Yogurt

I've been wanting to make yogurt for awhile, but was a bit intimidated by the idea of having to maintain an exact temperature, or even go out and buy tools. A friend uses a heating pad to make hers, but I didn't really even want to buy that.

Then I read on No Impact Man's blog about making yogurt without worrying about an exact temperature. And yesterday, I tried it.

1. Heat a quart of milk until it starts to boil. Shut it off before it boils over.
2. Let it cool until you can leave your pinky in it for ten seconds without it burning. At least, those were the original instructions. I actually did use a thermometer for this part, and waited until it cooled to 116 degrees, the recommended temperature accorded to my dairy book.
3. In a small bowl, large enough to hold two cups and stir, add 2 tablespoons of yogurt with live cultures (you can also add a yogurt starter. Yogurt with live cultures is labeled). Whisk until smooth.
4. To the yogurt, add two cups of the milk and whisk until combined. This is now your starter.
5. Slowly pour the starter into the milk, whisking slowly.*
6. Pour into containers, seal, and put in a warm place covered by a towel overnight.

So, the warm place was the issue for me. We keep our house at 65 degrees, and it definitely has cooler spots. I'd been baking bread earlier, and I had monitored the cooling of the oven, opening it to let some of the hot air out and closing it to hold the rest in. I liked the idea of using heat that had already been generated and served a purpose. I put the yogurt in with the oven right about 116 degrees, turned off but with the light on, and covered it with a towel. I happened to leave the thermometer in until this morning, and it was still 70 degrees.

I didn't leave the yogurt overnight, but took it out after about 8 hours. My book had recommended at least 6. It looked like a good consistency when I took it out. Perhaps my experiment had worked!

This morning, I took it out of the fridge, and scooped some into a bowl to mix with some granola made from scratch at the bakery that I used to work at. The consistency was definitely perfectly creamy and thick. And it tastes great, although I definitely could have added a bit more vanilla. Goodbye, store-bought yogurt. I love mixing vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit or granola, so this is just about all I need. I can't wait to mix fresh fruit in this summer!

*I also added a teaspoon of vanilla at this step.