Around Thanksgiving time, some friends from South Texas spent the night with with us on their way through. We enjoyed visiting with them, and during visiting I discovered was that they routinely make their own yogurt. Intrigued, I armed myself with a pen and with my cooking notebook, and asked them to describe what they did.
Yesterday, I made yogurt for the first time. I made two batches, since the first one didn't really look like it would be enough to feed eight hungry people for breakfast. The first batch, I followed the recipe I was given and used powdered milk. The second batch, my mother figured out I used powdered milk and told me to use the raw whole milk in the fridge instead. So I did, and it worked fine, but it was still cooling at breakfast time since I put it in last night, so it hasn't been tasted yet (although I smelled it and it smelled right).
This morning for breakfast we had yogurt and granola. I mixed a few spoonfuls of delicious raspberry jam in with the yogurt, and it gave it a mild berry flavor. Considering how fast the yogurt (and granola!) disappeared at breakfast, it looks like both my attempts were a success.
Here is the yogurt recipe I was given:
Take 1 quart good quality yogurt (Mtn. High/Dannon- actually, we ignored this and used the cheapest generic brand), freeze in ice cube trays.
You'll also need a heating pad, glass jars, a large stock pot, two towels.
To make one batch, take 4 'ice cubes' and thaw them in a bowl.
You will also need 2 quarts water and 4 cups powdered milk. (Or 2 quarts milk, which I used the second time.)
Set jars on heating pad to warm, set heating pad on highest setting and cover jars with upside down stock pot.
Gradually heat milk in saucepan to 180 degrees F while stirring. When at 180 degrees F, set aside till temperature has cooled to 115 degrees.
At 115 degrees add about 1/2 cup of the warm milk to the melted yogurt cubes, mix well. Then add yogurt/milk mixture to milk in pan, stir well. Pour in glass jars, put on lids. Replace stock pot over jars, and put the towels over the stockpot, trying to keep in the heat generated by the heating pad. Leave until gels, around 8-9 hours.
Our friends suggested mixing canned or dried fruit, vanilla, or honey in the yogurt. This time, though, we decided to mix in a few spoonfuls of some delicious jam instead, and it was great.
If anyone has questions to ask, or tips to share (!) on yogurt making, please, go for it! If my directions above aren't clear, feel free to ask me to clarify. This was a really fun thing to make and I hope others will try it out as well.
9 comments:
Told ya' you could be a pro!
Good goin'
That sounds good! I should try to make it sometime!! :o)
~Jessi Gilliam
You a very adventerous, Natalie ;-) My Mom makes LOTS of yogurt! I'm not completely sure how she makes it but this is a loose idea ;-) You will have to ask her for exact details/measurements if you want them =)
She heats up as much milk as she wants to a certain temperature, then removes it from the heat and lets it cool. After that, she adds vanilla, sugar (or, if we want plain yogurt, no sugar) and a couple tablespoons of "starter" (you can use plain yogurt from the store for starter, or you can make your own) We used to also add a little bit of powdered milk at this time in the process, but once we forgot to and it turned out just fine! We fill a stock pot with warm water, set the jars of yogurt in it, and let it sit in our oven (since it is gas it is always fairly warm) for 4 hours, I think, or until firm.
I think you basically do it just like us, except for the frozen yogurt cubes part :)
It must have been so yummy with raspberry jam!
~Kailey
Thanks for sharing, Natalie! Perhaps one of these days I will give it a try.
Wow! Good Job.
Mrs. Walworth's youngest girl, calls yogurt "yorgit"! So now, any time someone has yogurt, Hannah and I say Yorgit. lol
Good to "see" you Jess!
Thanks, JFC! :-)
Yes, Jessi Leigh G., you should definitely try it sometime! It was really fun.
Thanks for sharing, K.B.! It was interesting to hear how you do it... I especially liked the four hour wait compared to the eight hour wait! :-)
You're welcome, Natalie. I would encourage you to jump in and try it... I thought it sounded hard, so I put off doing it, but it wasn't as difficult as I expected. I hope you'll blog about it if you do try it, I'd love to hear how it works for you. :-)
Thanks, Jessi! LOL to the "yorgit!" A few of my brothers were having trouble saying 'granola', they kept mixing it with vanilla somehow in their minds and saying 'granilla'! :-)
MyBelovedIsMine- It wasn't too hard... I'll post the recipe and what I did within a few days. :-) Plus, all the granola is gone so I'm about to make it again anyway.
It's sounds like an interesting recipe, maybe I'll try it some time! :o)
You should, Lauren, it was fun! :-)
I did notice with the second batch, made with milk instead of powdered milk, that it was a little less firm, more like store bought yogurt.
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