Delicious Homemade Yogurt

Details: Homemade yogurt using yogurt with live cultures and milk. A very cost effective way to get pro-biotics into your diet.

Review:  I like yogurt! These days I just pass it by at the grocery store because it is so expensive. I happened upon a very easy, cost effective way of making yogurt at home, without all that fancy equipment.

What you need: An insulated cooler, glass jars, a thermometer (candy type), milk, plain yogurt with live cultures, pan, spoons.

For every quart of yogurt you make, you will need a quart of milk and 2 tablespoons of yogurt with live cultures.

Directions: Heat milk in a pan to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I did this on medium heat to prevent milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat.  While milk is cooling down to 115 degrees, place 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt with live cultures into each jar.

I used Greek yogurt for this, and whole milk. I wanted creamy yogurt.  I got what I wanted.

Once the milk has cooled down, pour a little into the jars. Stir with the yogurt. Then add remaining milk and stir completely again. Place the lids on the jars loosely. Place the jars in an insulated cooler, surrounded by towels. Wait 8-10 hours. I liked the results better after 10 hours. Refrigerate.

The yogurt turned out nice and thick, creamy and almost as good as the original starter that I used. This was the best yogurt I have ever made. My dh couldn't believe it tasted so good on his baked potato.  He actually thought it was sour cream.

If you want to sweeten your yogurt, you can add sugar to taste up to 3/4 cup per quart with 1 tsp. vanilla. Add this at the same time you do your yogurt starter. After the yogurt has cultured, then you can add your fruit toppings.

Pros: Best homemade yogurt ever. Easy to make, tastes delicious.

Cons: From start of heating up milk, to placing jars in the cooler took 1 hour. You could speed up the process by heating your milk at a higher temperature.  The second batch I made, I placed a lid over my pan, and the milk heated up in about 30 minutes on medium heat.

My Rating:  Thumbs UP!!!