Yogurt

OMGoodness!  I am so excited for this day!!  I am going to make my own yogurt.  I am very touch and go with yogurt.  The consistency grosses me out a little, but it's good for you.  There is a local restaurant that makes their own fresh yogurt and combines it with fresh fruit for a yogurt of the day.  It's the best yogurt I've ever had, so I'm going to attempt to do this for myself!

The store brand: Stoneyfield Farm Plain Yogurt

The recipe:
Half gallon of whole milk (8 cups) - do not use ultra pasteurized
1/2 cup store-bought natural yogurt - use this as a starter, then you will use your own yogurt next time
Fresh fruit and honey to make it delicious

(I chose the crockpot method, which takes a while, but is easy - there are other methods)
- Cover and cook entire half gallon of milk on low for 2 1/2 hours.
- Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

Yeah, I know, that picture is uninteresting...

- After three hours, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.
- Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.
- Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.
- In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened.
- Blend in batches with your favorite fruit - I like to add in a small dice of strawberries and bananas.
- Chill in a plastic container in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.

So the recipe sounds all good and easy, but it wasn't.  When I woke up I ran to the kitchen like HEY I'M GOING TO EAT MY VERY OWN YOGURT!!!! (!!).  But it was really thin and runny, though it did taste like yogurt.  I turned the crockpot back to keep warm setting and let it sit for about 8 more hours.  It thickened slightly and I let it strain through a cheesecloth for a while (warning: don't squeeze the cheesecloth... all the yogurt will just go through it).

At this point I let the yogurt refrigerate, where it actually did thicken a little.  So my yogurt's on the left:

And then since plain yogurt is lame, I added honey and strawberries to both.

How about the cost?  Well, if you are comparing plain to plain yogurt, it is MUCH cheaper to make your own.  If you normally buy flavored yogurt and have to pay for the fresh fruit and honey for your homemade yogurt, there is still a cost advantage, and you get some fresh fruit (I accounted for 1/2 cup honey and 1 cup diced fresh fruit for the batch).

	Amount	Cost	Cost/Oz
Stonyfield Farm Organic Plain	32 oz	$      3.75	$            0.12
Homemade	8 cups	$      3.19	$            0.05
Homemade with Fruit/Honey	8 cups	$      5.19	$            0.08

So, it costs less, but took a really long time.  In the end, I did not really like the homemade yogurt - it was just too thin.  I ended up making frozen yogurt from it (PUMPKIN FROZEN YOGURT!), which was very delicious.  To be fair, my husband liked the homemade yogurt much more.  But if I had to choose, which this blog is my opinion...

Bake or Buy? BUY!