Homemade Yogurt! YUM!

I have been busy busy with all of my projects lately, it's the only thing that keeps my sanity in the winter! My Kombucha is coming along wonderfully and is already growing a baby scoby. One of my projects I accomplished recently was homemade yogurt, and that's the one that I am going to share with you today.

Homemade yogurt surpasses store bought yogurt in so many ways! The taste is smoother and all around yummier, it is significantly cheaper and is without all of the preservatives and other additives (not to mention very healthy!).

The first thing you need to know is a little bit on cleanliness. Yogurt is made with live cultures, and thus means you need to be extra clean while making your yogurt. The Yogurt is heated and then incubated for a period of time which leaves a happy home for bacteria to grow. So, be sure you keep everything clean and sterile! Boil smaller items like spoons and such; and pour boiling water into large pots or containers you are using to assure that everything is clean.

Next you need to know about the starter yogurt. You can go online and order starter yogurt cultures, but considering you can only use them for a little while before the cultures die off and you have to order more, it might end up being cheaper to go the other route. By 'the other route' I mean buying yogurt from the grocery store to start your yogurt. Yes, this does have all of the preservatives added to it, and at first this was absolutely not an option for me! But, after careful consideration, I decided to use the store-bought yogurt because of the price difference; and if you really think about it, it takes 1/4 C. of starter yogurt to make a quart of yogurt. This means that the original yogurt ends up being diluted enough to my satisfaction. Though it may not be what you want to do, in which case you can buy starter yogurt cultures off the internet easily, my favorite place is Etsy.com. I buy small containers of yogurt at the grocery store for 88 cents each (it only takes one), it can be regular yogurt or greek yogurt, just make sure it is plain yogurt and says 'active live cultures on the container' (or something of the sort).

The rest of the materials you will need are;

1 quart of milk (4 C.) 1%, 2%, or whole

1/3 C. powdered milk (optional, but will make the yogurt thicker)

Candy thermometer

A pot that will hold a quart of milk

Containers to hold your finished yogurt (I like to use pint jars)

A towel

Now, time to get started. First you need to heat your milk on the stove. This will kill any bacteria in the milk, you will need to do this even if the milk is pasteurized milk! On med-low heat, bring the temperature of the milk up to about 180 degrees, try to get as close to this temperature as possible. Once you have reached the right temp., keep it at that temperature for a few minutes. Remove from heat and and let the temperature come down to 120 degrees (don't let it fall under 100 degrees or the cultures will not make yogurt, and don't add the yogurt if it is higher than 120 or it will kill the cultures)

Once it is cooled to the right temperature, take about 1 cup of milk out and mix in the starter yogurt. Once mixed, add the mixture back to the pot of milk and cover. (also, if you are using powdered milk, you can add it at this time). Now it's time to incubate! Read carefully...

The yogurt needs time to incubate at a warm temperature (between 100 and 120 degrees). There are several ways you can do this, I am going to mention 3 ways.

Method 1 - In the pot. You can leave the mixture in the pot you heated the milk in, cover it with a lid them wrap it with a towel and leave for 3-5 hours. This isn't the best way to do it, but it is the easiest. Just know, that if you use this method, the yogurt will not produce results as good as other methods.

Method 2 - Ice chest. If you have an ice chest big enough to fit your containers in, you can use it to incubate your yogurt. before your yogurt is ready to incubate, fill the ice chest with boiling water and place the lid on. When it is time to incubate, fill your clean containers with the yogurt mixture and put the lids on. Empty the water out of the ice chest, place the containers inside, and fill with water that has been heated to about 100 degrees, close the ice chest and let incubate for 3-5 hours. Check periodically to make sure the temperature is right. If it cools too much, you can empty out half of the water and replace with more hot water.

Method 3 - Crock-pot. Preheat your slow cooker on warm for 10 minutes, place your filled containers inside, and cover with a towel to insulate. Turn the slow cooker off, then every hour turn it back on warm for 5 minutes until done. Again, about 3-5 hours.

The time it takes to complete your yogurt really depends on the temperature it incubates at and your preference. There are a lot of factors at play when you are working with live cultures. The yogurt will be thinner than the yogurt at the store (I don't mind), but if you want to change this, you can try incubating it a little longer, or you can strain the finished yogurt. Simply line a colander with coffee filters or a cheesecloth and let the yogurt strain in the refrigerator overnight.

DIDN'T TURN OUT??

If your yogurt did not turn out right, consider using a different kind of milk (do not use ultra-pasteurized), or make sure the starter you used had active live cultures in it. If it does, it may have sat in the refrigerator too long and the cultures may not have been alive. Make sure you use fresh ingredients and always be clean while making the yogurt.

AND YOU CAN USE YOUR YOGURT TO MAKE MORE!!

You can use about 1/4 C. of the homemade yogurt as a starter culture for a new batch, this can be repeated but only for a little while. Eventually the cultures will die off and you will have to get more starter yogurt.

I KNOW.. IT'S PLAIN YOUGRT..

Most people don't like plain yogurt. Though homemade yogurt isn't near as bitter as store-bought and is much, much tastier; you still may prefer not to eat it plain. That's OK! There are a lot of ways you can flavor it. My next post will cover this and a few more things you can make to go along with your yummy yogurt.. like homemade granola!

Here is some of my finished (strained) yogurt; mixed with brown sugar, MMmmm!

Thanks for reading, I hope you take the time to make your own yogurt; I promise you will be blown away with the results! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me at eco_mom@yahoo.com. Have a great day and always remember to be creative!