I had no idea you could make yogurt. Who would have thought to make yogurt? Why would you make it, when you can easily just buy it from the grocery store?
That was my thinking process 7 years ago. I HAD NO CLUE! In fact, I laughed at my aunt when she told me she made yogurt and all you need in milk and yogurt! I laughed! Needing yougurt to make yogurt just sounded funny. But that is how clueless I was.
Here I am today (well, I started making yogurt 7 years ago), making yogurt and many, many other things! Knowing how much healthier and cheaper it is than buying it in the grocery store.
That’s the reason I make things in my kitchen, to save money and become healtheir. A double bounes!!
The process of making yogurt is easy. It does take a little bit of time to warm and cool the milk. But while it ferments in a warm environment, you can forget about it for hours!
There are a few different things you can use to make/ferment yogurt in. In the oven, in the crockpot, instant pot, ninji foodie pot, the oven, a dehydrator, a cooler… all you need is a spot to keep it warm, not hot, just warm for 8-24 hours. If you have another idea for keeping it warm, post below what you have used. I’d love to hear! Â
The recipe for each is the same. Besides, if your instant pot or ninji foodie has a yogurt option, it makes it a little easier. Just follow the instructions for what you have.
Homemade Plain, Sugar-Free Yogurt Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Gallon of whole milk
1/2 cup of plain yogurt with live and active culters
Directions:
- Heat milk to 180 degrees
- Cool milk to 106-120 degrees, either putting your pot in cold water or cover you pot and let it sit to cool (will take a while if you let it sit, hours!)
- Add 1/2 cup of yogurt and stir really well.
- Cover and keep in a warm enviroment for 6-24 hours (ferment time)
- Once done, cool in fridge.
- Optional- if you want thick yogurt, strain it after its been in the fridge to cool using a cheese cloth or flour sack. Save the whey (drippings) for other reciepes! You can use it in place of water or buttermilk in other recipes, or add to smoothies for added probiotics! You may need to whisk your yogurt to make it smooth after straining.
Use it within the week.
If you don’t need to make a gallon, divide it in half.
Ways to ferment it (keeping it warm). There are many ways one can do this. My favorite thing to make yogurt with is the instant pot. It will keep it warm for up to 24 hours! When I first made yogurt I started with oven with the light on, put your yogurt in the pot (covered) in the oven (after you have heated and cooled and added yogurt), turn your oven on so it just starts to warm up then shut it off, turn the light on and it should keep it at a warm temp while it ferments 8-10 hours. I usually do this overnight, make sure whoever you live with knows you’re making yogurt so they don’t turn your oven off! Ive made it in a crockpot when my oven light wasnt working. When using the crockpot, all you need to do is after you’ve heated and cooled your milk on the stove, put it in the crockpot (put it on warm just to warm the crock up. You don’t want it hot to touch but just warm) and wrap it in a towel so it stays warm, leave it overnight to ferment. Those are the 3 ways I have made yogurt. By far I’ve been loving the instant pot. I’m sure there are yogurt makers and lots of other ways to make your yogurt if one of these options wouldn’t work.
Fermenting times. This will change the taste of your yogurt. The longer you ferment it for the tangier/sourish, the more it will taste. Fermenting it for 24 hours will eat all the lactose in the milk, so if you’re sensitive to lactose, try a 24-hour yogurt! I will often do a longer ferment when I have time, and I start feeding my babies with the 24-hour fermented yogurt.
I avoid adding sugar when I make yogurt because we always add some sort of flavor when we eat it so we would be doubling the sugar but it would probably still have less then some yogurts in the store! Unless you’re watching for added sugar in things you buy, it can be so easy to consume a lot more than needed. I feel like so many products off the sheves in the grocery store have added sugar. And store bought yogurt can have a LOT of added sugar that you could avoid by making it. Also, making it plain, we will often use it as sour cream. Put some in your soup or on your salad or make salad dressing, which makes for another added probiotic!
To talk about savings! This always gets me excited to figure out the “around” what I’m saving by making it in my kitchen. 1 gallon of milk will make around (it does differ. Sometimes I get more and sometimes less,) I’d say average 3 totes of yogurt PLUS the whey. So if I’m buying 3 totes of yogurt for $4 a totes and a quart of buttermilk (= yogurt whey) for about $4 that’s $16 total and I can make all that with 1 gallon of milk that cost about $5! That’s saving $10 a week and $20 if I make it twice!! One month of savings is $40(making it 1x a week) or $80(making it 2x a week)! And a year savings… $520(making it 1x a week) or $1,040(making it 2x a week). How crazy is that! I’m telling you, making things healtheir in your kitchen can save you money. Becoming healtheir does not have to break the bank if you start doing making more things from scratch.
Have you made plain yogurt? How do you like to ferment your yogurt?
