Homemade Yogurt Tutorial

I LOVE yogurt! In my opinion homemade yogurt is sooo delicious and I feel really good about knowing what exactly I'm eating. I started making my own a few years ago when I had this awesome old gas stove with a pilot light in it that made the incubating really easy. I stopped briefly when we moved from that house (and stove) but now have figured out a solution that will work ANYWHERE! so I'm pretty stoked about that. 

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You'll need:

- Pot big enough for the amount of yogurt you want to make. (A heavier bottom bottom will provide a more even heat so your milk doesn't burn as easily while you heat it)

- Whisk

- Thermometer (candy thermometer works great!)

- Milk (I use Organic Homogenized 3.25%)

- about a 1/4 cup of yogurt containing all the good bacteria!! (in the future you can just reserve a little of your last batch to make your next one.

- Cutting board

- Heating pad

- Towel

- Clean sink

Step 2: Pour your milk. You'll want to keep whisking/stirring your milk every once in a while as it heats. No need to stand over it stirring constantly, you just don't want it to burn.

However much yogurt you want to make. That is how much milk you need. Remember you'll need to have a large enough container to store your yogurt in afterwards as well! I usually make 2L at a time and store it in an old yogurt container from when I used to buy the big buckets of yogurt.

 Step 3 - Heat to 185' F - this ensures any bad bacteria are cooked and gone :)

Step 4 - Immediately Cool your milk to 110' F - I put my whole pot in the sink, run some cold water (you can even throw some ice cubes in) and take the lid off.

Step 5 - Add your yogurt and whisk it in.  You don't want to let it get too much below 110' F but adding the yogurt in too early when your milk is still too warm will kill the bacteria and you'll just get sour milk rather than yogurt. (If this happens you can either A) try again with the same milk (I've done this!) or B) use it for baking, smoothies, etc.)

Step 6 - Wait it our for 7 Hours - this is the hardest part. NO Peeking! Have your heating pad set up on top of a cutting board with your towel ready to go. Once you've added the yogurt then pop 'er on top and cover it all up with the towel. This should keep things nicely at between the 100'F and 110'F mark (which is your goal). The longer you leave it the more sour, but it needs 6-7 hours to do the magic.

Step 7 - Chill & EAT! - So YUMMY! I usually just throw my whole pot in the fridge and chill it that way first. You can totally transfer at this point you have your yogurt. However I find that by putting the whole pot in the fridge it continues to settle a bit and then if you have any whey (yellowish liquid) floating on top you can more easily pour it off. If you transfer early that whey will mix in and your yogurt will be a little runnier.

mmmmm Yogurt!

If you want even THICKER yogurt you can do a couple things. 1) Add some milk powder to your milk or 2) strain your yogurt through a cheese cloth or fine sieve - this takes a bit more time but you can get that greek texture if you're looking for the cream.

Enjoy!

-S