No.67: COOK Homemade Yogurt

After hearing how much better tasting homemade yogurt was a few months ago, I decided to give it a try myself. I was very surprised at how easy it was to make and thoroughly impressed by the taste. Now, I try to make homemade yogurt any chance I get. The necessary ingredients are minimal:

1 quart of milk
2 tablespoons of yogurt
fruit or granola, if desired

Regarding the ingredients, I used Ronnybrook Farm Creamline whole milk (hormone-free and not homogenized, so there is a nice layer of cream on the top) and Fage greek yogurt as my starter in hopes of producing a thick consistency.

Using a cooking thermometer, track the rising temperature to 180 degrees F, then let the milk cool down to 120 degrees F. Once it has cooled, add 2 tablespoons of yogurt as your starter and then mix the ingredients with a spoon or a whisk (I also shook the jar after tightening the lid).

Place the jar on top of a heating pad set to medium heat, wrap the jar in a towel, and cover it with large pot to incubate for 10-12 hours (I do this stage overnight). After the incubation period, cool the yogurt by placing the jar in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.

When you are ready to eat the finished product, feel free to add fresh fruit and/or granola. The following morning for breakfast I added raspberries and granola with goji berries. Pretty simple. (Remember to save roughly a half a cup from your homemade batch so you no longer have to buy yogurt from a store as your starter).