Yogurt

Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 04:15

We now have a ton of milk. You would think that with six around the dinner table every night that we could use it up.

My guys have always loved yogurt. (OK, well 3 out of 4 love yogurt, Corey could really do without it, and I have to hide it if I use in in something.) This is how we make yogurt, it is very, very simple and tasty too.

Bensch Mountain Yogurt

Heat to 180 degrees in a stainless steal pan on the stove 1/2 gallon or a gallon of milk (it is fine to use either raw milk or milk from the store). You can stir your milk while it is heating or if you heat it more slowly you can do dishes or start something else.

Turn off the heat and cool to 110 degrees. Add and  mix well about 6 Tablespoons of room temperature plain active yougurt.  

Incubate at 110 to 115 degrees. (My electric stove sets to 115 degrees, but I have heard of people using warming plates, coolers with a heating pad, use what ever works easy) Using my oven I can get it to set in about 3 or 4 hours.  The longer the yogurt remains at 115 degrees the more tart it becomes. We like ours nice and sweet.

Your yogurt with thicken a little in the refigerator, we add strawberries and granola right before we eat it.

With your new yogurt you can make the cream cheese that Alex used on her bagel this morning. We took some yogurt, tied it in piece of cheese cloth and hung it on the sink for a few hours, letting the whey fall into the sink. I mixed in a little salt. The fresh herbs and bacon make it yummy. I also made a cheese cake from some fresh cream cheese this past weekend that was fantastic.

Enjoy, and let me know how your yogurt turns out!
Julie