Yogurt, You can make that!?

I had friends that make their own yogurt and thought well how hard can it be, I can do it right?  Wrong! I failed many times until I found this really great blog here.  So here are some steps and pictures of my successful yogurt making!!

First gather your ingredients you will need

1 gallon of milk

some nonfat plain yogurt

a thermometer(i used a candy thermometer)

a large pan

a whisk

a cooler

 hot water

put your milk in a heavy stock pot and heat over medium high to 180 degrees , stirring frequently.  Then remove from heat and let cool to 110 degrees.  This step takes a little while but you don't have to tend it other than checking the temperature occasionally.  While waiting for your milk to cool begin heating water and dumping it into your cooler.  You want the water to be  110 degrees.

Once your milk has cooled to 110 degrees whisk in your yogurt. I had good luck using about 1 cup of cascade fresh  brand yogurt that I bought from Whole Foods. After you have whisked it in dump the milk and yogurt mixture into a gallon jar. 

Now place your jar into the cooler of 110 degree water. I put a cup and clipped my thermometer on it so I could quickly check the temperature to make sure it was holding  110 degrees.  Close your cooler up and let set 4 hours.  

Here is the cooler I used.  After 4 hours open up the cooler and put the yogurt in the refrigerator until it is cooled.  I left mine until the next day.  

Here is what my yogurt looked like after I got it out of the refrigerator.  The plastic yogurt container is because I couldn't fit it all in my jar.  Notice the yellow layer on top?  

Here is a close up picture of that yellow liquid.  I didn't want to stir it in because I didn't want watery yogurt. 

So I put a towel over the top of the open jar and put a rubber band around the  top to secure it and then I flipped it upside down in a strainer over the sink. It didnt take long but the longer you strain it the thicker your yogurt will be.  Mine was alittle thin I may strain it a little longer next time.

Here is my finished yogurt!!! Yay!

So is it cheaper to make your own yogurt? 

32 oz yogurt  4.00

8 oz cup of yogurt around 1.00

1 gallon of milk 4.00

So one gallon of  homemade yogurt costs 5.00 

One gallon of store bought yogurt costs 16.00 

So Cheaper I think so!

These prices are not for Organic yogurt but I think it woudl still be cheaper to make it yourself even it you used organic ingredients which I plan to do next time!