I just made homemade yogurt, it came out great!
I made a quarts worth of plain yogurt, ALL from powdered
milk...It certainly didn't taste powdered at all..
It is a real money saver and you can add your own fruit
granola, sweeteners or whatever!
All you need is a 1 quart glass jar with tight fitting cover
An insulated picnic drink cooler with cover...(big enough to slip the glass jar into) and the ingredients...
1 Quart Plain Yogurt
Pour boiling water over a 1 quart
Glass jar and cover…. cover completely with water
let sit in hot water for awhile and then
Take out and cool
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½ teaspoon Knox Gelatin
3 teaspoons boiling water
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water…set aside and cool
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In a saucepan.add
4 cups cold skim milk or reconstituted dry milk
plus
2/3 cup of powdered milk
(the powdered milk is extra protein and calcium, it also helps the yogurt set better)
mix powdered milk into cold skim milk mix well till dissolved
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Using a candy thermometer
Heat the milk until 180-190 degrees DO NOT BOIL
Take off burner
Add the cooled gelatin and water mixture and stir to dissolve
Let the hot milk mixture cool until 110-115 degrees
MAKE SURE IT HAS COOLED
(you want the milk to cool so the Active Cultures that you will add next step don’t die)
Add ¼ cup Dannon or Stonyfield Plain Yogurt with Active Cultures (Store Bought and make sure it says with Active Cultures)
This is called your yogurt starter
Mix Well
Pour cooled milk mixture into sterilized glass jar
Place into a 1 gallon drink cooler which has been filled with hot tap water (a few inches or so)
DO NOT HAVE THE TAP WATER OVER 120 degrees however !!!
YOU DON'T WANT TO KILL YOUR YOGURT CULTURES
Cover cooler with lid
Note: you only have to fill the drink cooler with hot tap water a few inches, because when you put the jar in it raises the water up a bit. Make sure the lid to your jar is securely shut and leak proof. It is not necessary to have the water cover the jar, just up the the level of the milk mixture...
Let the cooler sit in a place undisturbed for 5 hours (out of cold drafts)DO NOT PEEK OR MOVE THE COOLER THE YOGURT SHOULD BE LEFT UNDISTURBED....
After 5 hours remove jar from cooler and open jar and you should have yummy yogurt...
But make sure to Refrigerate right away it finishes the gelling process...
Then save ¼ cup of plain yogurt for your next starter and batch ( you can freeze that 1/4 cup to use as your next starter, just unthaw before you make your next batch)
HINTS BELOW....
Every 4 batches or so you should buy a new 8 oz store bought plain yogurt for your starter....
Because after awhile the starter cultures from you previous batches don’t work as well…
NOTE: I use glass jars because they fit in my drink cooler, but I have heard of some people using washed out 1 quart plastic yogurt containers and picnic coolers as well, people say that works just as well....
REMEMBER: IF YOU FAIL TRY TRY AGAIN I HAD TO TWEEK MY RECIPE TILL I GOT IT RIGHT...NOW IT IS NO-FAIL FOR ME!
