I really love the thick gourmet yoghurt that's really expensive! But it's got too much sugar in it for the diet I am doing - so I wondered, does anyone make their own thick yoghurt that I could regulate the amount of sugar in making?
I use easiyo and that makes beautiful thick yoghurt, but I'm pretty sure the carbs/sugars are similar to commercial yoghurt. Haven't tried the lite ones though.
This is how I make it (although not very often, and without an easiyo thing):
1 litre milk
2 tablespoons plain yoghurt
Bring milk to the boil, turn heat down when it starts to rise up and simmer for 2 minutes.
Take off the heat and leave to cool to around 43C. (I use my candy thermometer)
Skim off the skin and beat the plain yoghurt with a little of the warm milk.
Beat in the rest of the milk. (Don't mix it in the pan you heated the milk in, as more often than not, there will be browned milk on the bottom of the pan, resulting in brown patchy yoghurt).
Pour into a 1 litre container (I use an old yoghurt tub!), or smaller containers and put lids on.
Wrap in towel and leave overnight to set. (I wrap in a towel and put into an insulated lunch bag/esky thing).
Place in the fridge and will be ready to eat after 8 hours.
Can use sheep or goat milk if you wish, and apparently skim milk too.
From Best Recipes website.
You can freeze the 'starter' yoghurt and let it defrost in the fridge when you are ready to make your next batch. It's very tart in taste (as you can imagine), so adding fruit or honey (or natural honeycomb) make great sweeteners, and maybe a little vanilla. It is very easy. And very thick. The trick with it is to make sure it cools down REALLY slowly, hence the insulating with towels.
For a treat, I make the easiyo greek yoghurt. It is really thick and creamy. It is unsweetened so you can limit the sugar content you add if you want. Mmmmmm.... now I feel like greek yoghurt with brown sugar...
I tried it on the weekend and was coming in today to reply - so you reminded me!
I burned the first litre of milk! Stupid stove - I'm not taking any of the blame! So I went to the shop and got more milk and tried again - and it's just like slightly thicker yoghurt smelling milk!
I think my temperature might have been wrong - not sure the old themometer is still working properly - do you think this is what my problem was?
I'm not sure on that. If you think your thermometer is a bit off, then aim for blood temp, or slightly warmer. Did you insulate the container really well? It needs to cool extremely slowly to get the cultures to grow. Aside from that, not sure, I'm sorry. You could try just making with half a litre or less of milk, and reduce the starter yoghurt amount accordingly, if you want to have a success before using lots of milk.
I wrapped it in a towel and then put in my insulated esky box thing - but it's been very cold here so maybe it still cooled too fast. Maybe next time I'll do the same but sit it near the wood stove so it stays warmer longer....what do you think?
I use an easiyo too... The 'maker' is $20 from - so not an expensive machine and I find the light ones to be pretty good, the sugary ones are just a good as the expensive ones from the shops....
Ausgirl; really not sure, sorry! It sounds exactly like what I do (but I can't remember the general temperature of when I have made it). Sorry I am of no help now. Really hope the next one works.
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