Years ago, Stephanie Gilewicz and her husband Brent started making European-style yogurt, tangy and thick. In June, they finally started selling it, under the apt name Milk & Patience.
You may have seen their stand at the Dallas Farmers Market, which is where I discovered it several months ago and immediately flashed on the decadent artisanal product that reminded me of the way yogurt tastes in my native France.
Milk & Patience are shorthand for the recipe. Gilewicz goes through 140 gallons of milk a week; one gallon of milk yields only six cups of yogurt. The firm and luscious texture comes from draining at least 12 hours and up to 24, depending on the whim of the whey.
The goal is a lush consistency that holds up even when Gilewicz adds the often seasonal purées of fruit to make batches of blueberry, blackberry, coconut, raspberry, pink guava, or fresh ginger—all with a light touch of cane sugar. (She doesn’t want to mask the yogurt or the fruit.)
Gilewicz was seeking small-batch, nutrient-dense doses of probiotics when she began making yogurt. She had suffered from stomach ailments for years. Now, she will admit she spends a lot of time watching milk strain.
“We joke,” she says of herself and Brent. “He brings the milk. I bring the patience.”
Available at Royal Blue Grocery, Market Provisions, Local Yocal Farm to Market.
