Homemade Yogurt

One of my new found loves is homemade yogurt! I had heard a few people mention making yogurt at home, but I thought they were a little crazy. I tend to be cautious when it comes to things like meat and dairy sitting out on the counter. I was also concerned I'd end up with food poisoning, so you can imagine my hesitancy with homemade yogurt.

I finally caved when I found a recipe for yogurt in my Nourishing Traditions book. I bought this book when I first started eating clean and following the Weston A Price Foundation diet lifestyle (also known as WAPF). It's one of my favorite books right now and I would recommend it to anyone! It has been an amazing resource over the last year and has greatly improved my health, so I knew I could trust it when I saw that yogurt recipe.

What you need:

1/2 gallon of whole milk or half & half (make sure NOT to get ultra-pasteurized, as it won't set properly)
1 cup of plain yogurt with live cultures/bacteria
Soup pot
Cooking or candy thermometer
9x13 glass pan
Plastic wrap
Towel

Pre-heat oven to warm setting.

Pour milk or cream into soup pot and turn on medium, stir occasionally. Heat milk to 180 degrees, turn off burner, let cool to 110 degrees, stirring occasionally.

Once milk has cooled to 110, stir in cup of yogurt, mixing well.

Turn off oven and turn on oven light.

Pour milk mixture into a 9x13 pan, cover with plastic wrap, put in oven, and cover additionally with a dish towel.

Let mixture sit over night or for at least 10 hours. (I usually put a sign on the oven during this time that says "DO NOT TURN ON" ...just in case.)

In the morning, you will have a wonderfully thick, rich yogurt! If yours does not turn out as thick as you'd like or has whey (yellowish liquid) around the edges or top, it's easy to thicken! Grab a big bowl, a large strainer, and some cheese cloth. Line the strainer with 2-3 layers of cheese cloth, put it over the big bowl and pour the yogurt in. Let it sit covered until you achieve your desired consistency and then put in a container. You will have whey leftover in the bowl from straining. DO NOT THROW IT AWAY! It's great for you and you will see whey used in a lot recipes on our blog. Simply put it in a glass jar or container with a lid (I usually use a mason jar with some plastic wrap and and a canning ring). It will last in the fridge for a month easily.

You will get a full half gallon of yogurt, which I put back into the Costco sized container I have saved. Not only is this fresher and healthier, its a bit cheaper too! From the Costco price, I save about $0.50/container. If I'm comparing to normal grocery store prices, I easily save $3-4 a container!

From this, I normally make a Cultured Cream Cheese (post to come) and I'm experimenting with Yogurt Cheese. We also use our homemade yogurt in place of sour cream on things like baked potatoes or in dip (I make a killer Avocado Yogurt Dip with it). To spice up our plain yogurt in the mornings, we like to add organic maple syrup, fruit, or homemade jam. Yum!