Honeybee*Hill

Easiest thing EVER. I have a Salton brand yogurt maker we got as a house-warming gift. Here’s how I make yogurt in it.

1. Clean all your parts

2. Gather ingredients (4 cups of milk, 1/2 cup instant nonfat dry milk, 1/2 cup of yogurt starter (plain only — with active cultures. I used Dannon All Natural Plain yogurt because it was 50 cents!). Set the yogurt aside for now. Combine the dry milk with the (wet) milk in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat to just under boiling. Don’t let the milk boil!! Stir frequently. If you watch it, you’ll be able to tell right before it starts to boil. It *sounds* different.

3. Stick the pan in the fridge. Don’t look at how messy my fridge is. Stir it occasionally so it cools evenly. You’ll want to cool it to lukewarm. It takes about 20 minutes in the fridge. You can use a food-grade thermometer if you have one that will read as low as 100°;F. You want the temp to be between 100-110°F. Anything hotter will kill the yogurt. Anything cooler will delay the set-up time. Lukewarm is good enough. Hand hot is too hot.

4. Mix in the yogurt. I think it’s easier to add some of the milk to the yogurt slowly. You don’t want to beat it at all, just mix it in. The smoother you get it, the smoother your yogurt will be. Mix it slowly and add to the rest of the milk, stirring so it gets distributed evenly.

5. Pour the mixture in the cups. Put on the lids. Replace the lid to your machine and turn it on. Wait eight hours or so! You can wait longer, but the longer you wait, the more tart your yogurt is going to be. Personally, I like around 9 hours.

After it’s finished processing, put it in the fridge for a couple hours. It will finish setting up in the fridge.

This is what the yogurt looks like after it’s been in the fridge. You can see some whey on top. You can skim it off or mix it in. It’s normal and doesn’t hurt anything.

Here you can see the yogurt texture in a bowl. It’s a bit lumpier than store bought, but it’s tasty and the texture doesn’t bother me.

Here it is stirred up and sweetened with 1TBSP of honey and 1tsp of vanilla. YUM! Enjoy!

I’ll post photos of other ways you can make yogurt too. I have ordered a culture so I can make soy yogurt as well! It’s so easy and fun. Just remember to set aside half a cup of your yogurt for your next batch!