Streamlined nonfat yogurt making

1 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 quart Skim milk
⅓ cup Powdered noninstant nonfat milk
1 tablespoon Plain yogurt with active culture; (the starter) (up to 6)

Directions

Put the powdered milk into a clean container in which you want the yogurt to "make." In another container heat the skim milk to 120 degrees F.

(microwave works great). Add some of the heated milk to the powdered milk and blend until smooth. Stir in the yogurt (the more you add, the quicker the mixture sets). Stir in the remainder of the heated milk. Put the mixture where the temperature can stay between 100-120 degrees F. for about 5 hours. The longer it "sets," the firmer and more tart it gets.

Notes:

Temperatures: Under 100 degrees F., the yogurt will not set; over 120 degrees, the culture may die. The ideal temperature range is 110-114.

I make a half-gallon at a time and most often put the jar in my gas oven, which has a pilot light, with an occasional teakettle full of boiling water placed in the oven to warm it. I've also successfully put the jar of mix in a large stockpot and wrapped loosely around it a heating pad set at the lowest temperature.

If you are making smaller batches, a warmed wide-mouthed thermal jar is the perfect container.

For your first batch, use a plain yogurt of a brand that you like. For subsequent batches, use a small amount of the yogurt you've made.

In many years of yogurt making, I've had failures only twice by this method--once because I got impatient and overheated the yogurt and once because I used a starter that was too old. Both times, I was able to use the resulting product for baking (instead of buttermilk).

Posted to fatfree digest by Bette Turlington <turlington@...> on May 28, 1999, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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