Summer breakfast – vanilla spiced yoghurt

It’s the last day of my holiday today and I wanted to make something especially nice for my breakfast. Summer’s bounty has been particularly rich and beautiful this year. Stunning mangoes, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and blueberries are available in abundance and typify the flavours of summer in my part of the world. This recipe is really about the thick vanilla spiced yoghurt that sits perfectly on top of toasted banana bread or fruit loaf or brioche and under the fresh nectarines and blueberries drizzled with maple and vanilla syrup. The possibilities of foods that would benefit from a dollop of this lusciously thick, creamy, slightly sweet and tangy yoghurt are endless. But here is how I did it this morning.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

500 g thick Greek yoghurt (my favourite brand id Farmer’s Union)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 tablespoon icing sugar

In a medium sized bowl mix together the yoghurt, vanilla and sugar until well combined. Spoon the yoghurt into a piece of muslin. Place in a sieve over a bowl. Cover and place in the fridge overnight to drain. It will reduce to about 2/3 of the orginal amount and be super tick, almost like cream cheese in texture. In the morning, remove it from the muslin, discard the liquid, and store the thickened yogurt in an airtight container in the fridge.

Here’s a great photo of how to do this from Coloured plates that is far better than my words to describe this process. In their lovely blog post, Rachael and Ahmad describe how to make labne, which is a traditional Middle Eastern thickened yoghurt, usually paired with savoury ingredients. My version is simply a slightly sweet version.

I toasted some banana bread, spread it thickly with the yoghurt, added nectarine slices and a few blueberries, and drizzled over a little maple syrup. Would love to hear of delicious variations from you.