A maple yogurt bowl is plain yogurt stirred with a spoonful of maple syrup, then topped with fresh fruit and granola. There's no cooking. It takes about five minutes, and most of that is slicing fruit.
Starting with plain yogurt means you decide how sweet it gets. A tablespoon of syrup softens the tang without hiding it, and a thin drizzle on top finishes the bowl.
What you need
- 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup, plus a little more for the top
- 1/2 cup fresh fruit, such as berries, sliced banana or chopped apple
- 1/4 cup granola
- 1 tablespoon chopped nuts or seeds (optional)
How to make it
- Spoon the yogurt into a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of maple syrup until smooth. Taste, and add a little more if you like.
- Top with the fruit.
- Add the granola and the nuts or seeds just before you eat, so they stay crunchy.
- Finish with a thin drizzle of maple syrup.
Which syrup to use
Use Amber. It's warm and smooth with caramel notes, and it's the one that goes on everything, cold yogurt included. If you want the maple to stand out against the tang, try Dark. It's deep and robust and built for cooking and baking, which makes it a good pick if you're baking your own granola too. Either way, reach for pure maple syrup rather than pancake syrup.
About the granola
Any granola works, as long as it's crunchy. If you'd like to make your own, our maple granola takes about 10 minutes of work, 45 minutes in the oven and 30 minutes to cool. One batch makes about 4 cups. That's enough for 16 bowls like this one.
Using store-bought granola? Taste it first. A lot of granola is already quite sweet, so you may want less syrup in the yogurt.
Tips
- Greek or regular. Greek yogurt is thick and holds the toppings up. Regular plain yogurt is thinner, so use a deeper bowl.
- Too thick? If your Greek yogurt is very stiff, stir in a spoonful of milk along with the syrup to loosen it.
- Hungrier? Use 1 cup of yogurt and a little more of everything else.
- Granola goes on last. It softens quickly once it sits on yogurt.
- Make it ahead. Layer the sweetened yogurt and berries in a jar with a lid and keep it in the fridge overnight. Sliced banana and apple turn brown, so add those in the morning, along with the granola.
- Follow the season. Berries in summer, sliced pears or apples in fall, orange segments in winter.
- Feeding a crowd? Set out a big bowl of maple yogurt with the fruit, granola and syrup on the side, and let everyone build their own. Get the yogurt back in the fridge within 2 hours, or 1 hour if it's above 90°F. To keep it out longer, nest the bowl in a bigger bowl of ice.
Make it your own
Stir a pinch of cinnamon into the yogurt along with the syrup. Swirl in a spoonful of peanut or almond butter. Swap the nuts for a few maple candied pecans. Frozen berries work too. Let them thaw a little first, then spoon their juice over the top.
