Yogurt

speeding up the cooling time with an ice-water bath

A few years ago I bought some lovely vanilla maple yogurt from an Amish woman at a farmer's market in western New York. It was so delicious that it inspired me to start making yogurt again, and to make some of it vanilla maple flavor.

I've found that if I get the temperatures just right, I can make a nice, mild and thick yogurt.  It's not as thick as, say, Yoplait, which to me has a gelatinous consistency, but it's thick enough to mound up on the spoon. I love to have it for breakfast stirred into some plain rolled oats and topped with a fruit salad (lately it has been strawberries, bananas, mango, blueberries...). Last time I flavored some with cardamom and honey, which was also quite lovely with the fruit. (How many times can I say lovely in one post? I'm not sure why that seems the right word to describe this yogurt). It's just so much better than the stuff I buy. This last time around I mixed a quart of the plain with passion fruit juice concentrate from the Asian store and made a fantastic passion fruit frozen yogurt and pretended that we were at Razzy Fresh and topped it with chopped mango and strawberries and bananas.  I also love to have plain yogurt as a dessert with fresh fruit., or for breakfast with homemade granola and fruit.  Or I make refrigerator oatmeal or smoothies with it.

I've been making it in half gallon batches, because that does four pint jars. which fit in my Instant Pot.  Sometimes I do single-serving sized jam jars. I can flavor each jar separately. Some with homemade peach jam, some with maple and vanilla, some plain, and some with cardamom and honey. It's all good! And it lasts at least 3 weeks as long as I leave the lids on tight.

For my starter I've been using greek yogurt lately because it has more types of bacteria and seems to make a slightly thicker yogurt.

When culturing the yogurt, it's important to keep the temperature within a specific range.  You want to keep the water around 115 degrees.  Over 122 it curdles, under 110 it doesn't set fast enough. (If the temperature is too low, it will take too long and get sour before it gets thick. If too high, it will get a curdled texture, and higher than that will kill the good bacteria and it won't work at all). There are lots of different methods for keeping it the right temperature.  I recently got an Instant Pot with a yogurt setting that keeps it warm enough to set if I start with the water at 120 and it's not too cold of a day.  My mom puts a pot filled with warm water (120) and a plastic container of yogurt in her "magic box", which is basically a cardboard box filled with newspaper  to insulate the pot.  She sometimes has to heat the water a little midway through the culturing time.  I have in the past wrapped a pot in towels and reheated the water periodically.   Depending on the temperature (lower temps set more slowly), it should be thickened in 5-6 hours.  The longer it takes, the more tart the yogurt will be.

So, here's the simple version of the recipe:

Homemade Yogurt

In a large pan, bring milk to 175 degrees, stirring frequently. Let it cool to 120 degrees. Stir in 1/4 cup plain yogurt  per quart of milk. (I've found that a 6 oz. container of greek yogurt works fine for 2 quarts.)  Pour it into clean jars. Screw on the lids (labeled if you're doing different flavors), and place gently into a big pot of water at 120 degrees.  Let the yogurt culture for about 5-6 hours until thickened.  Store in the refrigerator.

For flavors (enough to flavor 1 cup):
Vanilla Maple: 1/2 Tbs. maple syrup, 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Jam: 1/4 cup of your favorite jam
Honey Cardamom: 1/2 Tbs. honey, 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

sterilized jars with flavorings added, ready for yogurt

yogurt jars in pot of warm water ready to culture