It's Alll Good...: Making Yogurt

I've declared this month "dairy month" at my house. Well, technically it's a spillover from last month considering I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many trips I made to the Sassy Cow Creamery.

Since moving to Wisconsin I've developed quite a taste for cheese and all things dairy. But after years of buying two different yogurts - one for me, one for my daughter - I decided it was time to learn how to make it myself. How hard could it be?

Not hard at all!

Making yogurt is essentially a temperature thing. Keeping the milk at particular temperatures for particular periods of time. After you figure that out, all you need is milk and some culture - either ready-made yogurt, or a powdered culture.

You'll need to invest in a yogurt maker. You can find the one I bought here.

This Aroma model is nice. Has BPA-free cups and is very user friendly.

I've read other ways of keeping your yogurt at a constant temperature - one that included using a heating pad. Uh, sorry, I like to be resourceful, but...no.

You can use either ready-made yogurt....

.... or you can buy a powdered culture. I like buying the powdered culture because it makes so much.

However, the "buying yogurt to make yogurt" option is just fine, particularly if you do lots of baking.

You can purchase yogurt and cheese cultures here from Dairy Connection. If you live in the Madison, WI area you can call ahead and they will prepare your order for you for pick-up. They've even got recipes and soon they will have a store for you to browse around in.

You don't have to use organic milk, but I like to.

Start by heating 1 quart (4 cups) of milk on medium-low, stirring frequently to
avoid the "skin" that can form on milk. Heat until it reaches 180F. Nearly there...

Once you've arrived, keep it there for 15-30 minutes. Keeping it at 15 minutes has

always worked for me, but some people insist on longer and some say you don't need to at all.

Now you can either put it in the fridge or put it in a cold water bath

until it drops to 115F. Everyone needs a little chill-out time.

Once it's down to 115F, add in your yogurt culture.

Only 1/8 tsp. to 1 quart of milk (or 4 cups). Stir well.

Pour the milk into your cups, place the cups in the machine and set the timer for 8 hours.
It will beep when it's done. Take the cups out, put on the lids and place in the fridge for 24 hours. I typically start this in the morning so it's done by afternoon.