I just wanted to comment on how much fun I'm having making yoghurt at home. If you've never tried it, you really should. Here's what I do:

- Take 1 litre of milk, heat it to 86C or until froth appears on top. Hold it at that temp over a very low heat as long as you can. You can just get it to 86C and then turn off the heat, but apparently if you keep it there for longer you get thicker yog.

Watch it like a hawk or it will boil over! If you have a double boiler, use it, as the washing up will be easier - in a normal saucepan the milk will stick to the bottom.

- Cool the milk down to 50C - that's pleasantly warm (warmer than blood heat).
- Stir in a small pot of plain live yoghurt - it helps to mix the yog with a little milk first to thin it, then stir that into the rest of the milk.
- Keep warm for 6-8 hours. The source I used at first said keep it between 40C and 44C, but I've since seen another site that says keep it nearer 50C, so I'm going to experiment with that. Again, warmer than blood heat.
- Refrigerate overnight - it will thicken. Some people stir it before refrigerating, but I don't get good results that way so I let it chill overnight before stirring. You don't need to stir - if you prefer a set yoghurt then leave it alone.

I keep warm by filling my slow cooker with warm water and putting the yog pot in and then running the slow cooker, lid on, at 20-40W - I can do this because I have a dimmer switch for the slow cooker. There are lots of other methods - wrap it in towels, put it in the oven with the light on, put it in a cool box with a bowl of hot water, sit it on one of those heat pads for treating injuries. You can also make it in one big pot (as I do) or in a series of little pots.

To flavour it, spoon some jam on top and refrigerate overnight - in the morning the jam will have lost its set and turned into a syrup, making it easy to stir in. Same happens with honey, lemon curd etc.

The results vary in how thick they are, how tangy, and what the texture is like, depending on all sorts of factors. But even if a batch turns out not quite perfect, it's still a lot of fun and very rewarding to make your own. If you've never tried it, you should definitely give it a go.

Last edited by hippytea (Thu 14 Mar 13 3:31pm)