Greek-styled yogurt (or) Thick & Creamy yogurt

Most of us would be definitely wondering why the home-made yogurt would never turn out to be as thick & creamy as the store bought ones. The reason why the store bought yogurts are rich and thick is because the manufacturers add gelatin and other thickening agents which is not very healthy.

Ok, so what can we do to get thick yet low fat yogurt ? the answer is greek-styled yogurt. You also get those in stores.

Now, all you need to make a greek-styled yogurt is a Cheese cloth! and a bowl and your home-made lowfat yogurt.(You can get cheese cloth at walmart/target/kmart/ hardware store/fabric store. )

First set the cheese cloth on top of the bowl and tie is around with a string. Makesure you have enough space to hold the yogurt & that it doesnt overflow. Also make sure the bowl is tall enough to hold the water filtered from the yogurt. Gently cover the top of the bowl (covered with cheese cloth), with a cling paper. Let the cheese get set & drain all its water in the bowl, in your refrigerator overnight. This water drained from yogurt is called "whey" and is high in nutrients. So do not pour it. You can use it just instead of vegetable stock to make soups & gravies.

In the morning you will have thick rich Greek style yogurt. Serve it up or spoon it into a container and store it in the fridge.

If you havent tried your Greek yogurt with walnuts and honey or a cinnamon and nutmeg you have definitely missed  something in your life for sure!!! My all time favourite is to just set the greek styled yogurt in a cylindrical (reusable) container and scoop it out ; sprinkle with simple unrefined cane sugar or top it with butterscotch for a rich & healthy dessert/snack. Pls try it out and let me know your comments . Thanks for reading.

Home-made flavoured & sweetened yogurt

Making a fkavoured at home is just the same as making plain yogurt (as in the previous post) with an addition of 2 simple ingredients below:

Things needed to make yogurt:

Starter yogurt
Milk (whole /2%/1%) but not the fat free milk.

Sugar
vanilla esscence - 1  tsp.

Preparation:

Heat up the Milk up to 2 to 5 minutes depending on the quantity. And make sure the milk is just luke warm. You may heat up the milk and bring to boil and let it cool to reach the luke warm temperature. The trick is to put your last finger in the milk and wiggle around to see if the milk is just slightly warm as a baby's milk and thats the correct temperature.

You may add required amount of sugar to the milk now and mix it well.

Now have 1 tsp of starter yogurt (very imp note: already set out in room temperature) for 2 to 21/2 cups pf milk. You may add the starter yogurt to the luke warm milk and whisk it to make sure its properly mixed.

You may transfer the content to several little jars. Close the lid

Now heat up the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit, for about 2 to 4 m ins and switch it off completely.

Have a fleece or woollen blanket & wrap the canned jar which has the milk mixed with the starter yogurt. And put it inside the oven and close the oven.

Allow the jars to incubate and thus begin the process of culturing. Do not disturb the jar at all which may hinder the process of the yogurt culture, for about 6 to 8 hours depending on the place you are. Like if its a cold region then you have to wait for at least 8 to 10 hrs. If its a normal region you can just wait for 6 to 8 hrs.

Home-made Yogurt

How to make home-made yogurt :

Making your own yogurt really isn’t that difficult. If you follow some basic steps religously, then it should be a piece of cake. It was a few trial & error episodes with me andfinally happened to be successful. I have been making my own for a while. I thought i could share my tips here for you all.

Ingredients :
2 cups of Milk (wither whole or 2% but not the fat free)
1 tsp of starter yogurt ( Any store bought yogurt with active/live culture in it. If you read that is written in the yogurt tub , it would say something like "All Natural with active or live culture)- keep it beaten well without lumps. And it should be in room temperature.

Procedure :

Pour the milk i na container and put it either on stove top or microwave and heat it until just before it could boil and raise up . You donot have to leave it until the milk would boil and raise up the vessel. Allow it to cool for a while . When u put in your last finger into the milk it should be luke warm as a baby's milk , that would be the perfect temperature.

Add the starter yogurt to the lukewarm milk. and mix it well with an egg beater or a spatula.

Pour the milk in a container.

Since i live in cold place, i usually set up my oven for 5 to 10 mins at minimum temperature and put the container inside the oven wrapped with a blanker/towel. Now remember the most important thing is once you have set up the container in a place, you should not disturb it at all.

Leave it just for 8 hours and here you go , all natural and homemade yogurt!

Note :

Most important thing to be taken care of , while making yogurt at home is

1. Temperature of the milk

2. Starter yogurt with live/active culture. Starter yogurt at room temperature. well beaten without lumps. And just the right amount, say 1 tsps for 2 cups of milk.

why homemade is good over store bought yogurt?

Freshly home-made yogurt is filled with countless numbers of beneficial bacteria that help digestion and kill harmful viruses. The key here is fresh yogurt as compared to commercial store bought yogurt. The commercil yogurt that has been sitting on the shelves at the grocery store does not have the fresh active bacteria that homemade yogurt does.Therefore eat as fresh as you can. Have a healthy life.