Yogurt making is actually really easy, especially if you have a yogurt maker. The maker maintains the perfect temperature for yogurt cultures to grow (you can make yogurt without a maker, and there are plenty of websites that will tell you how, the yogurt maker just maintains a temperature of ~111F, so if you don't have the maker, you have to find another way to maintain the temperature for a loooong time. If it's too hot, you'll kill the cultures, if it's too cold the cultures won't grow fast enough) and all you have to do is be patient and wait 8 to 12 hours for it to be made! We make whole milk yogurt, because we aren't afraid of milk fat, but you can use skim milk. We also add powdered milk because I like thick yogurt, and powdered milk adds more milk without the extra moisture. Just a few things to make you aware of before we begin! So let's begin!
Utensils you need: a high sided saucepan, a pitcher, and a whisk. (I also use an immersion blender sometimes- I'll get to that!)
Ingredients for yogurt flavored with jam or jelly:
- 4 to 5 tablespoons of jam or jelly (taste preference)
- 6 ounces of unflavored yogurt or 1 tablespoon of culture (it's cheaper to buy a quart of plain yogurt and keep using it than buying yogurt starter)
- 5 to 7 tablespoons of powdered milk
- about 42 ounces of milk (or seven jars not all-the-way full) of milk
Our yogurt maker has seven six-ounce small jars:
So we use seven jars of milk (about 42 ounces of milk). You pour your milk into the sauce pan and slowly heat the milk, stirring constantly to keep the milk from burning to the bottom of the pan. Heating ensures a firmer yogurt.
The milk will start to climb the side of the saucepan, and have a frothy surface. Once you reach a temperature of 180F, remove the saucepan from heat and allow milk to cool to lukewarm (95F). Keep stirring! To accelerate the cooling, move the pan into an ice bath. You can see in the picture below the line the milk climbed up the pan.
While the milk is cooling off you are going to make your culture. I start with a 6-oz jar of plain yogurt, the powdered milk, and the jam. You can change the amounts of jam and powdered milk to suit your tastes. Stir these together as best as you can.
You will stir some of the milk into the yogurt mix until the yogurt is dissolved and you have a smooth mixture.
Pour this mixture into your pitcher. Add the milk.
Now if you like chunks of fruit in your yogurt, move right along to the next step. But if you are like us and don't want the chunks, you will take your immersion blender and blend the yogurt mix until everything is smooth.
Get everything combined and smoothed. Then arrange your containers. Make sure they are clean!
Pour your yogurt into jars.
Arrange the jars onto the yogurt maker and turn on the machine.
Leave the white lids off of the jars. Cover the maker with the plastic cover.
Then wait FOREVER (or eight hours if you used whole milk, ten if you used 2%, twelve if you used skim). As you can see on our yogurt maker, there are little gray numbers on the side of it to indicate hours, and the plastic cover has a little notch you can move to hover over the number of hours you need to wait until the yogurt is ready. What I do is move the notch to the time when my yogurt will be ready. So if my yogurt will be done at 8 o'clock, I move the notch over the top of the 8. In the mean time, clean up your mess! You will surprised at how few dishes you used!
Only a pot, a bowl, a pitcher, and a spoon or two! So easy! When the yogurt is done (all firmed up), turn off the maker. Water might condense on the clear lid of the maker, so when you remove the lid, be sure none of the condensation drips back into the jars. Cover the jars with the white lids and chill them in the refrigerator for a minimum of three hours before eating.
So there are pros and cons to yogurt-making. You are taking time out of your busy schedule to make what you can just pick up in a grocery store. You do have to wait a long time before you can eat it, and you can only have as much as your little jars will hold. Don't forget about the up-front cost of the maker to begin with.
BUT on the other hand, you know what is going into your yogurt, you can add or take away the ingredients, so add honey, sugar, more jam, less jam, etc. If you use the maker a lot, it is worth the cost and makes your life easier than without. You can make lots of yogurt from one quart of plain yogurt. All-in-all, your 6-oz jar of yogurt is just nickels and dimes to what you buy in the grocery store. I also use yogurt-making as a time for bonding with Nate. We enjoy making it together just as much as we enjoy soap-making together, and you can eat the results.
So there you are, folks, get yogurt-making! What are you waiting for? Oh, you might have questions? Well, don't be afraid to ask!
(Most of the directions, I got from the instruction manual for our yogurt maker- Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker. I did improvise on some of the parts, which means YOU CAN TOO!!!)
Oh, and of course I can't have a post without a picture of my little one!
Relaxing with Papa!
Tummy time!
Hanging out with Mama!
- Posted with the help of my iPad!
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