sprinklefingers

i’ve got news for you:

making your own yogurt is not, in fact, magic!
it’s actually easy. so easy that it feels like cheating.

so easy that when your friends are AMAZED that you made your own yogurt you’ll feel slightly guilty for not telling them that it’s only as difficult as boiling boiling water (sort of)! [my advice to you, at least for a few days, don’t tell anyone how easy it is. let them be amazed by your skills for as long as possible. take photos of your yogurt and post them to facebook. bring a jar of yogurt to work and make sure to mention to others that you made. it. yourself. eat up the attention. AND eat up the yogurt!]

i-made-it-myself vanilla bean yogurt
makes approximately 42 oz

you need:

• 32 oz 2% milk (the fresher the better. make sure it’s not about to expire.)
• 10 oz half & half (the fresher the better. make sure it’s not about to expire.)
• one vanilla bean, seeds stripped out
• 6 oz (170 grams) commercial (store bought) plain whole milk yogurt (with live cultures.) it’s best to remove the yogurt from the fridge when you begin heating your milk.

here’s how you do it:

1. pour the milk and the half & half into a tall-sided sauce pan. place the pan over medium-high heat.
2. cut open the vanilla bean and scrape out all of its seeds. plop those seeds into the milk/half & half. [note: you can also place the scraped bean into the pot to bring out even more vanilla flavor. i don’t do this because i’m addicted to vanilla sugar.]
3. wait for the milk/half & half to boil. allow it to boil so that it crawls up the side of the pot, then immediately pull it off the heat (and when i say immediately, i mean it. unless you like to clean up hot milk messes.)
4. allow the milk/half & half to cool to 100 degrees. use a thermometer, please. [word of warning: DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. disastrous results await if you do not allow the milk to cool. speaking from experience, of course.]
5. once cool, ladle out a portion of the somewhat cooled milk/half & half and whisk in the yogurt. whisk until completely smooth.
6. pour the milk/yogurt mixture back into the remaining milk/half & half mixture and whisk again until completely smooth.

now you have the base of some (soon to be) vanilla bean yogurt.

here’s what you do next:

• if you have a yogurt making machine: fill each very clean jar (or the one jar if you have that type of maker) with the yogurt base. put the jars inside the machine. close the lid and turn on. let sit for 7 hours. remove the jars, put on their lids and refrigerate for 3 hours minimum.

• if you do not have a yogurt making machine there are a handful of ways you can turn your yogurt base into actual yogurt:

1. pour the yogurt base (while still warm) into a large enough lidded glass jar. screw on the lid. wrap a bath towel around the jar and fasten it so that it stays. place the towel-wrapped jar in a cooler or other somewhat air-tight container and let sit overnight (minimum of 8 hours.) in the morning, remove the jar from the towel/container and refrigerate for a minimum of 5 hours (longer than the tiny jars of yogurt because this is one big jar!)
2. OR pour the yogurt base (while still warm) into a large enough lidded glass jar. screw on the lid. place the jar in your GAS oven. the interior of a gas oven is usually a bit warm because the pilot light is always on. it’s warm enough, in fact, to turn your yogurt base into yogurt. allow the jar to hang out in the oven overnight (minimum 8 hours.) in the morning, remove the jar from the towel/container and refrigerate for a minimum of 5 hours (longer than the tiny jars of yogurt because this is one big jar!)

the warm jar method, whether you incubate the yogurt in a cooler or your oven, will yield a yogurt that has some whey (looks like water) in it. so far i’ve tested three batches of jar/cooler yogurt and all three batches have contained whey i’ve had to drain off. simply tip the jar & pour out the whey OR strain it through doubled-up cheese cloth. refrigerate what’s left over and - voila - yogurt!

the method you use for incubating the yogurt base is really up to you - a machine is nice because you don’t have to think about it…and in all of my testing a machine has yielded a yogurt with perfectly thick consistency.

but I know space is limited for yet another kitchen device, and there are other ways… the jar/towel method is very easy and yields good results, as does the pilot light method. still, a quick search on the internet will show you that all sorts of people do all sorts of things to incubate their yogurt base - some pour the base into a jar, then fill additional jars with boiling water, THEN place all the jars in a cooler and let it sit. there are others who insist that all you really need is an insulated thermos-type vessel…pour in the warm yogurt base, put on the lid and let sit until morning - no additional towels or jars of boiling water required.

i will warn you though, if you make yogurt without the help of a yogurt maker, you’ll want to make sure your base stays at a temperature of 100-110 degrees during its incubation period. if it gets much cooler, you’ll end up with completely pourable (as opposed to plopable) yogurt. it’ll still be yogurt, it just may not be a consistency you’re used to.

still, it’s the combination of the incubation time PLUS the fact that you boiled the milk that forces the yogurt base to firm up - so play with all of these methods (as you have time) to see what ends up working best for your liking. personally, i love my machine. and while i’m not saying you need a machine to make good yogurt, i do love the foolproofness of it.

coming soon: a post taking you beyond vanilla yogurt…we’ll discuss flavors!

———————————————

i leave you now with a shot of my very own vanilla bean yogurt. i made it myself!





ps: no, this yogurt isn’t lowfat. yes, you can make lowfat yogurt, but this post is not about lowfat yogurt. yes, you can use a commercial yogurt starter instead of actual yogurt to make, well, yogurt…but why would you? yes, you can use dry milk powder to help thicken the yogurt, and yes that allows you to maybe, probably skip the part where you boil the milk..but again, this post is not about making yogurt with dry milk. just like any food item under the sun, there are many, many, many other ways to prepare yogurt. but i’m only one lady with one blog. so, there.