Homemade Yogurt

Ok.  I remember when I was in high school my mom tried making yogurt.  Honestly to this day I have no idea why she did it.   I decided that you sort of have to like the taste of PLAIN yogurt.  It's not sweet or fruity.  At best, it is a little like sour cream (the good stuff anyway).  I wanted to try to make my own, and here is my saga.

There were several attempts using a couple different methods.  Basically all you need to make yogurt is a little bit of yogurt and a milk.  Warm it up and keep it warm in order to jazz up the live cultures.  Sounds gross, I know.   And it is.

Here's what I tried...

#1.  The Crock Pot Method.  The directions said to heat up the milk and the yogurt starter, then turn off the crock pot and wrap it in a towel (to keep the warmth in) and leave it overnight.  Well.   I went to the health food store and bought a container of plain yogurt and a carton of goat's milk.  YES!  Goat's milk.  I thought, why not?  I'm already just being weird and experimenting, why not try goat's milk?  I love their cheese.  and yogurt.

When I re-read the recipe I'd found, once I'd gotten home with the goat's milk and began heating it up, I saw that it warned against "ultra-pasteurization" which the carton of goat's milk clearly boasted.  I still pressed on, followed the instructions to the letter, and ended up with the same thing I'd started with--milk mixed with yogurt.  Dammit.

#2  The Oven Light Method.  The idea here is that leaving the milk mixture in the oven with the bulb on will create enough heat to keep the cultures going.  For this trial, I chose regular (cow's) milk.  It was as "out of the ordinary" purchase for us as was the goat's milk.  I just figured that we'd get the best results from actual "milk".  I was wrong!  This did not thicken up like I expected real milk would.  Interesting.

#3  The Oven Light Method #2.  This time I used soymilk.  I was the most satisfied with the end result.  It was thickened much more than the regular milk.  My only critique of this one is that the yogurt does have a slightly sweet taste.  Even the original or "unflavored" soymilk does have a sweetness to it.  I prefer the least sweet version, and different brands vary.  My husband prefers the really sweet "vanilla" flavored varieties.

I love the idea of making my own yogurt on a regular basis.  I also tried the greek yogurt FAGE brand and am in love with it.  I want to put a little dollop on EVERYTHING.  So, if I can emulate that flavor, I'm in.  Otherwise, the sweet soymilk yogurt is fine, especially with a little fruit added.