Making Yoghurt From Scratch? Yip Sure Am.

An article by Debi Hazelden    1 Comment

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I love the taste of yoghurt. It’s simply fermented milk; probiotic bacteria is introduced, the milk curdles and releases lactic acid. From what I understand this makes yoghurt easier to digest than milk.

The healthy bacteria make yoghurt really good for you, although for all it’s benefits I’ve been feeling really bad as I buy cartons of the stuff.  Partly because I’m not sure it’s that good for me to include so much dairy in my diet. That and my desire to learn new skills has got me making yoghurt from scratch.

Crazy? Nah. It’s easy.

I’d like to try making all sorts. Raw milk yoghurt, soy milk yoghurt, oat milk and rice milk yoghurt to see how they turn out.

With a yoghurt make you can make yoghurt without much thought. These aren’t expensive. I have the Easiyo which was about $20 from the local supermarket. Here are the easy steps I use.

How to make yoghurt:

1. Heat 1 litre of milk until it reaches 95 degrees Celsius.

I don’t have a flash expensive pot or a double boiler so I stand there and stir my milk in a pot. It take about 10mins. I have a milk frothing thermometer which was only $10 from Stevens.

You can use any milk you like here. I like to use whole milk rather than low fat as it makes a nicer yoghurt and whole milk yoghurt fills me up a lot more, and for a longer time than low fat milk. I’ve tried this with soy milk and it turned out great.

Once the milk gets to 95 degrees hold it there for 3-5 mins.

Heating the milk to 90-95 degrees

2. Cool the milk to 44 degrees Celsius

This takes about 30 mins, or if you poor the milk into a container and sit it inside a pot of cold water this will cool it faster.

Cooling the milk to 44 degrees

3. Poor milk into container and add yoghurt starter

I poor the milk into my Easiyo container and add some yoghurt culture about the size of 2 grains of rice. Stir well, put the lid on, add the boiling water to the yoghurt maker and sit the yoghurt container in.

I use ATB-4 yoghurt cultures from Lenart who sells on trademe. It’s pretty cheap, I purchased a sachet of culture which should make about 200 litres of yoghurt. You need to keep these in the freezer.

Yoghurt cultures ABT-4

4. Keep warm.

The yoghurt maker should keep the yoghurt at the right temperature. I kept it there for 12 hours. You can do less, But I’ve read if you leave the yoghurt ferment for about 12-24 hours most of the lactose is gone so I like to leave mine longer.

Yoghurt maker

5. Notes

Homemade yoghurt is thinner than most commercial brands of yoghurt. If you like a thicker yoghurt like I do, add a few drops of calcium chloride before heating the milk. Lenart sells this too on trademe for about $5.60 and will last forever.

Another way to thicken the yoghurt is to add powdered milk. I don’t do this though as this makes it dairy I use the calcium chloride.

6. How does it taste?

This yoghurt tastes deliciously thick, rich and creamy. The soy yoghurt tastes like soy milk. ha funny that. So I mix up berries into a lumpy liquid and add to the yoghurt with other fruit or nuts and seeds and it deliciously satisfies my yoghurt craving!

I am just trying out the rice milk yoghurt now. I have it in the yoghurt maker so hopefully it turns out

Yoghurt is so easy to make!

Homemade yoghurt

Update: 7 June 2011

I tried making this yoghurt with rice milk and it doesn’t work. I’m not sure why, maybe because rice milk doesn’t include much protient or fat. Soy milk and cows milk both work great though.

Still to try making coconut milk yoghurt!