Cooking with Jonny69: home made yoghurt

[Jonny69]

Something I've always wanted to have a go at is home made yoghurt. The prospect of creating a live culture in my kitchen has always been daunting. That said, tragically watching QVC, I've seen adverts for EasiYo which makes yoghurt from nothing more than powdered milk in a special yoghurt maker powered by hot water. Hmm, I figured it would be better with fresh milk, the more cream the better and I wouldn't need a special yoghurt maker to do it! The way yoghurt works is you introduce a culture into milk and keep it warm so that it breeds and the whole lot turns into yoghurt. You use a live yoghurt for the culture and I used a Thermos flask to keep it warm overnight.

It's really simple:

1. Boil some milk and let it cool to 45 degrees,
2. Add yoghurt
3. Pour it into a Thermos and leave it overnight
4. Yoghurt for breakfast!

Here's how you do it step-by-step with pictures...

1. Boil a litre of milk. You can use whole milk or skimmed, but the more cream the creamier it tastes. Let it cool to 45 degrees - if you don't have a thermometer this is about the same temperature as a hot bath. In a bowl, mix about 2 tablespoons of plain Greek yoghurt with a splash of the warm milk to make it runny. You need live yoghurt and I used Fage Total yoghurt because it was the only one that said it was live yoghurt on the tub. Stir it into the milk in the pan and pour the whole lot into a Thermos. The more manly the flask at this point, the better the yoghurt will taste. For example, this 1.3 litre unbreakable stainless flask will taste the best:



2. Leave it overnight. I tend to do this at about 9-10pm after I've eaten dinner and it's ready by 7am, so it doesn't take long. The next morning when you take the lid off the flask you'll see the bubbles from the milk froth are still there except it's now super thick and it smells like creamy yoghurt:



3. Check it out, it is still warm, it is ready to eat and it is THICK



4. Yogurt from a tub tends to separate slightly and this is no different. It'll be a bit lumpy at this point. Pour it into a jar and give it a brisk stir, or if you want it extra thick you can pour away some of the liquid. Now you have a litre of some of the most amazing yoghurt:



Important: This will be the most amazing yoghurt you've ever tasted. Make sure you don't scoff it all, because you need to leave about 2 tablespoons for when you make it again next time