This honey yogurt tart manages to dazzle, while also being one of the simplest and most wholesome dessert recipes you can find. Dense and silky, it’s based on two ingredients known for their health benefits – Greek style yogurt and raw honey – it’s a delicious dessert that is also real food, so nourishing it can also serve as a festive breakfast. The other healthy ingredients include extra virgin olive oil and whole wheat flour.
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How to Make Homemade Greek Yogurt
In Greece, that thick yogurt with the texture of sour cream is not called Greek yogurt. It is “stragistro,” which means “strained”. It’s used in many Greek recipes, and it’s very easy to make at home. All you need is six cups of plain yogurt – whole milk yogurt makes the richest Greek yogurt – a fine mesh strainer or a strainer lined with cheesecloth or cotton gauze, and a bowl to rest it over. Fill the strainer with the plain yogurt, place it in the refrigerator, and simply let the whey drain off. The more time you leave it, the thicker the yogurt wil get. After perhaps 4- 6 hours, your yogurt should have reduced by almost half. It’s exactly what we need for our recipe, plus a little extra – perfect for a little sauce for a chicken, for example.
Honey Greek Style
Greek honey comes in many varieties. It is the concentration of the very essence of the Greek landscae, and comes in aromas as diverse as the topographies where the bees gather their nectar. Chesnut honey, for example, has a rich and almost savory quality, making it an interesting pairing for cheese and dark bread. Cheese and honey are often served together in Greece. This siphisticated and very easy cheese pie with honey – as a dessert or a meze – makes the most of the classic combination.
Wildflower honey and orange blossom honey are more neutraly sweet – very fragrant but with no dominant aroma. These are popular in many Greek recipes. Thyme honey is wonderfully complex and one of the most ppular vareties of Greek honey. And pine honey – which we use here – really does have the fresh aroma of the forest. It is also usually very thick, making it perfect for our tart.
Honey Greek Yogurt
The yogurt honey combination is honestly fantastic as it is. If you have top quality raw honey and some fresh Greek style yogurt, it makes a fine dessert just as it is. Walnuts are a popular addition to Greek yogurt with honey. Plain yogurt with honey is a lighter version, not nearly so thick.
For some more contemporary desserts inspired by classic Greek recipes and ingredients, you could also try Rizogalo – rice pudding with saffron and rose water, these very easy Giant Tahini Meringues,
Benefits of Yogurt and Honey – is Greek Yogurt and Honey Good for You?
Honey’s an excellent source of micronutrients with many health benefits. As a sweetener, is offers some nutritional value and lots of flavor. A little goes a long way, so you may end up using less honey than you would sugar. Yogurt offers the many nutritional benefits of milk – protein, calcium – while also being rich in probiotics. Importantly, as an alternative to sour cream, Greek yogurt has much less fat, fewer calories, and all of the satisfaction.
Honey Yogurt Tart
The classic combination of thick Greek style yogurt and raw honey in a wholseome whole wheat crust is as satisfying as a cheesecake, chic as a Parisian tart, and very nourishing.
Ingredients
- 120 g / 1 C soft whole wheat flour
- 120 g/ 1 C white all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp/ baking powder
- 70 g/ 1/3 C sugar
- dash salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- orange zest to taste
- 80 ml / 51/2 T extra virgin olive oil
- 50 ml / 31/2 T fresh orange juice
- 750 g / 3 C very thick strained yogurt
- 100 g / generous 1/3 C honey, or more to taste - keep in mind that most of the sweetness will come from pouring more hiney over each slice when serving.
- a little orange zest
- to serve - more honey to drizzle generously over each slice, freshly shelled walnut halves
Instructions
- Blend the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl.
- Blend the oil, orange juice, and orange zest, and combine until all the flour is moistened and the mixture is crumbly. Try not to handle too much.
- Press the crust into a tart pan of your choice -23 cm/ 9" and thick, or 28 cm/ 11" and thin, for example.
- Freeze the crust - it should take about 15 - 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180° C/ 350° F. Bake shell for about 10 minutes - it will have puffed slightly and the surface will look dry.
- Meanwhile, blend the yogurt with the honey and the zest.
- Spread the mixture evenly into the partially baked shell, smoothing the top.
- Return the tart to the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the oven off, and leave for about 5 more minutes. We want it to set, but not to take on any color.
- Let cool, or even chill, and serve each slice wih a very generous drizzle of honey, topped with walnuts.
