Sunday, December 18, 2011

Makin' Yogurt

I love yogurt. I try to eat it every day. The problem is, if you buy it, it can get pricey. So I did some online research and found a great way to get my daily yogurt for a fraction of the price.

What you will need:

1 gallon of milk (any type of milk you want to use)
1 cup of yogurt with live and active cultures – later you can use the yogurt you’ve made as a starter
1 cup dry nonfat milk (optional – makes yogurt creamier)
Thick bottomed pot (large enough for 1 gallon of milk)
Candy thermometer
Sterile canning jars
Ice chest

Heat milk in pan to 120 deg F stirring constantly and add the dry milk
Combine some of the heated milk with the yogurt and mix until smooth. Add mixture into the hot milk.
Put mixture into sterile jars and seal lids. Place the sealed jars into an ice chest filled with hot water that is between 110-120 deg F.
Leave overnight in ice chest or until gelled. Place jars in the refrigerator.

That’s it.
The texture will be different than what you buy at the store because it doesn’t contain gelatin, modified corn starch or other added gelling agents. If you want a thicker, Greek style yogurt you can strain it. Place a large coffee filter in a colander, put the yogurt in the filter, place colander over a bowl and place in fridge. Leave overnight.

You can add fruit to the bottom of the jars or mix in sugar and vanilla extract for flavoring.

3 comments:

  1. I make my own yogurt too, I heat it (milk, dry milk and sugar)in the crock pot (no chance it will burn) then I put it in quart jars and add yogurt from the previous batch. I then put it in our gas oven and wrap it in a towel and leave it overnight. In the morning I have great yogurt. Mine is always the same texture as store bought but it taste SO much better. There is a post on my blog somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use the crockpot. So much easier and only one pot. I got the recipe from this blog. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html Hope you don't mind me linking to another blog. Just want to be helpful :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We just bring the milk (or milk and cream - I will often add some half-and-half) to temperature, then pour it in glass jars, stir in the starter, wrap it in a towel, and leave it on the counter overnight. Home-made jam makes a great "fruit bottom", or our other thing is to mix frozen berries with honey for the fruit bottom.

    ReplyDelete