The Tastiest Way To Sweeten Plain Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is great, but for most of us, eating the plain version on its own isn't all that fun. It's just a tad too tart and maybe a little uninteresting, but the good news is, you don't have to make a fancy café-ready yogurt bowl to enjoy Greek yogurt to the fullest. One of the ultimate toppings for this dairy treat is affordable and quite likely sitting in your pantry right now — jam. 

The intense sweetness of the cooked-down fruit and sugar mix is the perfect way to balance the sourness of plain Greek yogurt (Okay, maybe Greek yogurt in the grocery store isn't as Greek as we thought), and even just a spoonful can make a massive difference. If you also throw marmalades into the mix, there's a lot of variety out there, including strawberry, raspberry, orange, rhubarb, apricot, pineapple, blueberry, cherry, and peach. In the U.K., where I'm from, one of the most common yogurt brands, Müller Corner, blends yogurt with fruit compote, so it's a very familiar concept. It makes sense, considering that jam is the best way to give ice cream a fruity upgrade, too.

If you want to take things a step further, there are a few different add-ons you can combine with your yogurt and jam. Honey is the most obvious, and it's particularly enjoyable if you thoroughly mix the yogurt and jam together and then drizzle the honey on top. You can also add a bit of texture to the mix with raisins, granola, chocolate chips, or fresh fruit.

If you're trying to keep things low-calorie or low-sugar, you can also make your own fruit compote to top your yogurt. It requires more effort since you have to make it yourself, and it generally only keeps for a couple of days, but that's the price we pay for an option that isn't loaded with preservatives, like commercial jams can be.

The ungodly amount of sugar in store-bought jams (between 45% and 65% by weight) is one of the main things that makes it last so long. The sugar lowers water activity and creates high osmotic pressure — which reduces the availability of water that microorganisms need to survive. But, aside from the preservative effects, the sugar doesn't do anything else that magical. If you pour a bag of frozen berries into a pan and add a small squeeze of honey and a bit of vanilla extract, you can make your own slightly-tart-but-still-plenty-sweet compote after 15 to 20 minutes of simmering.

I do this all the time to top yogurt, pancakes, overnight oats, and oatmeal that's good enough to eat every day of your life. While it does take time, if you keep the simmer light, you can walk away and leave it for around five minutes at a time, as it cooks. Depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have, the reduced sweetness could take some getting used to — but I found it enjoyable right from the beginning.