Today was my day to make yogurt. Well, really it’s my month. This used to be Dave’s task, but many months ago we decided to take turns on yogurt duty. Today was my day for this first batch this month.
If you’ve never eaten homemade yogurt, you are missing a treat. It’s not sweet (you can add sweetener in the bowl) and we know what’s in it. In the winter we eat yogurt every morning for breakfast with fruit and homemade granola. Because of our busy schedule, in the summer I usually make smoothies.
Making yogurt is really easy if you follow directions and your starter is live. When I first started making yogurt again, my first two batches didn’t set up. I was so discouraged. I had followed the directions to the letter. After the second batch, we realized our starter (3/4 cup of leftover yogurt from the previous batch) was no longer active. Dave now uses a new starter packet quarterly.
Back to making it – it’s real easy. Heat up the half gallon of 1% organic milk and 1 cup of dry milk to 180 degrees. Cool it down to 100 degrees (I set it in ice water). Add the starter, stir, and pour into the inner container of the the maker (Love those gadgets!), which has already had water warming in the bottom. In 4 – 10 hours you have yogurt, depending on how firm and tart you want it. The longer the time you let it incubate, the tarter and firmer it will be. That’s what I call easy peasy.
Now for our next project. I am so excited! We have been talking about making this since before Christmas. I finally got all of the needed supplies including the one that required a waiver form signature. It will be unveiled tomorrow – our very first batch of soap!! We’ve got our fingers crossed that at 1:30 pm tomorrow we will have a nice block of soap. Come on back and see how we did!
