Homemade Yogurt

I have recently been reading about all the benefits an individual with lactose intolerance can reap if they ingest yogurt with live cultures (yes, this even means yogurt made of REAL milk). The way it goes is that the live cultures apparently take care of the digestion of whey which your stomach would normally have to do...therefore, it leaves your digestive system alone and you are free of those horrible symptoms. Of course the more live cultures there, the better you are. Fresher = stronger cultures.

Whenever I visit India, I am always offered yogurt after my meal. This yogurt was usually made the exact same day which means that those cultures are really quite live and active!! Indians very often use this homemade yogurt as a way of helping digestion and I can say personally that my stomach always feel good after ingesting it. So then I asked myself, would I be willing to go through the process of making my own homemade yogurt? I decided that it depended on just how lengthy and fussy it was....so I tried it today for the first time.

Here is what you do for 1 serving:

1. Heat 1 cup of milk on the stove and have a candy thermometer handy. When the milk temp rises to 180 degrees, pull it off the burner and pour it into the container that you would like the yogurt to be stored in.

2. Keep the thermometer in the milk and wait until it cools to 110 degrees. When that temp arrives (but no sooner), stir in just 1 teaspoon of a store bought yogurt that contains live, active cultures. If you put it in before it cools to 110, it will kill the live cultures.

3. Now here is the catch...for between 5 and 8 hours, this mixture of milk and yogurt needs to remain at around 110 degrees and you can do this many ways. I found that the first setting on my heating pad was about 110 degrees, so I put the bowl on top of the heating back and covered it with a lid. You can also get a yogurt maker which automatically knows to keep it at 110 degrees. I've heard other people keep it in their oven at 110 degrees. Some people just put it in a pan that has hot water.

I found the heating pad to be a really simple way to do it. I set this up in just a couple of minutes flat and then left for work. When I arrived home 7 hours later, I did not find a cup of milk but solidified yogurt!! It worked - and it was really not that hard or tedious. All said and done, my work took about 10 minutes with the waiting for specific temps and to me that is worth the benefits of healthy, homemade yogurt.

I like that I am controlling the ingredients and the amount of sugar it contains. I tried a little and it was light, creamy and actually quite tasty for plain yogurt. Tonight when I eat it, I will stir in a little honey or a spoonful of fruit preserves.