Can You Use Vanilla Yogurt As A Starter

How did I come upwards with learning how to make yogurt? Ever since I ramped up my cooking a few years ago, I've been on this quest to DIY/make equally many things at home as possible. Like what? Well, most recently I've turned my attentions to dairy products, this bootleg cottage cheese and bootleg crème fraîche, only to proper noun a few. Oh, and DIY marshmallows. And now, yogurt.

Afterwards weeks and weeks of exhaustive research (seriously – at this point you can ask me *anything* about yogurt making), I discovered that at that place are countless combinations of milks and cultures, and therefore, countless outcomes. I had to figure out what I wanted my bootleg yogurt to sense of taste like, and for someone who was raised on crappy grocery store brands, that was sort of similar asking a 5 year old where the nearest gas station is. Undaunted, I prepare out to educate myself on the vast array of flavors and textures that outcome from dairy fermentation.

For a while now I've been seeing a yogurt stand at the farmers market called Saint Benoît. What initially caught my eye were the cute little crockery pots that they packaged their wares in. I'm zip if not a sucker for creative food receptacles, then I bought one and brought it dwelling house. And holy bovine juice, Batman! This stuff was good. This was what I wanted my yogurt to taste like.

Homemade Yogurt Culture Primer

It turns out that Saint Benoît uses some chic French culture that wasn't bachelor in the US, just equally luck would have it, yogurt making is such that you can simply use a yogurt that you lot fancy as a starter for your own batch. Depending on several factors – such as the milk you apply and incubation fourth dimension – your bootleg yogurt should turn out similarly. I picked up a pot of the Saint Benoît plain stuff and a few pints of organic Jersey milk from the local Whole Foods Market, then hitting up my yogurt-making friends for details.

Homemade Yogurt Thickness

Now, there'southward a thing that a lot of home yogurt makers use to thicken their final production: powdered milk. Let me merely say that I've been scarred since childhood because my mother – bless her single mother-of-2 soul – used to buy milk when it was on sale, mix it with water and powered milk to brand it last longer, and and then freeze it. Needless to say, I stopped drinking milk altogether and only the thought of powdered milk makes my stomach turn over and over like a hot domestic dog on one of those little roller racks. I won't be using powdered milk, thankyouverymuch. Besides the weird kiddy-trauma, I think the thought of dehydrated milk is kind of gross.

Anyways. If you want your homemade yogurt to be and then thick that yous tin can literally slice it, get ahead and employ powdered milk. My recipe below volition give y'all something that's enough thick, as long as you let it incubate for at least eight hours. The longer you lot incubate your yogurt the thicker (and more tart) it volition get. As well, the lower fat milk you apply, the thinner the yogurt will be.

Learning How to Make Yogurt

A notation on starters when learning how to make homemade yogurt: yous can't use flavored yogurt as a starter civilisation – the flavorings inhibit the fermentation process. This means you can't flavor information technology until the side by side day, after the batch is finished and refrigerated. Also, the yogurt starter must be fresh and unpasteurized, otherwise the cultures will have been killed off by age and/or heat exposure. Leave the Dannon on the shelf and splurge for a nice, local, organic brand. Y'all'll be more guaranteed of freshness and the resulting flavor will leave you rolling on the floor, hugging your yogurt maker.

Also, a note on incubators: I have this model of yogurt maker, and I like it because yous can make a lot of yogurt – 64oz. The piffling cups are kind of abrasive to launder, so I've been eying this model, and have heard good things most it. It's certainly cheaper, and yous tin supplant the plastic container on the inside with glass if you and so wish. You can just equally easily brand homemade yogurt without any newfangled contraption at all, using a heating bad or a warm oven. Bank check out those forum posts I linked above for more than information on that.

Finally, if y'all observe a clear liquid on your homemade yogurt either earlier or afterwards it's been fermented, that's totally normal. That's whey, which can be poured off and used for a mega-protein shot in your soups and baked goods. People who are learning how to make yogurt ofttimes freak out about this stuff, but it'southward not just normal, information technology's a sign that y'all're doing something right!

three cups whole milk ideally organic
1/4 loving cup patently yogurt I recommend using your local organic brand for freshness and season

Wash everything that volition be coming in contact with your homemade yogurt so that there are no competing bacteria anywhere in your production line. You don't take to be super anal, just clean on a basic level. Rut milk in a saucepan over a medium flame, stirring regularly to prevent a skin from forming. If information technology does form, just remove it with a spoon. Estrus milk until bubbles start to class at the edges and steam begins to ascension from the surface - that's 180F if you're using a candy thermometer. This step kills off competing bacteria in the milk.
NOTE: Exercise not walk away from your milk while it is heating! It but takes a few minutes to heat to 180, and information technology will quickly boil over, scorching the milk and making an atrocious mess. Seriously no bueno, especially if you're using expensive organic milk.
One time the milk has reached the proper temperature, remove it from the heat. Y'all want to absurd the milk down until it'southward reached 115F, which is the ideal temperature for culturing. If you lot're milk's above 120 the cultures will fry, and if information technology's below ninety nothing volition happen. If you don't have a thermometer, the milk is at almost 115 when you tin comfortably put your finger in information technology for xx seconds.
Next, in a split up cup, combine starter yogurt with a few tablespoons of the warm milk. Mix well, and then quickly pour into the rest of the milk. Mix the whole batch until it'due south completely incorporated, then cascade into your yogurt maker of choice. After 8 hours, taste the yogurt, making sure not to arouse it too much lest yous anger the fermentation gods. If you'd like it thicker or more than tart, by all ways incubate information technology up to another half dozen to seven hours. Comport in mind that also much incubation will cause the protein to completely fall apart and you lot'll end upwards with a huge mess of curds and whey, so unless you're Piffling Miss Muffet, don't button your fermentation much past 12 or 14 hours.
Once your homemade yogurt is washed, refrigerate immediately for at to the lowest degree twelve hours before eating. After that, flavor to your heart's content. I similar information technology with local raw dear and a few slices of kiwi. *yogurtgasm*