Homemade Yogurt

 I've had this yogurt maker since I got married. It was either a wedding gift or we bought it with some gift cards we got. I made yogurt back then, but for some reason I stopped and didn't touch it again until earlier this week. My kids are always asking for yogurt at the grocery store, and I thought to myself, why am I buying this junk yogurt when it's not that hard to make it myself?

So I decided to make some. The great thing about yogurt is that all you need is some milk and some cultures. I get my cultures from (what else?) yogurt. I'll buy a small one serving container of yogurt, roughly 6 oz, and use that to make more yogurt. The only catch is that it has to be plain yogurt and it has to have live and active cultures, otherwise it will not work. Here's how I made my yogurt:

Heat 42 oz of milk in a saucepan until it boils and starts to climb the sides of the saucepan. Remove from heat and let cool until it's room temperature.

 Once milk has cooled, pour into a pitcher through a sieve or mesh colander. This will get rid of any skin that forms on the top.

 Mix the plain yogurt with some milk. I also added a spoonful of dry milk. I've heard it makes it creamier, so I thought I'd give it a try. It also adds a little extra calcium.

Pour the mixture into your jars and place in the maker without the lids. It's really more of an incubator. It keeps the temperature just right for those cultures to get working. I left mine in for about 8 hours.

After the 8 hours, they looked like this. The yogurt had formed and whey accumulated on the top. You can mix the whey in with the yogurt if you like yours a little runnier, or you can pour the whey out and use it for other things. With out the whey it becomes more like greek yogurt. 

I put all the whey in a mason jar and stuck it in the fridge. Never throw it away. It can always be used for something. You can use it in the place of buttermilk in recipes or you can use it as plant food.

Plain yogurt is not my cup of tea. It tastes a lot like sour cream and I'm not big on eating that plain, so I'll usually add something to make it a little sweeter. Here I put in a scoop of strawberry jam and it was delicious. I've also added fresh fruit or you can even just add a scoop of sugar. I really like that our maker makes it in these convenient single serving jars. I just save 1 jar and use it in my next batch. I've heard that you can only do this a few times before it doesn't turn out, so I'm interested in seeing how that goes.

I realize that not everyone has a yogurt maker, but you don't really need one. You can incubate your yogurt in the oven, or in a cooler with a heat pad, or some other creative way. If it's around 100 degrees outside, you can even put it outside. Another great website on how to make yogurt without a maker can be found here.

I used skim milk when I made it this time and it was a little bit grainy. I've heard that if you use a fattier milk is will be creamier, so I'm going to try that next time. Also, yogurt is supposed to freeze well, so you can freeze the starter for your next batch if you don't plan on making it very often. All of this makes for cheaper, healthier yogurt because you control what's in it.