Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Yogurt Making Made Easy


This post goes out to the Damsel at Damselindisdress.wordpress.com. The Damsel has a post about making yogurt from powdered milk, if that interests you check it out. I made yogurt from fresh milk using the same method. Before reading her post I was using the crockpot to make yogurt, which works but takes a bit more effort. Want to make your own yogurt? It's so easy!

First you will need some starter cultures, the wonderful little bacteria bugs that make yogurt yogurt. You can either purchase cultures and have them mailed to you or you can use yogurt from the store -much easier. Here are a few things to keep in mind when purchasing your starter yogurt, while not all of them are absolutely necessary they're good ideas. Try to find a yogurt with as few ingredients as possible. The yogurt should be plain, and without pectin. It absolutely MUST contain active live cultures -duh- most yogurts tout this on the label these days so it should be easy to find. Remember that the cultures in your starter yogurt will be the cultures in your homemade yogurt so if you want something specific -I'm looking at you activia consumers- buy accordingly. I've read that stoneyfield farms yogurt is highly reccommended as a starter.

Here's what you do, in clean, ovensafe crockery (I actually used the crock from my crockpot) combine 6 ounces of starter yogurt with 4 cups of milk. Whisk well. Heat your oven to 275 degrees. Once the oven has reached 275 degrees turn it off and place your covered yogurt-to-be inside. Let it sit for 8 to 12 hours. When you return it should be yogurt! Admittedly it will not be quite as firm as store bought yogurt, that's because it doesn't have pectin in it. Store it in the fridge and enjoy it in good health. Remember to save 6 ounces as a starter for the next batch. Look at you making your own food:)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! You did it!

I love your blog. I'm bookmarking it and will be looking forward to reading more.

NIKOL said...

Eeee! The Damsel came over here! I love bloggy networking.

I meant to come over today to get the cucumber and melon plants, and to exchange some jam. Totally ran out of time. Maybe I could come see you tomorrow? Or Monday?

Clong said...

Someone is a little starstruck:) Come over whenever you want. It's not like I leave the house a lot in my shingle-y state...except church...hope I didn't infect anyone:)