Yogurt

This is very exciting. I finally made a batch of yogurt of my very own, and am thrilled to find that it has set up beautifully. I wanted to have both some drained, greek-style yogurt and unstrained, regular yogurt, so rather than buying enough to do both, I bought just a single container of Stonyfield Farms cream-on-top, despite the fact that it contains pectin, a half-gallon of organic whole milk, and a box of dried milk.

I read this thread on eGullet and then heated about 3 1/2 cups of milk and 1/4 cup of milk powder to steaming hot (not boiling), whisking vigorously every now and then. I let it cool to about the temperature I like a nice hot bath to be (lots of science here). Then I put 1/4 cup or so of the storebought yogurt in a little bowl, beat it soundly, and sloshed in a little of the milk. Whisked that, dumped it back into the pan, whisked some more, and then poured the lot into a nice clean quart-sized yogurt container. I put the lid on loosely and put it in my gas oven with just the pilot on for about 5 hours. The rest of the storebought went into a colander to drain.

And lo and behold, my milk is now yogurt! It tastes good, too. Creamy and yogurty and wobbly and delicate. Next time I may leave it out longer for more tang, but right now the sweeter version seems more exotic and desirable. I've just had a small bowlful, topped with this nice apricot and almond spread, and deem it very good indeed. I do wonder if the small bit of pectin from the starter has had any effect on the texture. I'll be interested to see if the next batch, made with this yogurt as the starter, has a different consistency.

Posted by redfox at January 26, 2005 11:02 AM (recipes) | Comments (2)

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