Homemade Yogurt only takes a few steps and only uses 2 ingredients! This yogurt can go into many different dishes to enhance flavor and nutrition.
If you are wanting something to eat while you are waiting for yogurt to be done, try Easy Dill Cream Cheese on a bagel and you will not be disappointed. You may also try your hand at Homemade Cottage Cheese when your yogurt is all done!
To see a video of Homemade Cottage Cheese, Click Here
A bowl of good yogurt with some good quality toppings brings back so many memories for me. When my wife and I first got together, we decided that we were going to make a healthy lifestyle change.
This lifestyle change came with eating more yogurt and making sure not to skimp on the nutritious toppings. So when I sit down to a large bowl of fresh yogurt, it reminds me of my lovely wife and progress.
Equipment Needed For Fresh Yogurt:
You can use a number of different things but to keep it simple you may need:
- Heavy bottom pot OR instant pot
- Wooden or metal spoon
- Thermometer
- Plastic wrap or lid (for your heavy bottom pot)
- Cheese cloth (Optional)
Thats all you will need!
I prefer to use an instant pot because it makes everything much easier.
Ingredients To Make Fresh Yogurt:
Get this, there are only 2 ingredients in yogurt!
- Milk- Fat free, 1%, 2%, and whole milk will work fine.
- Live and active bacterial cultures – Obtained from store bought yogurt, homemade yogurt, bacteria starter, and whey leftover from previous yogurt batches.
Both are easy to obtain. Make sure when you get yogurt from the store that it has “Live Active Cultures.”
NOTE: We did not have any yogurt in our store that said “Live Active Cultures”. But, we picked up the cheapest one and it made yogurt just fine!
How To Make Homemade Yogurt:
Make sure that you have a clean seal on your instant pot.
- The seal in your instant pot can hold flavors and aromas that can negatively effect the taste of yogurt.
1. Pasteurize milk
- To pasteurize milk in your instant pot put the lid on with pressure vent open or closed.
- Press the “YOGURT” button until your display says “boil” Or “High”. This is the pasteurize setting.
- Now press the start button or if your instant pot is like mine, it will turn on automatically.
- Once your instant pot beeps and says “yogt” it is done pasteurizing.
2. Let your yogurt cool to between 110°F-116°F and put in your yogurt culture.
- As your milk cools down it will get skin on the top. Remove this skin with a fork or spoon. Mixing it could negatively effect the final texture of your yogurt.
- After your milk cools to the target temperature, temper your starter by adding 1/4 cup of starter to 1 cup of the hot milk.
- Now add the tempered starter back into the rest of the milk and mix thoroughly.
NOTE: If your milk gets colder than 110° slowly heat the milk back up by repeating the pasteurizing process. Check it every so often until you see the milk is back up in the target zone.
3. Incubate the yogurt
- Place the lid on your instant pot. The steam valve can be open or closed.
- Press the yogurt button your instant pot until the display reads 08:00. This means that the instant pot will hold the milk and starter at the proper temperature for 8 hours.
- On the yogurt setting, the timer counts up. So if the display says 01:30 it means that it has been incubating for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- Once the instant pot says “yogt” it is done.
4. Let your yogurt cool to room temperature before refrigerating it
- Let your yogurt cool to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator or before scooping it.
- If you agitate your yogurt too early it could go runny.
- After it cools to room temperature, place it in the refrigerator until it is cold. About 2-3 hours. I always wait until it comes out of the refrigerator to scoop it.
5. After refrigerating for 3 hours or overnight pack the yogurt into containers and store it in the refrigerator.
- I like to use mason jars to store my yogurt.
- This yogurt has excellent texture.
RECIPE TIPS AND VARIATIONS:
- Ingredients: You can use fat free, 1%, 2%, and whole milk for this recipe. For the yogurt starter you can use store bought yogurt with “Live Active Cultures”, yogurt from a previous batch, dry yogurt starter, or whey from a previous batch of yogurt.
- Equipment: I use an instant pot for my yogurt making because it has a setting specifically for making yogurt. If you don’t have an instant pot, you can use a number of different things. All you need is something that will keep the milk incubating at 110°F for 4-8 hours.
For this you may use:
-Heavy bottom pot with a lid
-Commercial yogurt maker
-Cooler with a hot water bottle
-Food dehydrator
-Oven
-You may also get creative. Yogurt has been made for thousands of years in all different manners. - Storage: Yogurt will stay good in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks and up to 1 month in the freezer. The longer it stays in the fridge, the more it will incubate and become stronger tasting.
- Greek Yogurt: To make Greek yogurt you simply put the yogurt in cheese cloth and hang it above another bowl in the refrigerator from 1-24 hours. This will make the yogurt thicker.
- Flavorings: You can make nearly any flavor of yogurt you want.
For fruit flavored yogurt:
-Simply purée fruit to desired consistency and mix it in with your yogurt. To cheat you can mix your favorite flavor of jelly into the yogurt.
Other flavors: You can get creative with yogurt. If you want coconut cream pie yogurt, add a mix of ingredients that may give you the desired flavor. Which may be, coconut milk and top with pieces of a pie crust or shortbread. - Toppings: Any toppings that you would normally enjoy with dairy.
-Chocolate
-Fruit
-Cinnamon
-Honey
-Anything you want.
Please comment below what you enjoy on your yogurt! You may give others some ideas.
OTHER RECIPES TO TRY:
HOMEMADE INSTANT POT YOGURT RECIPE
Homemade Yogurt only takes a few steps and only uses 2 ingredients! This yogurt can go into many different dishes to enhance flavor and nutrition.
Ingredients
- 1 gallon of milk - Fat free, 1%, 2%, or whole milk
- 1/4 cup of yogurt starter - Which could be store bought yogurt, dry yogurt starter, or leftover whey from a previous batch.
Instructions
- Pasteurize milk - Pour milk in the instant pot and place the lid on. The steam valve can be open or closed. Push YOGURT until the display reads "boil" or "high" and let it run until the instant pot beeps and the display reads "yogt".
- Cool milk to 110°F-116°F, then temper your yogurt starter and add back to pasteurized milk. To temper yogurt starter, in a separate bowl mix 1/4 cup of your yogurt starter and 1 cup of hot milk, mix together and put it back in the main pot and stir a few times to incorporate. If you use a packet of dry yogurt starter, follow instructions.
- Incubate yogurt - Place the lid on your instant pot with the steam valve open or closed. Press the yogurt button until the display reads 08:00. If your instant pot has a start button, start it. Mine does not so I just let it go.
- Let the yogurt cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
- Place in the refrigerator until it is cold and then pack into containers and store in the refrigerator.
Notes
The steam valve on the instant pot can be open or closed for this entire process and it does not matter which one you do. None of the settings we are using require pressure to operate.
After pasteurizing, you can remove your instant pot insert and place it in an ice bath or leave it out on the counter to make it cool faster to your target zone.
Whey has many uses so if you are making Greek yogurt, you can find many uses for the whey.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 154.4Total Fat: 3.8gSaturated Fat: 2.5gUnsaturated Fat: 1.1gCholesterol: 14.7mgSodium: 171.5mgCarbohydrates: 17.2gNet Carbohydrates: 17.2gSugar: 17.2gProtein: 12.9g
I like to put a spin on popular dishes and creating new dishes, using foraged foods.
i hunt, fish, raise many different kinds of animals, and have a wide variety of ways of getting my own food.
i very much enjoy plant, tree, mushroom identification and there uses for food, beverage and medicine.
follow along! as i create dishes using all of the things that grow outside your door.
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