Making Yogurt

Last Sunday -- Palm Sunday -- my church challenged everyone to do a screen fast. What is a screen fast? A screen fast is a decision to deny yourself something that you spend a lot of time at -- to give up movies, TV, video games, and social media to focus on Christ during Holy Week. I decided to give up screens for a week. But I had to fill up some of that empty time with something, so I decided to try something that I have wanted to do for a long time -- make homemade yogurt.

I love yogurt. I eat a lot of yogurt and buying the little cups of single serve yogurt gets expensive. Even the large containers of yogurt is expensive at $5 or $6 per quart and milk is only about $3.00 per gallon. I knew that if I could make yogurt, I could save money.

I had already talked to an acquaintance at a party just before Christmas who makes his own yogurt -- he made it sound so easy. I had done some research on the internet about making yogurt and there it sounded easy -- it was just a matter of finding the time. And now, with my screen fast, I had time.

This is the method/recipe I decided to use:

Ingredients

1/2 gallon whole milk
1/4 c Greek yogurt with active culture (I used FAGE on my first batch)
Tools

Food Thermometer
Microwave Oven
Picnic cooler
Container (I used a 2 quart Pyrex dish)

1) Heat the milk in the microwave using a heat resistant container to a temperature of 185° to 195° stirring occasionally. In my Pyrex dish, it took about 15 - 18 minutes.

2) While the milk is heating, pour warm water of 120°  in a picnic cooler. This will be where the yogurt sits while the culture multiplies.

3) As soon as this temperature is reached place the bowl in a sink full of cold water and stir until the temperature reaches about 120°.

4) Remove about 1 cup of milk and mix into the 1/4 cup of yogurt. When this is completely mixed, pour it back into the warm milk and cover with lid or plastic wrap. Transfer the container to the cooler and let sit UNDISTURBED for at least 6 hours. Remove from the cooler and refrigerate.

My first batch was not really great. In my research, I read that the time to leave yogurt to culture was anywhere from 3 to 12 hours. I left my first batch for 3.5 hours. It tasted like mild yogurt but was not very sour. (I like mine pretty sour -- more like Greek yogurt.) The first batch also did not set up enough, in fact it was somewhat slimy and thin. Not such a great consistency. But not being one to waste food, I just mixed it with some cooked apples and it was delicious. I also used some to make a yogurt dill dressing for Tilapia that I made in my pressure cooker.

My second batch was much better. I used 1/4 cup of the first batch as the culture for this batch. I left the yogurt in the warm water filled cooler for 6 hours. This yogurt set up nicely and was a much more pleasant consistency. It was somewhat more sour although still rather mild tasting.

The last batch that I made sat in the cooler for 8 hours. This yogurt was perfect! Very thick and just right in sourness. So, at least for me, I found the perfect length of time. So easy to add a little culture to my life!

I served my yogurt up with some cooked Fuji Apples. No sugar, just the apples with 1 cup of water in my slow cooker. Yum.

Happy fermenting!