Yogurt Plain and Simple

Homemade Organic Yogurt

First, I’d like to share the reason’s why I like to make my own yogurt.  

1. It tastes better. 
2. It’s much cheaper.  A half-gallon of organic milk is $3.75 in our area of Ohio.  It will make a half-gallon of organic yogurt.  Organic yogurt is $4.00 a quart, so $8.00 a half-gallon. 
3. The bacteria do all the work for you.  

There you have it! 

Let’s get started…

Ingredients

Half-gallon of organic milk

Heaping ¼ cup of organic yogurt

8 drops of stevia

½ teaspoon vanilla

The first time you make it, you will need to buy a good quality yogurt to use as a starter.  Your next batch can be started from your previous batch.

Heat the milk to 110-120° in a pot on the stove.  If you use raw milk, it will need to be heated to 170 ° and then cooled to 110 -120°.  If you neglect this step with raw milk, your yogurt will be runny.  Add the stevia and vanilla.  Stir in the yogurt starter thoroughly.  Sometimes, I even put my hand in to smoosh the clumps of yogurt.  

Ladle the liquid into pint jars.  

Put them in a cooler.  (No need to purchase a fancy yogurt machine!)  

Fill the cooler with very hot tap water to the top of the jars.  Close the cooler lid tightly, and let the bacteria go to work.  Don’t peek!  Let it sit for 8-9 hours.  

Presto Chango, you've got yogurt!

Refrigerate.

Make sure to save a starter for your next batch.  I used a starter from my own yogurt for about a year, then needed to get a “new start”, so bought some more yogurt and have been working from that for about a year.