I told a friend how eating yogurt helps my sensitive stomach and she said, “But there’s so much sugar in yogurt.”
Wait. What? There’s no sugar in yogurt! So as part of my #eatinginplace posts, here’s how easy it is to make yogurt…
Yogurt is simply milk with a starter. The starter can be store-bought or you can save some of your yogurt from your first batch to make your next.
This is all you need to make yogurt: milk, starter and a thermometer. You can follow the directions on the package, but I fudge it to get more because the starter is expensive. I use a half gallon of milk, not a liter, and I use one package for the whole half gallon. That way, I get twice as much yogurt for the cost.
Heat the milk to 180 degrees over a medium or medium low heat. And keep an eye on it. Once it gets past 180, it will quickly boil over and that’s a mess to clean up. Trust me on this. I’ve had to clean up that mess several times.
Then let it cool to between 108 and 112 degrees. Then to cut the cost, I divide one packet of the starter between two quart jars. Add a little bit of your cooled milk and mix it with the starter. Then fill the jar the rest of the way and mix well.
Then put the lids on and put your jars in the oven on a very low heat. My small oven has a lowest setting of 150 degrees and that works for me. Then leave it alone for a few hours.
I put a sticky note on the oven so I remember the yogurt is in there and don’t accidentally crank the oven heat for something else.
After a few hours, you have thick, tasty and sugar-free yogurt that’s good for your gut.
