Yogurt Making

Yesterday I made yogurt for the second time. It is so easy and I can't believe I waited so long to try making it! You might ask why I would bother making my own yogurt. 1. It is fun to see if you can make something from scratch. 2. For me, the reasons were health and economics. We go through A LOT of yogurt in our house. I have been buying various fruit flavors in the large container for quite a while. Since it was yogurt and fruit, I thought it was pretty healthy for us. Then one day I looked at the label a little closer and saw all the sugar and artificial ingredients added! Eating plain yogurt still takes a little getting used to when you have had the sugary stuff for so long, but we add a little jam or some granola cereal and it is really good. Give it a try!

There are lots of ways to make yogurt, but this is how I have been doing it with good results:

• First, I warm 1/2 gallon of milk to 180 degrees.
• Once the milk has reached 180 degrees, I take it off the stove and cool it to 110 degrees. I do this by filling the sink with a little cold water and put the pan in the water, careful to not get any water in the milk.

• Next I add the starter. The first time I used store bought plain yogurt and added 1 cup to the 1/2 gallon of milk. This time I just used some left over yogurt from my first batch.
• Mix well and pour into a very clean 1/2 gallon jar or smaller jars.

• Now this is where the magic happens! With the milk and starter well mixed, I place the jar in an insulated cooler with a heating pad wrapped around it. I turn the heating pad to medium heat and zip the top of the insulated cooler. I leave the lid off the jar (I don't know if that matters or not, but I don't want extra moisure in there). I then let this sit and incubate for 6-8 hours.

And there we have it-yogurt!