03/19/2015
Try making your own yogurt, it lasts longer and has more of the healthy bacteria than most commercial varieties. Not sure how? Try this recipe:
Homemade Yogurt
Ingredients:
2L of milk; any kind
150mL of plain or homemade yogurt (this is called your yogurt starter)
- OR -
10g of freeze dried yogurt starter
Equipment:
2L or 2qt yogurt maker
Termometer
Large cooking pot, minimum size 3L
Small bowl
Directions:
Place the 2L of milk in your large pot and heat over medium low heat until it reaches the boiling point or your themometer reads 180F (82C). Remove from heat. It is best to place the pot of heated milk on a hot plate; hot plates tend to allow air to pass underneath which speeds up the cooling process. The pot can also be placed in a cold water bath, no higher than 3/4 up the side of the pot. Cool the milk until it reaches between 112F-108F (42C - 44C). In a small bowl mix the yogurt starter with enough warm milk to dissolve; when using yogurt as your starter, the milk will appear slightly thicker than cream. Pour the milk and yogurt starter mix into the pot of warm milk and gently stir. Pour this mixture into your yogurt maker. For a 2L container, let the yogurt cure for a minimum of 8 hours, remove the container from the yogurt maker and refrigerate for a minimum of 8 hours to stop the curing process. Once a batch of homemade yogurt is made it can be used as a starter for the following batch and this process can be repeated indefinitely, similar to sourdough starter and kefir starter. To make 1L of homemeade yogurt, halve all of the ingredients and cure for a minimum of 4 hours and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours. Curing and refrigation times are the same for yogurt makers with individual sized containers.
Notes:
For 2L containers, I prefer curing for 15 hours. For 1L or individual sized containers, I prefer 8-10 hours. The longer times allows for a thicker yogurt, this will not result in Greek style yogurt. The refrigeration time does not change.
i also enjoy making my own fruit purees to flavour my yogurt. I also prefer to sweeten my yogurt with maple syrup or honey, just a bit goes a long way.
