Yogurt, Take 2

I have made yogurt before using a crock pot method. The flavor was great, but I didn't like the thin consistency that I kept getting. After seeing a blog post by Dig This Chick on her recipe and method for yogurt, I thought I'd give yogurt making a try again. I enjoying knowing that there are ways I can reduce the premade foods in our home, plus everything tastes a little better when it's made with LOVE.

We get WIC for the boys. WIC stands for Women Infant Children. It's a program designed to provide "supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five". We get an abundance of milk. So much milk that I often times don't take all that we are allotted. By making my own yogurt I'll have a chance to use half a gallon of milk that we otherwise would not consume. I do not consider the milk we get through WIC quality milk. I'd prefer local organic milk, which I'll switch to after we leave Alaska.

Ingredients;

• 1/2 gallon whole milk
• Some pre-made yogurt

A little over a table spoon in each jar.

I thought I might need a funnel, but didn't have one. Brandon fashioned one for me. He's so creative.

Makeshift funnel.

The whole yogurt making process is really easy. You warm your milk up to 175F on medium heat. Let the milk cool to 115F and then add it to the jars with the pre-made yogurt. You give the jars one or two shakes and then add them to the oven with a towel wrapped around them and the oven light on.

The hardest part of this process was having patience for the milk to cool down to 115. I tried to find other things to do around the kitchen, yet I still had too much time to stare at the thermometer.

After being in the oven for 8 hours I put the jars of yogurt into the fridge. At this point I could have called the yogurt complete, but I decided to drain some of the whey out, to thicken it even more.

Before draining the whey.

I didn't have cheesecloth so I used coffee filters.

I didn't see a huge difference after draining the whey. It might just be a step I skip in the future. Besides, I read whey is some healthy stuff.

I use yogurt in place of sour cream, in baking and occasionally in smoothies. Tanner and I eat yogurt every night after Dillan goes to bed. We like it sprinkled with a little granola on it. I think having homemade yogurt in the house, that I can make for free, is going to be awesome.

 

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