Make Your Own Yogurt

[Cheryl Bertou]

It's the one thing I know how to do that I'm surprised I do but it's really easy so I figured I'd share. Our family goes through a lot of yogurt and the organic stuff is so stinking expensive. Then I stumbled upon a "recipe" in a book I took out of the library on gardening in small spaces called "Square Food Gardening".
All you need is a quart (32 oz. or 4 cups) of milk and 2 tbsp of plain yogurt.
In a suacepot bring your milk to an almost boil (about 185 degrees).
Then let it cool to 112 degrees, add the yogurt and put it in a really good thermos.
Leave it for 8 to 12 hours. The longer you leave it the thicker the yogurt.
I've seen that people use their crock pot or leave it in the sun, any method that keeps the mixture at about 112 degrees will work. That's it. In the end you have a quart of plain yogurt which you can use to start your next batch when you need it.

[Anthony Fasolo]

I've been wanting to try this for ages, but have been afraid too. I'm going to give it a try! I usually buy plain yogurt and flavor it with preserves or sometimes splenda and vanilla extract. It tastes so much better than the flavored store varieties and doesn't have all the other stuff in it.

[Cheryl Bertou]

The flavoring is what I've been having trouble with. Our baby will eat it plain but our 6 year old will have none of it so I'm trying to figure out ways to flavor it without adding a ton of sugar. I'll have to try the vanilla extract and preserves. Thanks.

[Anthony Fasolo]

I had made mango marmalade a few months back and found it goes great with yogurt and then I add a little more splenda to make it more sweet. I've also used lemon balm jam and that was better than the lemon flavored yogurts at the store. I've yet to try this with chocolate but I imagine chocolate syrup might work.

[MacClurg Vivian]

Hi Cheryl, I will try this, thank you.
MacClurg