Making homemade yogurt is really a simple process. The savings, texture, and flavor will make you wonder what took you so long to make it yourself.

I originally jumped into making yogurt when I was trying to make high calorie foods for my daughter who has a severe gag reflex and growth issues. These days companies are going to fat free yogurt, or using milk powder and thickeners to speed up the process. I didn’t want anything to do with this so I did my research and started making my own.

In the process of making large batches of yogurt I had to find ways to use a lot of yogurt quick so I began my research into recipes using yogurt. Amazingly I can’t make enough yogurt to keep up now. I will include some of my recipes that use yogurt below and will be posting more in the future.

What you need:

Medium Sized Cooler preferably with tilt top lid.
Heating blanket.
4 medium sized mason jars with rubber band lids and steel bands.
Glass 2 cup measuring cup.
Medium 3/4 gallon heavy bottom sauce pot.
Metal mixing spoon.
Cooking thermometer preferably one with a clip to attach to the side of a pot.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon of Milk (whole or skimmed)
6 ounces of Plain yogurt (be sure to check that it contains live cultures)

Directions:

First you will want to sanitize your jars by filling them with boiling water from a kettle I would do this on a cutting board to prevent from damaging your counter top also fill a glass bowl with your lids and rings and pour boiling water over them.

Add milk to your pot and start heating it on low while stirring and gradually increase the heat to medium as it warms be sure to not let the milk scorch. Bring the milk up to 180 Fahrenheit in order to kill off any bacteria that might interfere with the process.

While you are heating the milk have yogurt mixed on your counter to bring it up to room temperature.

Once the milk has reached 180 Fahrenheit remove from heat then fill a clean sink with cold tap water about 3 inches deep. transfer the pot of milk to the sink and stir until the temperature drops between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now bring the pot out of the water and mix in the yogurt be sure that its mixed well and evenly.

Pour the milk yogurt mixture into the glass cup and then into the sanitized jars.

place the rubber band caps upside down on the mason jars and loosely cap with the rings. You do not want it completely sealed at this point mainly just to keep the dust out.

Carefully transfer the jars to your cooler and fill any remaining space with jars full of warm tap water leaving enough room to place the heating blanket along the side of the cooler.

Close the cooler and turn the heat blanket on the lowest setting.

Be sure to keep the cooler in a place that it will not be disturbed.

Now we wait it will normally take about 6 hours before the yogurt is ready but I would check it at 5 hours environmental conditions can change process timing.

After 5 hours gently open the cooler and remove a jar of yogurt and slightly tilt to see if it has thickened if not return it to the cooler and close right away being sure not to disturb the other jars. Check every hour after this point until it reaches your desired consistency.

The yogurt will keep in your refrigerator for around 2 weeks you can keep a small batch of the yogurt as a starter for future batches. Either use the started yogurt within 5 days or freeze it for the next time you make a batch of yogurt.

It costs me about $2.00 to make 4 large jars of yogurt if I was to buy that much in the store of I would be paying about $12.00.

Recipes using yogurt:

Cmac’s Yummy Strained Yogurt
High Calorie Low Cost Baby Yogurt
Broiled Lemon Tofu with dill yogurt dip
Yogurt Cheesecake (Coming Soon)

Using yogurt as a substitute:

Yogurt makes a great low-fat substitute for buttermilk in many recipes.

If you have any ideas on how to use yogurt in recipes, or as substitutes please post a comment.