Making your own yogurts

Hi guys,

Making your own yogurts is easier and faster than people often realize.
I have been making my own yogurts for quite a while: I love that I can control exactly what I put inside, no hidden unwanted ingredients. In addition, live cultures in your homemade yogurts are good for you, as they help your digestive system.
Bonus notes: it's fun and you can create your own special flavor combinations you won't be able to find in store!

There are a few keys to successfully make your own yogurts at home:

• The quality of your ingredients:   

 It seems obvious. Of course, the better the ingredients you start with, the better the result. So try to use the freshest most flavorful ingredients you can get.

• The quality of your milk.  

I used unpasteurized raw milk from a local farm. This type of milk is the best you can get to make successful yogurts. If you don't want to go that route, you have to know that the higher the fat in your milk, the firmer your yogurts will be. Store bought low fat yogurts usually contain thickening agents or have been strained to improve their consistency.

• The quality of your starter. 

 The starter is a mixture of bacteria that makes the milk turn into yogurt by fermentation. There are two ways to obtain a starter: buy a freeze-dry yogurt starter (one of my favorite is Yo Gourmet Freeze Dried Yogurt Starter) or use a yogurt with live cultures (I had the best results using the Brown Cow Farm ones)

• The incubation time and temperature.

The bacteria that ferment milk into yogurts are thermophilic, meaning that they thrive at high temperatures (around 110˚F / 45˚C). You can incubate your yogurts in warm water overnight in your close oven (I did it for years and it works OK), but, in my hands, the best way to achieve perfect yogurts is to invest in a yogurt maker. I bought a Euro Cuisine YM80 Yogurt Maker from Amazon and couldn't go back to the oven method anymore: it's more straight forwards (you press a button and you're done, whereas you have to check the temperature of your water before placing the yogurts on the oven) and the results are always great.


Now, let's make our own yogurts!
As a general process, you will have to follow these simple steps:

1. You first need to heat your milk to just below boiling temperature (175˚F / 80˚C). This step is necessary to break down the milk proteins and have a thick homogenous consistency instead of separation during the fermentation process.
2.  Let it cool down quickly to 105˚F / 42˚C (warn to the touch), by placing your pan in your sink filled up with cold water for example.
3. Mix about 1 cup of warm milk to your starter (dried powder or yogurt) until the starter is dissolved completely
4. Add your starter mixture to the rest of the milk and stir gently.
5. Transfer to clean jars
6. Incubate in your yogurt maker or close oven for 8-16 hours
7. Place your yogurts in the fridge at least a couple of hours to let them set completely

 And now, the fun part: choosing your flavor! This week, it will be Blood Orange - Cardamon yogurts (for 7 yogurts, to fill the Euro Cuisine YM80 Yogurt Maker jars).

1. Heat 1 quart /liter of milk of choice (remember: higher the fat content milk will give you firmer yogurts)  + 1/8 to 1/4 cup of sugar (I use evaporated cane sugar) + the zest of one blood orange (my advice is to pick organic fruit for the zest as you don't really want to ingest nasty pesticides) or regular orange + 2 cardamon pods
2. Cool down to 105˚F / 42˚C 
3. remove the cardamon pods
4. Mix 6 oz (a single serving container) of Vanilla yogurt with active live cultures (my favorite one is Brown Cow Cream Top yogurt) to about 1 cup of your warm milk mixture and add to the rest of the milk
5. Transfer to jars and incubate overnight
6. Let rest in the fridge for a few hours
7. Enjoy!