Making Yogurt

Yogurt.

This is my first attempt on my own. I remember my aunt and mother making it a few times when we were little but it always seemed to be such a confusing lengthy process so you can imagine my surprise when I actually decided to try it. It not only worked out but it was SO EASY!

This is the leftover milk/heavy cream mixture that was used the day before to make Geymar.

What I was left with after the Geymar was a whole pot of milk!

The first step in yogurt making is to boil the milk and by that time I realized that there was only about a quarter of a prepared yogurt container in the fridge (I ate a lot of it this month!)

Now you need yogurt to make yogurt, the culture (bacteria!) in it. Most recipes said to use a lot more, but I decided to risk it and use what I had.

So I boiled the pot of milk, let it cool down until it was like warm drinking milk, mixed up the yogurt with a bit of the warm milk to make a nice creamy mixture and added it right into the rest of the milk and stirred it up.

At this point the pot needs to be covered and wrapped in blankets (?) So I wrapped it in towels and one big towel and placed it on the low rack in the oven (which was comfortably warm, like you could sit in there and not burn up or anything)

My mother said to leave the oven off, but the sites said to leave it on very low (lowest oven temp!) (making sure the towels do not touch the elements or anything to cause a fire!) You should definitely do this during the day while awake to supervise.

So now it sits there in the oven for 5-12 hours.

Then you place it in the fridge and let it chill for a few hours (overnight?)

Enjoy your homemade yogurt in the morning! :) I'm not a yogurt and fruit person but here I added a wedge of fresh spice mango.

If you've never heard of a spice mango then according to wiki they are " Buxton Spice mango. This mango is unique to Buxton (Guyana) being fleshy and sweet like others but having a unique spicy taste."

Maybe it will make a fantastic curry?! or chicken marinade?

Ok, not to get carried away.

Back to yogurt.

The yogurt can be made directly in plastic yogurt containers next time for easier storage and it can be used for just about anything you would do with regular store bought yogurt.

Strain it for a thicker creamy breakfast dip .. recipe here
And photo here