Yogurt

Homemade Yogurt....

I finally did it! I made homemade yogurt! I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and this week I did it. I have a daughter who just turned one and is not a fan of whole milk. I can't complain because she drinks more water than all of my children combined at the age of 12 months but she's also the skinniest and most petite little baby I've ever had so she needs the dairy fat. In order to help with breakfast prep for a 12 month old, increase dairy consumption, and save grocery dollars (yogurt in southern california averages $1/cup for the on sale price) I made yogurt myself. My husband grew up on homemade yogurt so he was all too pleased to eat made-from-scratch whole milk yogurt compared to the cheap non-fat yogurts I usually buy. The other added bonus is you can customize the fruit flavors per serving! Most days I just put a little homemade fruit jam in the yogurt serving. 

There are 16 in a gallon so you can approximate your servings per that number. After 'incubating' I ladled the servings into individual tupperware so they were easier to store and later serve/eat.

*This yogurt is slightly sweet but more like a semi-sweet 'plain' yogurt. Needless to say you definitely need to add some sort of sweetener, whether it be maple syrup, jam, fruit, granola and brown sugar, etc. 

*Be sure to buy a high quality yogurt starter. Look at the label to make sure it has live cultures. The one I bought had I think 5 different types of live cultures, it was organic and it was plain flavored.

Heat 1 gallon whole milk to 180 degrees.  Remove from heat and let milk cool to 108-122 degrees.  Stir in a carton of plain yogurt.  Pour in a gallon thermos jug.  Put in warm place for 24 hours.  (I put the jug on top of the water heater.)  Chill and enjoy!