Yogurt perfected!

My last post about making yogurt provided a basic guide for making yogurt at home. Well, I have really refined the process over the past few months and I thought an update was in order. Also, I have found a simple way to strain yogurt to make thick, creamy Greek-style yogurt.

So, here is my revised yogurt making method:

1. Take 6 oz container of plain yogurt with live active cultures out of the fridge. Let it sit on the counter until it's about room temperature.

2. Pour 42 oz of milk into a saucepan. Heat the milk until it's warm to the touch, but not hot. DO NOT bring it to a boil. This differs from my previous post. I found that bringing the yogurt up to 180 degrees and them letting it cool, only consumed a lot of time and sometimes caused the yogurt to have a gritty texture. It did not help thicken it as I had read.

3. While the milk is warming, put the room temperature yogurt into a bowl and gently smooth it out with a spoon or rubber spatula. You want a very smooth and lump-free yogurt. I've found that this step helps create a better texture for the finished yogurt. I think it mixes into the milk a lot better as well.

4. Take about 1/2 cup of the warm milk and gently mix it into the yogurt. Repeat this step a few times until you have slowly raised the temperature of the yogurt. Then, add the rest of the warmed milk to the yogurt and mix again. You should have a very smooth milk/yogurt mixture that is still warm. This step is very important, because if you raise the temp of the yogurt too fast, it will start to curdle and the yogurt will end up lumpy and quite unpleasant.

5. Pour the mixture into a yogurt maker and set it for 8 hours. I have tried many different settings, and 8 hours always works for me no matter what milk fat % I started with. I would suggest starting with 8 hours and adjust as needed.

6. After 8 hours, your yogurt is done. Put it in the fridge to chill.

To make Greek-style yogurt:

1. Take a fine mesh sieve or strainer and place into a deep bowl or pot. Make sure that the bottom of the strainer sits well above the bottom of the pot or bowl. About 2 inches of space is good. Place the largest coffee filter you can find into the sieve. Pictured below is a #6 coffee filter, the largest they had at my local store.

2. Slowly and carefully fill the coffee filter with yogurt until it's about 1/2" from the top. The filter below is just a bit too full.

3. I like to lay a coffee filter on top of the strainer too, just to keep any particles from falling into the yogurt. Place the whole thing in the fridge for 4-6 hours, or until the yogurt has reached a thickness you like. I have let it sit overnight, which was fine but the yogurt was very thick and dense. I simply mixed a few teaspoons of the whey (that's the liquid you have strained from the yogurt) back into it, and it was fine. Actually, it was better than fine, it was fantastic!

Store the strained yogurt in a sealed container and enjoy.

Now, about that whey sitting in the bottom of your pot...Whey can be used for a variety of things, a quick internet search will give you tons of ideas. One of the easiest things to do is to replace the water in just about any bread recipe with whey. It will give your bread a slightly tangy, almost sourdough-like flavor and a nice soft crumb.