There is nothing as good as fresh yogurt made at home. I know there are various methods of making yogurt and I make it with a yogurt maker. So I thought I would share how I make mine. There are starters out there you can use and I have in the past. But now I basically make it using a plain, organic, Greek style yogurt I buy at the store. I use to use a regular type of yogurt but when I use Greek style I get a thicker finished product. I also use organic milk. Now you need some fat in your milk to make it thick and smooth, non-fat will work but it's not to my liking. They add a thickener to store bought non-fat yogurt to make it thick.
The yogurt maker I have holds 7 - 6oz glass jars. I have had this one for about 10 years now. And it has worked pretty good for me all these years. I did learn from making this mistake, is that when you clean the maker do not use an antibacterial soap. When I did that the bacteria in the yogurt did not multiply like it should of, and so next couple of batches did not make. It took me a while to figure out what I did wrong. So I just wash it out now with clean water. If you are careful and do not spill the milk, there is not much cleaning to be done
The maker I have gives a time span of incubating the culture in the milk of 8 to 10 hours and I like mine to go the full amount of time. Again I find it comes out thicker.
Now I like my yogurt with fruit, sweetener (can be sugar, maple syrup, honey, Silvia or splenda) and pure vanilla. I also like to add nuts or wheat germ and another good thing to add is ground flax seeds. I get whole flax seeds and then I grind the seeds in a small coffee grinder (that's all I use it for). Sprinkle about a Tbsp. in your yogurt. Whoa-la it's done, YUM YUM and good for you.
P.S. I meant to tell you that the milk does not need to heated for this maker but I'm not sure if other makers will require this.
Also the next few batches I just use one of the jar of home made yogurt as the starter. When the yogurt is not to my liking any more, then I'll go and buy a new container of store bought yogurt to use as the starter. I know that the bacteria gets weak and old, and sometimes I do not make the next batch quick enough. The bacteria will die after a period of time.
So I try to make a batch once a week. Works good when I do that.
You like your yogurt maker? I was thinking of getting one and was checking one out that was that brand, I'm pretty sure. Does it tell you the exact measurements of milk and yogurt to use? Or can you tell me? Love you!
ReplyDeleteThat is a good brand and they do not cost that much. In the instructions it will tell you amounts. This one calls for 4 cups milk and 2/3 cup yogurt. But could be different on a newer one.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mom!
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