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Make Your Own Yogurt

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Although the thought of making yogurt can seem a bit overwhelming, This is the easiest recipe that you can make at home. It’s as simple as Boiling Milk!

Why Make Your Own Yogurt?

You might be wondering why one might want to make their own yogurt, well for a host of reasons actually. Commercially prepared yogurts contain a multitude of chemicals- such as Castoreum (which are derived the from scent glands located under the tale of a beaver), aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, a rainbow of nasty food dyes as well as Carrageenan (which is a derivative of red seaweed but has recently been under fire for its link to cancer).

make-your-own-yogurt

Homemade Healthy Probiotic Yogurt

In order to make your own delicious, healthy probiotic yogurt, you’ll need a few simple ingredients. Milk, Live Yogurt Cultures, which in our case we purchased 1 tiny container of raw, Live Culture yogurt (no flavoring added) from the grocery store.

It was a bit expensive, but don’t worry, after you’ve made your own batch of yogurt, you can use it as a starter for the next batch.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 1

First, gather the ingredients you need:

* 1 qt of Whole, LowFat or Non-Fat Milk (Or Soy Milk, Almond Milk or Coconut Milk)
* 2 Tbs. preservative-free, un-flavored yogurt (Live Cultures)

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 2

Preheat oven to 200F.

Pour milk into a saucepan over medium heat, bring to a near boil of 185F, stirring constantly.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 3

Once the milk reaches a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer (not boil!) for 2 minutes. The purpose of this is to pasteurize the yogurt to prevent unwanted bacteria from reproducing.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 4

Remove from heat and allow to cool until the temperature reaches 110-115 degrees. (I recommend an Instant Read thermometer rather than a candy thermometer). At this point if you want a very thick yogurt you can 1/4 to 1/2 cup non-fat dry milk stirring until it’s dissolved, then continue to the next step. If you prefer NOT to add dry milk, just continue to the next step.

Turn OFF the Oven.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 5

In a medium-size bowl blend 1 1/2 Tbs live yogurt with 1/2 c. of the heated (cooled to 110F) milk. Stirring well to combine.

(This is done separately to prevent curdling and killing of the healthy bacteria.)

Add the yogurt/milk mix into the saucepan and stir well.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 6
This is what our counters looked like BEFORE our COUNTERTOP TRANSFORMATION!

Evenly divide the contents of your saucepan into 2 bowls (of equal size), covering with saran wrap (any plastic wrap will do). Place the bowls into the warm oven with a hand towel draped over them both.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 7

It can take anywhere from 6-15 hours for the yogurt to properly set. Check after 6 hours to see if it has gelled, if the yogurt has not yet gelled, place it back in the oven, covered and check every 2 hours. As soon as the yogurt has set, refrigerate it.

How to Make Your Own Yogurt Step 8

The longer the yogurt is refrigerated, the tangier the flavor will become. To make flavored yogurt, add 1 tsp vanilla extract to the Finished/refrigerated product. (Or add any flavor extract for various fruited flavors!).

Liss Notes on Variations:

Our favorite yogurt used to be Dannon Vanilla, but I’ve managed to make my own by adding 2 tsp Vanilla Extract and 1 T. Sugar to the above-finished product. My family couldn’t taste the difference!

Homemade Probiotic Live culture yogurt

For a little variety simply add fruit to make a dessert, herbs for a potato topping or to make a chilled soup for those hot summer nights.

 

MYO Gogurts

Once the plain yogurt is ready you can add any flavor jello gelatin powder to it to make your own gogurts. The amount you add is entirely dependent on your taste preferences. If you prefer a stronger flavor, add more. 

The flavors that work out the best are Raspberry, strawberry, strawberry-banana, peach (although this one tastes a bit artificial), and mango. The kids really like grape too, but the adults in the house didn’t care for it. Lime remains fairly tart, so if you use it, you may want to add a tablespoon or so of sweetener.

The Ozera popsicle bags on Amazon work amazingly well for homemade go-gurts!

MYO Popsicles & Gogurts

If you prefer to avoid dye and unnecessary sugar, check out these real fruit gogurt recipes.

© Can Stock Photo Inc. / RobStark

View More MYO from Scratch Recipes

17 thoughts on “Make Your Own Yogurt”

  1. from the heated milk- which has (been removed from the heat) & cooled (on it’s own by resting away from heat) to between 110-115 degrees.

    Reply
  2. homemade yogurt in the crock pot recipe

    1/2 gallon milk (Whole milk will make the yogurt thicker, but any milk will work.)
    1/2 cup plain unflavored yogurt (Any kind with live active cultures will work. Be sure to save a half cup of this batch of homemade yogurt to use as a starter next time!)
    Pour the half gallon of milk into your crock pot and turn it on low. Cook it for 2 hours and 45 minutes (set the timer to remember to turn it off!)

    After 2 hours and 45 minutes, turn the crock pot off and let it sit down 3 hours.

    Spoon a small amount of the milk into a small bowl and add the half cup of yogurt to it. Mix together thoroughly.

    Dump this mixture back into the milk in the crock pot and mix it around well.

    Put the lid back on your crock pot and wrap the crock pot with a large beach towel or blanket (make sure the crock pot is unplugged and turned off!). Yes, I know, it sounds a little ridiculous to wrap a crock pot with a beach towel, but I did some research online and it seems that the experts recommend this step as it helps keep the heat in the crock pot and allows it to cool more slowly.

    Let the beach-towel-wrapped crock pot sit for 8-12 hours (or overnight). After 8-12 hours, it should be thickened.

    Spoon yogurt into jars or plastic containers and refrigerate a few hours before eating.

    This will keep for one to two weeks in the refrigerator. Be sure to save a half cup to use as a starter for your next batch of homemade yogurt.

    Reply
  3. has anyone had problems with cold sores after eating store bought yogurt but tried homemade and didn’t have a reaction? i love yogurt but can’t eat it because of the reaction. i am curious if it is just a reaction for store bought because of the citric acid ( i am very sensitive to this- citric fruits are not on my enjoy list either).

    i can’t figure out if the citric acid is something that is naturally in this or if its an unneeded additive.

    Reply
    • Has anyone had problems with cold sores after eating store bought yogurt but tried homemade and didn’t have a reaction? I love yogurt but can’t eat it because of the reaction. I am curious if it is just a reaction for store bought because of the citric acid ( I am very sensitive to this- citric fruits are not on my enjoy list either).

      I can’t figure out if the citric acid is something that is naturally in this or if its an unneeded additive.

      Citric acid is used in many commercial foods as a preservative. It does not naturally occur in plain yogurt! I hope you enjoy your homemade yogurt 🙂

      Reply
  4. i tried this recipe using the crockpot, but i turned it on high for 2 hours and 45 and then let it cool for 3 hours. It didi set but will it affect the final product…. did I over cook the milk.

    Also does this technique work for greek yogurt? What kind of milk should I use to get very thick yogurt?
    Journey911

    Reply
    • I tried this recipe using the crockpot, but I turned it on high for 2 hours and 45 and then let it cool for 3 hours. It didi set but will it affect the final product…. did I over cook the milk.

      Also does this technique work for greek yogurt? What kind of milk should I use to get very thick yogurt?
      Journey911

      If I want thicker yogurt, I add some dry milk flakes to the batch. This takes a little experimenting to get it right.

      Also, make sure you whip the culture into the mix really well (this won’t weaken the culture as some people say). I also make and keep mine in a mason jar, so when I store it in the frig, I turn the jar upside down and will always have thick yogurt when I open the jar.

      Reply
    • I tried this recipe using the crockpot, but I turned it on high for 2 hours and 45 and then let it cool for 3 hours. It didi set but will it affect the final product…. did I over cook the milk.

      Also does this technique work for greek yogurt? What kind of milk should I use to get very thick yogurt?
      Journey911

      turn it on low instead of high. that’s what the recipe says. good luck

      Reply
  5. i’ve been experimenting with homemade yogurt on and off for the last year or two. the success of the yogurt depends highly on the incubation period after it has been cooled. while i’m making the yogurt, i preheat oven to 250.

    When I put the yogurt in the oven I wrap in a crocheted towel and turn the oven off, but leave the oven light on. I keep it in there overnight without opening the oven door. This keeps the temp consistently low to help with the cultures.

    Also, I freeze the original store bought yogurt in ice cube trays and then thaw a few out as I make new yogurt. You’ll notice that with each new batch of yogurt you make, the culture will get weaker and weaker if the MYO stuff.

    Reply
  6. I want to try making this recipe so printing it out to save. I eat quite a bit of yogurt and will be interesting to follow this recipe and hope I have great results. Thank you for posting it.

    Reply
  7. I would be interested in how to make Greek Yogurt. But, since I eat a lot of yogurt, I am going to try this recipe…sounds easy enough.

    Reply
  8. Got my slow cooker yoghurt all wrapped now waiting until the morning. I added 1 cup of milk powder to mine as we like ours thick..crossing fingers it works as we eat so much of it.

    I do recall seeing a recipe on line for making it will only milk powder,, will be trying that next time.

    Reply
  9. There’s an even cheaper way to get cultures that only costs pennies and makes very good yogurt that is rich and creamy. Take about 3 pepper stems (just use the stems only) – I used Serrano peppers – do not use bell peppers. Put the stems in about 2 tablespoons of milk and culture it the way you do the yogurt.

    Then once it is cultured in to yogurt, remove the stems and use the yogurt to culture your next batch. I use 2 TBS per half gallon.

    Reply

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