Making your own yogurt is easy, fun and gives you that little feeling of superiority we all like to experience every now and again.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine They say it's from New York.
Keyword yogurt
Servings 11people
Calories 82kcal
Author The Art of Doing Stuff
Equipment
dehydrator
instant pot
Ingredients
2litresmilk(whole, 2%, 1% or skim)
2tablespoonactive yogurtplain
Instructions
Instant Pot Yogurt
Pour 2 litres (½ gallon) of milk into the inner pot. I use 1% but you can use any kind.
Lock the lid on.
Turn the vent to "sealing". (although I've forgotten this step before and my yogurt still turned out fine.)
Press "Yogurt" button then,
Press "Adjust" button. The light will switch to "more" and the word "boil" will show up.
Wait. The Instant Pot does its thing for 35-40 minutes, heating the milk to 180° F.
"Yogt" will show up on the display when it's done.
Remove the lid. CHECK THE TEMPERATURE. After this part is done my yogurt is NEVER at 180° F. It gets to 175. So I put the lid on and restart the process of hitting "Yogurt" then "Adjust" to boil again until the yogurt registers as being 180° F.
Keep the yogurt at 180° F for 5 minutes. To do this, Press "Yogurt" then "Adjust" again. This will keep the unit warm enough to keep the yogurt at 180° F. Leave it like this for 5 minutes. Don't put the lid back on.
Press "Cancel" at the end of 5 minutes.
Unplug the Instant Pot. Remove the inner pot and either let it rest on the counter until the temperature drops down to 115° F, OR put the pot in a cold water bath in your sink. This speeds up the cooling time a LOT. (instead of taking half an hour it will only take a few minutes, so keep an eye on it)
Put 2 tablespoons of yogurt (with active cultures) into a bowl and then temper it with a ladle of the hot milk and stir. This just makes it easier to disperse the yogurt through the entire pot.
Pour bowl of yogurt/milk mixture into the inner pot of the Instant Pot and stir.
Set the inner pot back into the unit.
Push the Yogurt button. Add or subtract with the (+) key until you reach a minimum of 8 hours. You can also let it go for 11 hours for tangier yogurt. At the end of your cycle "Yogt" will appear on the display and it's done.
Pour off the whey from the top (or scoop it out with a spoon) and put the yogurt in mason jars or other glass containers.
Stovetop Yogurt
Heat your milk in a saucepan over medium heat to 180 F (almost boiling, this happens quickly).
Remove pan from heat and allow milk to cool to 115 F. This will take around 30 minutes on the counter or a few minutes in a cool water bath in your sink.
Once the milk is at 115 degrees add some hot milk to a bowl with 2 tablespoons of yogurt in it and incorporate. Add this mixture to your pot of hot milk.
Now your job is to keep this concoction at 115 degrees for the next 8 hours. There are a few ways to do this.
Pour your milk mixture into a mason jar (or similar) with lid and place the entire jar into a small cooler filled with warm water. Leave for 8 - 11 hours. OR ...
Pour your milk mixture into a good thermos, wrap it in a towel and leave it for 8 hours.
Your yogurt is now done. Store it in glass jars and refrigerate. (If you want you can strain it to make it thicker.) Straining instructions in notes.
Dehydrator Yogurt
Follow steps 1-3 for stovetop yogurt.
Turn on the dehydrator and set to 115°F.
Pour yogurt into serving sized mason jars for convenience (or use full sized mason jars).
Set the jars into the dehydrator and allow to incubate for 8-11 hours.
Notes
The longer you let the yogurt incubate the more tart it will be.
2 litres of milk will make 8 cups of yogurt.
For extra thick Greek yogurt, strain the yogurt after it has set by pouring it into a cheesecloth lined sieve over a bowl. In about an hour 4 cups of whey will have drained out leaving you with an incredibly thick remaining 4 cups of yogurt.
If your oven goes as low as 115°F then you can set the jars of yogurt in the oven for 8-11 hours as well to incubate it.