Jul. 4, 2008 - Homemade Yogurt . . . it really isn't that hard.
My first batch of yogurt in the Yogourmet came out beautifully! It only took 5 hours to incubate, during which I just stood by and watched. It would usually take 6-7 hours the other way. And really you don't babysit the yogurt, the machine works on it all afternoon. I just take it out and put it in the fridge after 5 hours. Simple, really.
I have actually been making yogurt for over a year now and the incubating part gave me the most trouble. I found it difficult to maintain a constant 105-120* temp for so many hours. I would put it in my oven and keep taking the temp and then turning the heat on for just a few minutes. I lost several batches to too much heat. Otherwise known as baked yogurt, very smelly!
So now I just scald the milk mixture, I add 1/3 cup dry milk and several tablespoons of sugar, to 180* and then set it aside to cool down to 115* or so. Then I add the yogurt starter, about 1/3 cup of plain yogurt, and stir it all together.
The machine does the difficult part for me. I love the simplicity of this machine. I wish I had made the change sooner.
Yesterday, we dove into the first batch and made a banana, strawberry smoothie. I added about 2 cups of yogurt, the frozen fruit and a dab of honey. It was delicious! I added quite a bit of yogurt so it would have a drink consistency not a frozen spoonable consistency. The kids loved it!
They loved it so much that when Austin spilled his, Sam dove down tongue first to lick it up before Austin got the rag!
You know something is good if the kids think it is tongue licking good!
I may need to purchase one these extra canisters though!
