Homemade yogurt 自製優格

I used to make yogurt in the dorm when I was in college. A few years ago, I was again thinking of making yogurt at home, but apparently I've lost my magic. I just started to think about making my own yogurt again recently. 

We decide to try "the whole food diet", since there are so many testimonies about how the diet cures their long-term health issues. It encourages people to eat more natural foods, including their seeds and skins which we usually throw away, rather than processed foods. Part of the whole food diet is "the energy soup", which I will share in my later post. To make the energy soup tastes better, I would add yogurt or soy milk (with pulp). Since it's like a daily consumable now, I figure it might be more cost effective to make my own. Also, you can control what to add to it (like sugar). I follow instructions on this website:

What you need:

1. 1/2 gallon fat free milk. I use the Smart Balance fat free with omega-3. 

2. 8 oz. plain yogurt as the starter. Doesn't matter what brand as long as there is live culture in it.

3. Thermometer

4. Several clean glass jars

Instructions:

1. Heat the milk to 200°F in a big pot. This temperature is when the milk is just barely boiling, and the heat will make the milk protein change structure for it to set as a solid. Keep stirring. You can keep the milk at this temperature for 5 min. The longer it stays at this temperature, the thicker the yogurt will be.

2. Turn off the heat. Stir to cool the milk to around 130°F. Take about 2 cups hot milk in a bowl and mix with the cold yogurt starter until there is no clumps. 

3. Turn on the oven to the lowest baking temperature. Mine is about 170°F.

4. Pour the milk/yogurt mixture back to the rest of the hot milk. Mix well. The temperature now should be around 115°F.

5. Fill the jars with milk. Loosely put on the lids. Fill a big stew pot with hot tap water, about half height of the pot. Put the jars of milk in the warm water bath. Put the whole thing in the oven. Turn off the oven.

6. Go to bed, and enjoy the creamy yogurt in the morning! Or store them in the refrigerator.

It's so easy, healthy and delicious. You can add granola, jam, cereal or fruit! A great snack for any time of the day.