Homemade Yogurt - Easiest Recipe Ever

I'm probably the six hundred thousandth person to put down a recipe for homemade yogurt. But here's the thing - it's really so much easier than you'd think. So, I'm going to write the directions as simply as possible, and then give a few more details.

Homemade Yogurt

4 cups milk

1-2 Tbs plain yogurt 

Glass jars that seal 

Candy thermometer 

A spoon

1. Pour 4 cups milk into a pot
2. Bring it to a boil, and stir until it reaches 180F.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool until 110F.
4. Put 1 -2 Tbs yogurt in a small bowl and add 1/2 c milk (or however much you want, the point is a little bit) and whisk together.
5. Add the mixture from step #4 to the rest of the milk.
6. Pour into the glass jars and seal.
7. Keep moderately warm for 8-12 hours (some people just wrap their jars in a blanket and set in a warm place).
8.  Remove jars from their warm place.
9. Put in the fridge.
10. Eat.


That's it. Seriously. I mean - IT.


Here's the science of it:
yogurt contains live bacteria (the container calls them 'cultures' cause that's somehow more appropriate to eat....?). Milk also contains bacteria but some of it can go bad quicker than the bacteria in yogurt/won't make yogurt - thus step #2 (kills all the potentially bad stuff). The little bacteria in yogurt can't quite handle that heat either, so you need to let the milk cool to a temperature bacteria loves - 110F. That little bacteria is just going to grow and grow, thus step #7.

Bacteria will continue growing if it's warm - thus step #8. If you want more tart yogurt, leave it out closer to 12 hours.

Here are a couple tips:
1. Use whole milk.

2. If you have a crock pot, fill it with water and set the temperature to it's lowest setting (on mine, that's warm). Once you've filled your jars with your soon-to-be-yogurt (and sealed them), put them in the crockpot and leave covered. I've found this is the perfect way to keep my yogurt warm. If I'm going to bed and the yogurt has sat in the warm water for 3-4 hours, I just switch of the crock pot and the bacteria growth begins to slow until I bring it to a halt in the morning when I put it in the fridge.

3. Your yogurt will firm up a bit after it goes in the fridge, so don't worry if it seems a bit runny.

4. Want Greek Yogurt? Pour the finished product yogurt (as in, after step #8) into a sieve lined with a cheesecloth and press out the whey (note - whey can be used in a variety of cooking endeavors, so don't toss it. it's also apparently lactose free! What?!?!?!) There you go, Greek Yogurt.

5. Want flavored yogurt? I've put frozen berries on the bottom of the empty jars between steps #5 & #6, and just continued as usual. The end product is a bit more runny, but absolutely delicious. Fresh fruit would also work. For flavored (as in vanilla) - add 1 tsp vanilla and 3 Tbs honey to the milk when it is coming to a boil (or however much you want depending on what flavor you're going for). The end product is not noticeably different from plain yogurt.

6. Need sour cream? Just use Greek Yogurt - seriously. No reason not to. None at all. And your heart thanks you, and so does your urinary tract.

Enjoy!!!!! And let me know if you come up with any other amazing yogurt recipes (or if my science lesson is off :) It's my summary of about 15 different recipes I looked at...

Roast Tomato & Red Pepper Base

I first started doing this little recipe when I wanted to make a soup, and it was a massive success. Potentially the yummiest invented thing to come from my kitchen yet. After the soup was such a success, I thought I'd experiment with what else this recipe was good for - risotto was a massive hit.

Within the next couple weeks, I'm sure we'll make the Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Soup, but for right now I just wanted to give you the base recipe since I'm using it this week to make a risotto.

Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Base 

2 Red peppers, de-seeded and quartered
5 lbs tomatoes, halved
1 bulb garlic, head shaved off (in other words, just cut a bit off the top of the entire bulb so you can see into some of the individual cloves)
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Spread the red peppers and tomatoes closely on a 9x13 cookie sheet with sides (alternatively, you could use a roasting pan or 9x13 baking dish- really anything that is oven proof and will hold about 1/2' deep of liquid). Drizzle with olive oil.

Drizzle the bulb of garlic with olive oil and wrap tightly in foil - make sure the garlic can't be seen, feel free to go a bit overboard on the foil wrapping here. Place the foil-wrapped bulb of garlic on the baking sheet with the peppers and tomatoes.

Place the baking sheet in the oven. Leave for 2hours approximately, or until tomatoes and red peppers have sufficiently roasted. You'll be able to tell because they'll be quite soft, shriveled, and maybe even a bit blackened on the edges (no problem!)

Remove from the oven and, if not using immediately, allow to cool.

Unwrap the garlic and squeeze the garlic from the shell into a deep bowl. The garlic should be a soft paste, and will have a very warm garlic smell without the bite often associated with fresh garlic.

Add the tomatoes, peppers, and any juice/oil remaining on the baking pan to the deep bowl. Use your immersion blender to blend the concoction to a smooth soup consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender - see my entry on Sweet Potato and Chili Soup if you're interested in my opinion on immersion blenders. In summary - worth a purchase.

Use immediately in any desired recipe or store in airtight containers in the freezer for up to 6 weeks.

Chicken Stock

This post should have gone up yesterday, but here it is today. I guarantee making your own chicken stock will have multiple benefits:
- you'll save lots of money
- your chicken stock will taste better
- your cooking options will expand
- your guests will be impressed
- you'll feel satisfied knowing you didn't let anything go to waste

Now, remember that Roast Chicken from earlier in the week? Time to use it (and really you should do this step within 24 hours of making the Roast Chicken.) Take the leftover chicken and remove as much meat from the bones as you possibly can. Depending on how many people you fed/how much you ate when you first made the Roast Chicken, you will get anywhere between 1-4 cups of chicken.

Put the chicken in a sealed container in a cold part of the fridge, we're using it in a couple nights for Indian Food - Chicken Tikka Masala, to be exact. If you have more chicken leftover than what is called for in that dinner, put it in a ziplock bag and place it in the freezer. We'll use it within the next couple weeks.

Now, all the non-meat bits of the chicken? Yes ALL of them - toss them in a pot. If your Roast Chicken turned out the same way mine did, you should have several cups of broth left in the bottom of your stock pot. Add the non-meat chicken bits to that broth. You can literally add everything - the bones, any innards, any skin, any leftover garlic/carrots/potatoes clinging to the chicken. Add approximately 8 cups of water and place on the stove on medium heat, once it reaches a bowl, reduce heat to low and let stock simmer for about an hour.

Turn off the stove and let the stock cool to room temperature. Pour the stock into containers with tight sealing lids (preferably glass - being sure to leave an inch or two at the top for expansion, otherwise your jars will explode in the freezer. Bummer) and place in the freezer. I find it useful to freeze the stock in jars of various sizes so I can thaw an appropriate amount for the right recipe. Canning jars work incredibly well, as do any glass jars. I also sometimes use washed out juice cartons (plastic ones) to store a larger quantity of stock.

From this chicken, I pulled enough chicken for 3 meals and made 12 cups of stock.

Now that is a well used $6 chicken.

As a side note - feel free to add any other veggies or seasoning to your stock. Popular options include celery (or celery leaves), carrots, onions, garlic, salt, and/or pepper. Have fun!