin.

What didn't: The chocolate labneh was too soft to mold into balls, so I divided it into crocks as pudding. If I had silicone ball molds I could probably make frozen yogurt truffles - but I don't. The pudding was tangy and rich without being overwhelming.

3 cups yogurt made about 1 cup labneh. For four people, I should have gone with 4-5 cups yogurt to start. Instead we topped it with whipped mascarpone, which was a nice addition. Whipped creme fraiche would have been too tangy with the labneh already being so.

Will I make it again? I've been looking for additional ways to use the yogurt I have been regularly making, so maybe. It's a bit ridiculous though: I spend 14 hours making the yogurt, then 2-3 days to make the labneh... or I could just make pudding in less than an hour.

Comments

[vittoriosa]

this sounds pretty tasty, but... whoever created this recipe needs a labneh lesson. please indulge la professoressa vittoriosa in a bit of a yogurt discourse.

not only is chocolate labneh not a thing, but labneh *by definition* contains salt. it helps in the draining process. strained yogurt with no salt is just strained yogurt, aka greek yogurt. this recipe would be more accurately labeled "chocolate greek yogurt" or "yogurt chocolate truffles" or something.

labneh is specifically a savory preparation. mix in garlic and herbs? why not! it's also pretty common for labneh to be served topped with prepared zaatar (that is, the dried spice base that has been mixed with oil). and sure, if you want to get fancy you could maybe get away with putting some honey or jam on top of your plain labneh for a salty/sweet contrast -- this is not lebanese-grandma-approved, but acceptably creative. but the moment you omit the salt and turn it into dessert, it stops being labneh.

also, not every yogurt will produce a labneh thick enough to roll into balls, though again, the salt makes a big difference as it helps with getting a drier product in the end. (labneh balls ARE a really thing, usually made with goat's milk, sun-dried and then stored in jars of olive. they are freaking fantastic. the grannies say that goat's milk is better than cow's milk for this process, both for forming balls and for long preservation; i don't know if that has to do with the fat content or protein structure or other aspect of its makeup, or if it's just tradition.)

on the one hand, i'm glad that middle eastern ingredients & preparations are becoming better known in the west. on the other hand, there is some cringe-worthy cultural appropriation that comes along with that. i should've known 2020 would be terrible when i saw trader joe's selling chocolate hummus at the beginning of the year.

[vittoriosa]

PS also, i have never seen anyone drain labneh in the fridge. we always drain it at room temperature. and it takes like 10-12 hours (i imagine the fridge chill slows the process). i usually either drain it overnight, or start it in the morning and it's ready by dinnertime. if you want it extra dry, you can let it go for 24 hours, but it's unlikely to lose any more water beyond that point.

ok i'm done now :)

[madbaker]

The cookbook this came from heavily adapted (as was common for the time), and so I am not surprised this varies from authentic. Call it vaguely inspired by rather than accusing it of appropriation.

(Chocolate martinis aren't a thing either, but here we are.)

[madbaker]

This was also written well before Greek yogurt was popular so it used the terminology of the time. And the chocolate part was pitched as a way to eat lower-fat chocolate for health reasons, not as a way this dish was traditionally made...