MAKE YOUR OWN YOGURT

Another super easy self sufficient goal ticked off the list, lovely clean fresh live yogurt that has not been produced by someone else, well ok I don't have daisy the cow yet!  I do have some goat's though and maybe in time I might get to breed and share her milk with her young but for now I buy un homogenised milk from Riverford Organic Farms and make my yogurts, cream cheese, cheddar, marscapone and buttermilk with this.  For recipes use the search bar top right of the home page.

Making time: 20 minutes / Alone standing time: 12-18 hours

Equipment: Saucepan, thermometer and sterilised 1 ltr glass jar

To Sterilise Your Jar

To sterilise your glass jar, wash and completely dry, in a pre heated oven 180 C / 400 F place your jar and lid for five minutes, then remove and leave on the side to cool and use as soon as you can.  Your dishwasher may have a 100 degree sterilising cycle you can pop your jar in the dishwasher on this cycle, just make sure it is completely dry before use.

You will need a little live yogurt to start the culture off, for the first batch I used a store brought organic live yogurt and then from then on I was able to use some of my home made live yogurt each time, so don't eat it all, keep back two tablespoons from the batch before.

I like to make this late in the evening so that the yogurt is ready in the morning to eat.  The longer you leave the yogurt on the side to cultivate the more flavour your yogurt will have, also the milk you use will also factor in the flavour.

Ingredients

(makes 1 ltr)

900ml milk

I use full fat or skimmed un homogenised 

2 tbsp live yogurt

1.  Place your saucepan on a low heat and add the milk, bring up to 85 degrees C / 185 F slowly so as not to burn the milk at the bottom of the pan, I speak from experience and burnt infused yogurt is not great.  

2.   Remove the milk from the heat and leave to cool to 43 C / 109 F.

3.   Add the live yogurt and gently stir in using a whisk don't actually whisk as you do not want to add air, pour in to your sterilised jar and leave in a warm place in the kitchen over night and that is it in the morning 12 or so hours later you will have a thick sharp clean fresh yogurt. 

Enjoy with flax or chia seeds, a drizzle of honey, fresh fruits, a vanilla pod and seeds,