I have driven myself crazy trying to find low-sugar flavoured yogurt (sans sucralose, etc.) for ages. Yes, I know I can buy plain and add fruit or applesauce or maple syrup and I do, but sometimes it鈥檚 nice to have a little to-go cup of sweet(ish) yogurt and I cannot find one with a reasonable sugar content, despite many a long minute spent pacing the dairy aisle reading ingredient labels.
In the meantime I鈥檝e been trying to make it, but I have not yet been blessed by the yogurt gods; my attempts are still too runny and lumpy for my likes but it has been fun. I like the idea of my kids knowing where stuff comes from, besides the grocery store.聽
Attempt number one resulted in a fairly benign, somewhat runny yogurt that tasted fine in our morning smoothies but lacked that zing provided by a proper fermentation. Subsequent attempts improved with increased set times.
I started with eight cups of whole milk in a heavy-bottomed Le Creuset pot, which I heated slowly to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring constantly 鈥� milk scalds easily from the bottom, so this part is key. I don鈥檛 usually let my three-year-old help me around our gas stove but this time I set him up on a stool as my helper and watched him like a hawk while he stirred the pot with a long spoon.
I think he鈥檚 seen me burn myself enough times to know the stove is serious business, and that mummy yelling 鈥渇udge鈥� and 鈥渟hhhhugar鈥� and running parts of hands and arms under cold water isn鈥檛 just for kicks.
When the milk hit 200 degrees, I removed the pot from the element and set it to cool in the window, keeping an eye on the thermometer and stirring occasionally to mix in any top skin until the temperature dropped to 115 degrees. At this point I scooped out a cup of the milk and whisked it into a half cup of plain store-bought yogurt.
Make sure your yogurt of choice has active cultures in it 鈥� most of the good stuff does. Reintroduce the mix back into the pot of milk, stir thoroughly, cover with lid, swaddle in dish towels and pop it into the oven with the oven light on.
It needs a warm place to cure, but not much heat is necessary 鈥� around 110 degrees 鈥� so an oven light works fine, or if you have a dehydrator you can use that instead. I let the yogurt set for six hours the first time, and while the results were decent, in subsequent attempts I鈥檝e doubled the set time for a thicker, tangier finish.
Though still too bland for my palate, I鈥檝e made a rich, cream cheese-like lemon cream by straining a few cups of the yogurt through cheesecloth over a bowl in the fridge for up to 24 hours then adding a touch (1 tsp.) of sugar, 1 teaspoon of lemon rind, and another of lemon juice 鈥� it was excellent by the spoonful or spread on toast.
