Yogurt (ish) Success

I was talking on the phone to my brother this week and we both agreed that one of our favorite comfort foods growing up was a homemade yogurt recipe that my mom used to make. I used to make it earlier in my married years, but Adam has never really been a yogurt person and I stopped eating dairy about 8 years ago so it fell by the wayside.

Fast forward to today. In the spirit of making everything, which is the spirit I have lately, I pulled up the recipe and made it with Johnny about two weeks ago. I really wanted it to work out well so that I can include it in their school lunches. They initially enjoyed the recipe, but then decided that they didn't. Bummer. "C'mon kids! This was my favorite growing up!"

Soooooo, for the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting, reading different recipe posts and trying to figure this out. Funny, because it is really simple and easy. I just haven't gotten it right yet. Until today! The kids all sampled it this morning when I pulled it out of the oven. Thumbs up all around!

Here's what I did:

3 cups 2% milk
2 cups dry milk
2 cups tepid water
1 can evaporated milk
1 container starter yogurt (I used stonyfield farm plain)
1 Tbls. sugar

Turn the oven on to 250 degrees. Wisk all the above ingredients together in a big metal or ceramic bowl and cover with tin foil. Once the oven is heated, turn it off and immediately put the yogurt mixture into the oven. Leave it undisturbed overnight. In the morning, add fruit and sweetness to desired taste. Refrigerate.

Most of my issues were trying to find a way to create the proper temperature for the cultures. This oven method was a successful one.

Yogurt conquered!

Well, mostly conquered. Depending on what the definition of yogurt is. The yogurt had a very nice texture in the morning when I first wrote this triumphant post. However, when I added the sugar and strawberries to the mix, it ended up more like a kefir rather than a yogurt. Regardless, it remains a success because Johnny said, “It's unstoppable” and all the kids enjoyed the drinkable version after school today.

I also decided to throw a small amount into the ice cream maker I picked up last week at a thrift store. That worked out pretty nicely as well.