Friday, September 26, 2008

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap - The Girl Made What?

Ok. I don't know why stuff like this excites me so much but it does. I'm just geek enough to admit it. I've always been a bit overwhelmed at the thought of making certain things. Bread for example. But no more. It's amazing how actually giving something a try can dispel all your fears.

This week I conquered my fear of home yogurt making!

I always thought it was going to be complicated or that I'd give my family some funky dairy-bred-bacteria poisoning or that I'd have to buy one of those expensive special machines that makes 6 very tiny (and not enough) yogurt cups for my large family.

But if you're thinking those same things let me just blow them out of the water for you.

THIS STUFF IS UNBELIEVABLY EASY TO MAKE!

We use yogurt a lot. We use it for smoothies, yogurt parfaits, when someone has an upset tummy, to counteract yeast infections if someone is on a medication, in place of sour cream in recipes, and a gajillion other things. So making my own supply to fill our demand is something I've wanted to do for awhile.

So without any further ado....



Homemade Yogurt For Those Paralyzed By The Fear Of Trying It

You'll need....





1/4 cup starter yogurt (any plain yogurt but it must say LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES on the container)

A clean glass jar big enough to hold a quart of yogurt

1 3/4 cups instant powdered milk

3 3/4 cups cold water

Whisk together your water and powdered milk. It's a stronger than usual ratio of instant milk to water because the richer the milk, the thicker the finished project.




Whisk in your yogurt.


Pour into the glass jar.


Heat oven to approximately 100 degrees and then turn off the oven and turn ON the oven light. The oven light will keep a nice warm temperature for the yogurt to incubate and the incubation process is what causes it to thicken and set. Place jar of yogurt inside the oven and let sit for 8-10 hours undisturbed or until yogurt is thick like store bought yogurt. Mine didn't set up as quickly as it said it would but I just left it in until it DID thicken. I put this in the oven about 8PM and let it sit until morning.


When your yogurt is thick enough, put it in the fridge to stop the incubation process and get it cool enough to eat.

Seriously. That's it.

To sweeten it up I stirred in a little honey and some vanilla when we were just going to eat it straight without using it for cooking. And you can use some of this batch as your starter yogurt for your next batch.

So that' s my contribution to the recipe swap this week. What's yours?

To Participate:

  • Post a recipe on your blog with a LINK BACK HERE.
  • Fill in the Mr. Linky with your name and recipe title and on the second line put the link directly to your recipe post, not your general blog address.
  • Then go look at all the other links and get great ideas for next weeks menu.



24 comments:

Mrs. X said...

For some reason I always thought making yogurt would involve a lot of sterilizing, similar to canning. Now that I know the truth, it just looks freakishly easy! :)
Thanks for sharing!

Rebecca MacLary said...

And how does it taste? Does it taste like store bought? Could I add some peach jam (homemade) to it for flavor?

$5 Dinner Mom said...

Way to go! I used to use the same method when we lived in the Dominican Republic. I'm hoping to get one of those fancy yogurt makers for my birthday. I would love to give my boys homemade and all preservative free yogurt! Thanks for the great tutorial!
Erin

Gayle said...

Berry,

It tastes EXACTLY like store bought. We taste tested the both of them together to compare. I'm sure you could stir in anything to change the flavor.

Trina said...

I am definitely trying this! Thanks :)

Jenny said...

I bought a yogurt maker at amazon for $14. We like to add preserves to our yogurt.

WendyDarling said...

That does look easy. I may have to try this. :-) It would make a great science experiment. :-)

Anonymous said...

Too cool, thank you for this. We too go through a lot of yogurt and at the price of it, it's just about the most expensive item we buy. Can't wait to buy the ingredients and try this :)

Aliisa said...

From Aliisa:
I used to make yogurt using a method similar to that and yes it is totally easy!! I now have a yogurt maker with an extra set of cups so I can make 7 in one batch and then 7 in my second batch.

Just info for you, the recipe I used said that your homemade yogurt is only good for about 3 starts, then its doesnt work as well and you have to buy a new starter. And I did find this to be true. I would have a batch flop if I didnt buy a new starter soon enough. But it is still much more economical!!

StrusaD said...

Sounds great! I have been wanting to try this for quite some time. Could you use another method to incubate it? Say placing in a warm window all day (in 90+ weather)? Or is it a problem if it gets too warm? Thanks for the great post!

Phoebe @ GettingFreedom said...

I've always heard of people making yogurt, but never really gave it much thought myself. I've also heard that you could do it in the crockpot...
I may just have to give this a whirl! Thank you for the tutorial!

Gayle said...

Phoebe,

I read that some people set the jar in a pan of water with a thermometer in it and just warm it up every time it starts to cool off. I've heard that some people keep it by their fireplace, or on their radiator. The point is to just keep it between 100 - 120 degrees while it incubates. I bet you could get really creative with it.

tweezle said...

That's cool! I posted about making yogurt on my blog this week - including making yogurt cheese.

Miriam said...

Cool, I'll have to try this :) Thanks for trying this out for us :P

Stephanie said...

Thanks for the tutorial! I too have always been too afraid to try. You made it look so easy!

Miriam said...

Gayle, How much of the finished yogurt did your recipe make? I think I might try it:)

Gayle said...

It made a quart.

Sharon said...

OK So I came here to snag your yogurt recipe. I thought I'd try it.... when I noticed, your oven, It's so clean!!

Anonymous said...

Oooohhhh- this is something I will definitely try! How long does the yogurt keep? All four of our family loves yogurt and we eat it every day. I'd like to make a big batch of it once a week if it goes over well. We eat Yoplait yogurt- what brand do you think it tastes like?

Also, my kids just discovered the Whips yogurt by Yoplait. Any thoughts on how to make it fluffy?

Gayle said...

Boy, I have no idea how to make it similar to whips. I love those too but I'm suspecting there's a little gelatin involved to get it light and airy like that. The homemade yogurt has lasted 2 weeks for me before it got eaten.

Unknown said...

You can use a crockpot to make yogurt as well. :) I've seen several online recipes for that.

Karilee said...

Thanks for sharing this! I've been making our homemade yogurt for years, but have never used dry milk powder to do it.
I use a similar method to yours, the oven I mean. I make about 6 quarts at a time, using canning jars. It works great and since we have so much on hand it is so easy to use it in place of sour cream also. Very inexpensive, I love it!!

Stephanie said...

I know this is an old post, but I was curious if the texture of your yogurt is the same as store bought. I've made yogurt using a similar method, and the texture of my yogurt isn't the same as store bought. Its not as nice to eat straight because of the texture, but we have used it in smoothies.

Gayle said...

Stephanie, I like mine thick so I now I always add an extra 1/4 cup of powdered milk. But without adding it it's very creamy. Honestly, it's been so long since I ate store bought yogurt that I'm not quite sure if it's the same or not.