Homemade Yogurt

This delectable something! Oh, I am pleased as punch that I finally figured out how to make this at home! Yogurt, delectable thick, smooth and creamy yogurt, homemade without a machine. Omgosh this makes me so happy!

Previously, I gotta admit, we were kinda so-so on yogurt. Sometimes good, sometimes okay, sometimes too sweet or a wee bit too sour, fruit kinda goopy, etc. That and the kinda pricey price point and we never really got into yogurt. But one fine day I read that making yogurt at home was pretty straight forward and, as I had recently discovered a really great milk, we plunged into our great homemade yogurt experiment.

Our recent discovery of this wonderful tasting whole milk thing is probably why I started thinking about all the possibilities of 'making' with milk. It is a Japanese milk called Meiji Milk and it has a high milk fat percentage of 4.3% and it's sooooo delicious, all milky and creamy in equal measure. So first tip for a scrummy yogurt: source a really good milk!

Take that luscious milk and pour it all into a big pot and heat it up until the temperature reaches 180°F (82°C). This pasteurizes the milk and denatures the whey proteins. Check temperature with a food thermometer, the one 'tool' I think is necessary in making yogurt. It really helps make sure that you can create the right temperature for the fermentation of the milk into yogurt.

Once the milk has reached 180°F (82°C) it's immediately removed from the heat and allowed to cool down to 110°F (43°C). Why do we need to cool the milk down to this particular temp? It's because the next step is the adding of the 'starter' yogurt and any temperatures above 110°F will kill off the active beneficial bacteria in the starter yogurt that is exactly the thing that is gonna ferment your milk into yogurt.

How to cool your milk? If you just leave it at room temp like I do it will take around 2 hours to cool down. I like to cover my pot with a cheesecloth while cooling so that nothing accidentally falls into it. You can give it a stir with a sterile utensil a time or two to push aside the skin that forms on top of the milk as it cools.

If you are in a hurry you can place the pot in an ice bath. But I like that making yogurt is a slow and easy process that kinda floats in and out of my day, so I just let room temp do its thing.

And don't at all worry if you miss the temperature and go lower than 110°F (happens to me all the time, total space cadet!) No problemo, just place the pot back on the stove and use a low heat to reach 110°F (43°C) again.

Besides the fresh milk, the only other ingredient you will need to make your homemade yogurt is some 'starter' yogurt that has the live, beneficial bacteria in it already.

First time to make yogurt: Buy a starter yogurt. How to find yogurt with live active cultures? Check the labels of yogurts or greek yogurts for the words 'live and active cultures', 'lactobacillus bulgaricus' or 'streptococcus thermophilus'. We always use greek yogurt, which is just more concentrated yogurt. However, do note that not all yogurts are equally efficient as 'starters'. I've tried one or two that didn't work at all. So, in the beginning, you may need to experiment with different yogurts as 'starters' before you find ones that work well. As for us, we finally settled on a fabulous greek yogurt that makes the smoothest, creamiest yogurt we've ever eaten!

Second time and onwards: Once you've made yogurt successfully you should be able to save a bit of that homemade yogurt as 'starter' for your next batch. Theoretically, that is. When I first started I saved a bit of my yogurt to start the next batch. However one or two further batches in and my finished yogurt started to expand and overflow out of the yogurt jar after sitting in the fridge for a day or two. Ugh...what the hey?

Not sure quite why that happened but I switched back to buying my 'starter' yogurt from the store until I got more confident with my yogurt skills. Nowadays, with more yogurt-y experience, I've gone back to using my own yogurt as my 'starter' with success. So, in others words, patience and persistence! And sterilization!

Tip: While the milk is cooling, take your starter yogurt out of the fridge and let it warm up to room temp.

At this point you should have room temp starter yogurt and 110°F (43°C) milk. You need to add the starter to the milk but you gotta do it slowly so as not to kill the beneficial bacteria. Add starter yogurt to a sterile bowl, then add a ladleful of milk. Stir to combine. Continue adding one ladle of milk at a time, stirring to mix, until the temp of the yogurt is equal to the temp of the milk. Pour it all back into the pot of milk and and give it all a final gentle stir.

Milk pasteurized, starter added, it's time to ferment! The milk needs to be kept at a steady warm temperature and undisturbed for at least 8 hours while it ferments into yogurt.

You've probably heard of yogurt machines. These are used to keep a steady temperature while the milk ferments. In the absence of a proper yogurt machine, you can easily improvise your own ad hoc yogurt machine!

There are two steps to my ad hoc method. First, I place the lid on my milk pot and then put the whole thing inside an insulated food bag, clipping the ends closed to keep in the heat.

The next step further ensures to keep that steady temperature and also that the fermenting milk is undisturbed. Previously would I further wrap the insulated pot in a pile of thick blankets in the corner of the bed. This was sometimes inconvenient, however, as we would occasionally forget that it was there and sit on it. Nowadays, I simply place the wrapped pot in a cold oven and close the door. Heat is further kept in and the pot is out of the way and undisturbed.

This is the result of our fermentation! The milk has fermented into a smooth pudding like texture and is ready for draining. This texture is what I consider a very good result of the fermentation. But it's not always so straightforward.

The fermentation process is where yogurt making gets a bit tricky. Is it going to become yogurt or not? Well, the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. As you get more experienced at it it will be much more often yes. Sometimes I don't achieve the pudding like texture, rather getting a slightly curdled texture. Still works, just not as creamy. Other times the dratted thing doesn't do anything, just stays as milk. Bummer...but, pssst, it turns out you can make ricotta cheese with that failed to become yogurt milk! More on that soon.

As to why the darn thing sometimes doesn't become yogurt? Well, it could be many things so here are our tips to successful yogurt fermentation: Keep utensils sterile so as to not introduce unwanted bacteria. Be careful with getting the correct temperature. Keep the pot at steady temperature. Keep that pot undisturbed. Try a different starter yogurt.

And the most important thing overall that I have learned on the path to making good yogurt is: Allow enough time for fermentation! I started with the usual 8 hours. Nowadays I let the fermenting milk sit, wrapped, in the oven for up to 24 hours. Your success rate will become much higher and your yogurt will become tangier, thicker and oh so much creamier...yummm!

Once fermented, the milk has to be drained to remove excess whey. Easy peasy, just set up a cheesecloth bag in a strainer over a bowl. Spoon the fermented milk into the cheesecloth bag.

After spooning in all the fermented milk, fold over the cheesecloth baggie to close and leave it for the whey to drip out, around 2-3 hours, depending on how thick you like your yogurt. If you over drip, i.e. the yogurt becomes too thick for your liking, you can easily adjust by adding back a spoonful or two of whey.

You can either drip at room temperature or you can do it in the fridge if you want to stop the fermentation process. I like to do this at room temperature as we like the slight extra tang that this extra fermentation time provides.

Here is a photo of the whey that drips out of the fermented milk. This leftover liquid whey is nutrient rich, packed with protein, all the amino acids, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium.

You can toss this whey out or you could consider using it. The whey can be saved and used to substitute for water or milk in baked goods, added to smoothies or soup. Apparently you can also use it for fermenting vegetables!

This is the yogurt, drained and ready for transfer to a jar. You can see that the yogurt has reduced down by quite a bit. Transfer to a sterile jar and your homemade yogurt is ready to eat!

Omgoshdarnit, we have so fallen in love with homemade yogurt. Easy to make, delicious to eat, my little girl asks for it everyday! Oh so very dreamy and creamy, just a bit tangy, this homemade yogurt is just so lovely. Once you get the easy rhythm of making homemade yogurt it's a breeze to have fresh yogurt all the time!

Pssst...Our favorite way to eat our homemade yogurt is with a luscious swirl of maple sugar and some fresh fruit of the season. Nom, nom perfection with homemade fresh goodness!!!

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

(makes 2 1/2 cups) Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 8 mins

Ferment time: 8-24 hours Drain time: 2-3 hours

Items Needed:

Ingredients:

1 liter whole milk
4 tbsp starter yogurt with live active culture

Directions:

Pasteurize the milk: Add the milk to a pot. Heat over medium heat until the temperature of the milk reaches 180°F (82°C), around 5-8 mins. Using a food thermometer to measure, keep a close eye on the milk so as to not overshoot the required temperature. At 180°F (82°C) remove the milk immediately from the heat.

Cool the pasteurized milk: Let the milk cool down to 110°F (43°C) in the pot, around 2 hours or so depending on the season/weather. Use a sterilized food thermometer to check the temperature. If a skin forms on top of the cooling milk just use the thermometer to push it to one side.

If the milk over cools, just heat it back up again over a low heat. Also remember, while the milk is cooling, to remove starter yogurt from fridge and let it warm up to room temperature.

Add starter to milk: Add the 'starter' yogurt to a sterile mixing bowl. Ladle one ladle of 110°F (43°C) milk into the starter and stir to incorporate. Continue adding milk, one ladle at a time, stirring in each time, until the temperature of the starter and milk are the same. Pour the starter/milk mixture back into the milk in the pot and give it a last gentle stir. Cover the pot with its lid.

Wrap and ferment: Quickly place the whole pot into an insulated food bag, fold the edges together and pin closed with clothespins or binder clips. Place into a cold oven and close the door, or else, wrap in a thick blanket and place in an undisturbed corner. Let ferment, undisturbed, for a minimum of 8 hours and up to 24 hours. The longer you ferment the tangier the yogurt will be. (Not sour, mind you, just slightly tangier.) You can experiment with the fermentation time until you find the length of fermentation time that best produces the taste you like.

Drain the yogurt: After fermentation the milk should have thickened into a very soft pudding like textured yogurt (best result) or a slightly curdled kind of texture. Position a sieve over a metal bowl (to catch drips) and line the sieve with an opened cheesecloth bag. Ladle yogurt into the cheesecloth bag, close the bag and let the whey drip out of the yogurt for 2 to 3 hours for a thick greek yogurt texture. If you want thinner, regular textured yogurt reduce the dripping time. If you want even thicker yogurt increase the drip time. If you don't want the yogurt to get more tangy do the drip in the fridge.

Package the yogurt: When you have achieved the texture you want, either discard dripped out whey or save it in the fridge for other uses (see post above for ideas). Sterilize your hands with some rubbing alcohol and squeeze the yogurt out of the bag into the sterile jar.

Storage: Add a lid to your homemade yogurt and store in the fridge for up to 1 week. Use sterile utensils to scoop yogurt out of the jar. Remember to save some of the yogurt to use as 'starter' for your next batch of yogurt. Enjoy the easy peasy yummilicious yogurt!

Milky Madness at The Hong Kong Cookery: