How to Make Healthy Yogurt Bark Four Ways
How did I not know this existed? It's fun-looking, totally healthy, real food and easy to eat. Failure is the springboard to many great things. I found out How to Make Healthy Yogurt Bark because I totally failed at one project. This recipe was my redemption so I wouldn't have to throw it all away.
Real Food Snack Challenge...Yogurt Bark for the win!
With school about to start, I'm wanting to find healthy breakfast, snack and lunch ideas. My man-child is 6'2" and is about to start a high school baseball "career". Feeding him is proving to be a full-time job. He has decided on his own free will, after a bad asthma attack, to eat gluten free. I'm grateful, because that makes three out of the four of us eating that way. But finding enough food to fill him up without breaking the bank on meat or relying on bread is tough.
Yogurt Bark for BLD
Yogurt bark will certainly be in the rotation. I had to tell him to quit eating the finished product so I could get photographs! He has now eaten them straight out of the freezer for breakfast. They also served as pre-lunch and pre-dinner snacks while waiting on the official meal.
Yogurt Bark Backstory
The original recipe I was testing was raw milk yogurt. I've made homemade yogurt numerous times in the past. This time I was trying a short cut to the thick, Greek-style yogurt by adding gelatin instead of straining it. The result was a yogurty tasting Jello substance. This was not pleasant at all especially for my 14 year old whose appetite is driven by texture. I was looking for a frozen yogurt recipe to use it up and came across these beautiful little jewel.
Once you've tried these versions, you can get creative or just use what you've got on hand. Use any kind of fruits (dried or fresh), nuts and cereals you have on hand. If you aren't feeling creative and want more inspiration, try these:
Add cocoa powder to the yogurt as in this Chocolate Banana Yogurt Bark
Blend berries or other fruit into the yogurt before adding toppings
Drizzle frozen yogurt bark with your favorite nut butter (warmed until pourable)
Or mix in nut butter as in this Vegan and Paleo Chunky Monkey Yogurt Bark
Go with the classics: peanut butter & jelly, berries & pistachios, paleo granola & honey
How to Make Healthy Yogurt Bark in 5 Steps
1) Mix the yogurt with honey or maple syrup
2) Spread on a parchment covered cookie sheet (make however many sections you want to depending on what toppings you are using)
3) Sprinkle on the toppings
4) Freeze for 3 hours
5) Break into pieces and serve
Yogurt Bark Tips and Tricks
If you want thicker bark, use a 9 x 13 rectangular pan. It will be a bit harder at first but won't melt as quickly as the super thin ones I made (I barely had tim to shoot photos before I had to whisk them back into freezer to re-freeze). On that note, only take small pieces out or it will melt before you finish. Another solution to the melting problem is to make yogurt bites by lining mini muffin tins with silicone mini muffin cups and filling half full with yogurt then topping. You may want to cut the recipe in half if you do this because I made 8 mini muffins with just the extra yogurt I had left. Finally, make sure you clear out a space in your freezer for the pan(s) to sit completely flat. I didn't think this through at first (FYI, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants in the kitchen) and almost had another recipe failure of mixing all the different sections together!
Yogurt Bark Four Ways
Ingredients
- 2 cups Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup, more or less to taste
- Mix-ins (entirely optional)
- Fresh or frozen fruit
- Cocoa Powder
- Nut Butter
- Assorted toppings: Toasted coconut, granola, toasted sliced almonds, broken walnuts or salted almonds, fruit, dried fruit, shaved chocolate, chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk the yogurt and honey or maple syrup together until combined or if using mix-ins, blend well.
- Spread onto prepared pan.
- Sprinkle evenly with desired toppings.
- Place in freezer.
- Break apart and serve right away.