I’ve been making Kefir from grains at home for over two years now and use it on fruit mainly at breakfast time. I know some people think it might be a problem to use skimmed milk, but I have done this from the start and it has always worked fine.

Because its only me that likes it, I only make smallish quantities, and it can develop rather a strong taste quite fast. I have tried various ways of mellowing the taste. In the hotter weather (this is the UK, so we are talking somewhere around 20 degrees Celsius) , it develops fast and is thin and a little sour. I find putting the whole pot in the fridge for the last half of the fermentation makes a thicker and sweeter Kefir. In the winter I just leave it on the worktop and it does fine, making a sweeter result without much effort.

This has all been OK, but then I saw a YouTube video in which it was suggested that you can double ferment the kefir using fruit, and this has added the sparkle mentioned in the title of this post.

One simply strains the Kefir as normal, put it in a jar, and add a small piece of fruit. Then leave it for about 4 hours to ferment with the fruit before putting it in the fridge. I’ve tried a few different fruits, peach, apple, orange peel, raspberries and even cinnamon, but my favourite is definitely orange peel. It gives a wonderful sweet and fresh zing to the kefir whilst removing some of the tang, which suits me fine. I’m afraid I can’t remember the name of the person who posted the video on YouTube, but thank-you whoever you are. Its even better if you strain off some of the thin whey to give a thicker, creamier textured Kefir before you add the fruit.

Kefir has never tasted to good.