Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt. I mean I really l-o-v-e yogurt. I love it so much that I eat it almost every day at every meal. I love the taste, the creaminess, and the fact that it is good for you. But...it is rather expensive to buy when a person buys as much as what I use to. I use to spend so much on yogurt that I almost needed to get a second job just so I could pay for my “addiction.” Then I tried making my own, and liked that even better.

Making yogurt is fast, easy, and inexpensive. You don't need any special equipment to make it and most of ingredients you probably already have on hand.

Shirley's Notes:

• You can replace the honey with an equal amount of sugar. If you are wanting the yogurt to be sugar free, you can replace it with 6 packets of your favorite sweetener.
• I have found for myself, and my tastes, that the lower the fat content of the milk, the more “sour” the yogurt will taste. I prefer a fat content of 2% or more. But that is just me.
• You don't have to use the unflavored gelatin if you don't want to. I only add it to thicken the yogurt so that it will have the same thickness and creaminess as store bought.
• The best way that I have found to dissolve powdered gelatin is to dissolve it FIRST in a little bit of the cold milk and then add it to the warm milk. Otherwise the gelatin globs together and all I end up with is something that looks very nasty floating around in my yogurt.
• Always save back a ¼ cup of yogurt for starter for your next batch.(The carton of store bought yogurt pictured below is empty. I only included it in the picture to show that a starter was needed.)

Yogurt Recipe

What You Will Need:

• 1 quart Milk
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin, dissolved (see above note)
• ½ cup of powdered milk
• 2 Tablespoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup of plain yogurt
• medium size bowl
• 2 quart sauce pan
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• wooden spoon
• whisk
• plastic wrap
• candy thermometer

Steps:

1. Heat milk to 185°F then stir in powdered milk, honey, vanilla, and gelatin.
2. Put plain yogurt in a bowl
3. Let the heated milk cool to 110°F. Using a whisk, gradually stir in cooled milk, about ½ cup at a time, into the plain yogurt, stirring until smooth between additions.
4. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, poking 2 or 3 holes for ventilation.
5. Transfer to a warm place (about 90°F...oven works wonderful for this) and let sit until milk begins to thicken around the edge and the yogurt is set, which will be about 5 hours.
6. Place bowl in refrigerator until completely chilled.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting my blog.