I'm a yogurt maker! Me!

We buy a lot of yogurt around here. The Hero makes a smoothie every morning and Dragon Baby and I enjoy them on occasion too, we usually have to conserve our portions a lot to make one quart of plain yogurt last each week. The yogurt we buy is a fantastic grass-fed live culture yogurt and its high quality is one of the reasons I pay $5.99 each week for the quart jar. I've been looking into ways to save money on the yogurt though, so I've been doing my research and found a few ways to do so. This method: http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/ is the one I picked to follow for a few reasons:

• It promised thick yogurt without added ingredients or straining!
• It doesn't require special equipment
• It took steps to keep the yogurt cultures alive but other cultures out
• It doesn't require buying additional starter cultures each time
• I use the yogurt I already like for the starter, so my yogurt will be similar

Well I finished my first batch late last night, and chilled it overnight to thicken as recommended, and I cannot tell you how excited I was last night, it already smelled tasty and this morning it was so thick and creamy. I felt like a huge success! I followed the method on the link to a tee, the only thing I might add is if you have an immersion blender, it might help to make a creamier integration before putting the culture into containers for chilling, I'm sure a blender, stand or hand mixer might produce the same results. I stirred by hand and I had a hard time whipping the curds into the liquid effectively. I should also admit here that it was like 1 AM when I got to this stage and I did not want to stir, so there was a lack in motivation. :P

I love the texture of it, I really needed a slightly thickened yogurt. I held the milk at 185° F for  30 minutes as was recommended for a thicker yogurt. If you want a greek-style yogurt, you could sieve it through a cheese cloth to get your desired thickness, though you do lose some health-benefits by straining the liquids out, the remaining yogurt curds are still great for you. (If you leave it in the cheesecloth a long time, you get a cream-cheese style yogurt, FYI!)

Enjoy a picture of my tasty home-made yogurt! See how nice and thick it is? This is not strained in any way, just followed the recipe.

So let's get on with the important part: reviewing the recipe and breaking down the savings! The recipe delivered everything it promised. I'm thrilled with the results and you don't need to be a kitchen genius by any means to make this happen. I will note that my heating pad runs hot, the recipe called to run it on medium and I kicked it down to low. It's ancient, though, so don't think that will apply to you automatically!

The recipe made 2 quarts of yogurt for me, so I'll do a price comparison for you:

Store-Bought:    Home-made:                   Savings:
     2 Quarts              1/2 Gal Milk @ $3.99           Buy: $11.99          
      x $5.99                - Bottle dep. @$2.00          -Make: $1.99
      $11.99                                         $1.99           Save:$10.00

Definitely worth it! It was so easy to make and it tastes amazing! Let me know if you try it out or add any flavors (which the author mentions adding after the whole process is over, to preserve the culture!) Happy yogurt making!