How to make yogurt

Homemade yogurt is easy to make and I will guide you step by step. Here's a fail-safe way to make yogurt at home-guaranteed!

If you have never made homemade yogurt because you find it too difficult, then I am here to tell you that you can do it. Not difficult at all. In fact, after doing it once, you will scratch your head and wonder why it wasn't done so early on Earth!

There are many ways to make homemade yogurt, and if you read 10 blogs on how to make homemade yogurt, you are likely to find 10 different variants. That's because we have all found our way. There is really no right or wrong way. Thankfully, homemade yogurt is really forgiving.

How to make yogurt

There are two main methods for making homemade yogurt: on the stove (then kept warm in an oven or refrigerator) or with a yogurt machine.

Personally, I prefer to use a yogurt machine instead of cooking in a large pot, cooking on the stove, and then holding it in the oven. why? Well, first of all, I would rather not bundle the oven for eight hours. Of course, you can do it overnight without hassle. But sometimes I forget to have everything ready before going to bed, so I have to batch process during the day.

Secondly, in the yogurt manufacturer Euro Cuisine I use, yogurt is automatically packed into serving jars, making it the ideal size for breakfast. The lid has a cool date stamp printed on it, so I will always remember when I made the batch. The separate jars also prevent me from liking creamy yoghurts too much and make my homemade yoghurt carry immediately, which is perfect for my breakfast on the go!

In the end, I love my yogurt maker, because after making about 100 batches of yogurt at home, I have never failed. not one! For the first few times, I made yoghurt on the stove and either boiled it on the milk (a big mess) or burned the milk to the bottom of the pan (not so fun to wash). I always seem distracted in the kitchen, so the stove method is not the best for me.

The digital yogurt maker I use costs around $ 40, but considering how often I use it, I think the money is well spent!

6 basic steps to make your own yogurt

To summarize the video above, there are 6 basic steps to making yogurt at home:

1. Heat the milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This kills any indigestible microorganisms lurking in the milk and ensures that you are free of residual bacteria, pathogens, mold or spores. When you create an environment in which bacteria multiply, you just want to reproduce the bacteria (introduced into the milk). Heating milk also produces thick yogurt by altering the protein structure.
2. Cool the milk to 112-115 degrees Fahrenheit. After making milk a bad food and unfit for drinking, you want to make it a good-to-good bacteria-fermenter mixture. Use the instant reading thermometer used to heat the milk to know when to cool it to 112-115 degrees.
3. Add your yogurt starter-good bacteria. Pour in a cup of warm milk and add yogurt starter (I use Yogourmet) or 3 tablespoons of pre-made yogurt. First, look for bacteria that form lactic acid. You need at least Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Other good bacteria include Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis.
4. Stir the yogurt starter with the rest of the milk. This spreads good bacteria to all milk.
5. Pour the milk into a jar and incubate for 7-9 hours. A stable, mild temperature is a paradise for all beneficial bacteria and promotes their growth. The longer you keep the yogurt, the thicker it becomes. After about 8 hours, you will get a delicious, healthy, thick and creamy yogurt.
6. Put the jar in the refrigerator to cool and solidify. Cool the yogurt in the refrigerator for several hours. As the yogurt cools, it becomes thicker!

It goes without saying that starting with the highest quality ingredients ensures that you have the highest quality end product. This means I always start with organic grass-fed milk and then use a yogurt driver or a few tablespoons of my previous batch of milk.

You can definitely use a supermarket brand yogurt as an appetizer, but read the ingredients carefully and look for a lively, active culture. You don't want to use junk fillers, stabilizers, and flavorings in the yoghurt used to breed brand new batches.

Some other homemade yogurt making tips:

• You can use whole milk, 2% or skim milk. You can also use goat milk. The more fat in milk, the thicker the final product. In the video above, I used 2% milk, which is why the milk is not super thick. In my red fruit salad and honey yogurt recipe, I used whole milk and you will find it thicker.
• When making homemade yogurt for the first time, the flavor may be strong regardless of the incubation time. This is because your taste buds are used to excessive sweetening in yogurt purchased in stores. Over time (soon), your taste buds will adapt to this authentic homemade yogurt. However, if you want to sweeten the yogurt, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup in step 4 above. You can also add vanilla extract or shredded vanilla beans. In fact, the vanilla flavor alone makes it sweet.
• If you want to add fruit, add it after incubation. This will ensure that you don't bother the bacteria and stop them from working, so you can make creamy homemade yogurt.
• Yogurt will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about ten days. Although I suspect that once family and friends learn that you are making homemade yogurt, what else will you have!
• If you want to make dairy-free yogurt (coconut milk yogurt), the process is very similar, but with some minor differences. But the good news-I already have a recipe for coconut yogurt, blood orange and cocoa beans (delicious!). Just read these instructions and you can do it easily.

A few years ago, when I first launched this site, I created the Gut Superfoods eBook, which included this recipe. As you know, I care about gut health. Now, if you subscribe to the site, you can still get the eBook (hint: the eBook also includes recipes for homemade sauerkraut, bone soup, and pickled ginger)-all super foods that cure the stomach.