Making your own yogurt is quite easy!  I have been using a Yogourmet electric yogurt maker for many years.  There are many great brands out there.  My Yogourmet has lasted over 15 years so I am a fan of Yogourmet yogurt makers.  I also use their yogurt starter as well.  I prefer to use organic milk for making yogurt.  Since we are eating a really healthy food using organic milk only makes sense to me, although if you only have non-organic milk on hand, don’t let that stop you from making your own yogurt. Yogurt is a great source of protein, calcium, Vitamins B12, potassium and magnesium. I ferment my yogurt for 24 hours as it makes it easy to digest.  For this recipe, I used Greenwise Whole Milk.  You can use reduced fat milk as well.  You need a saucepan, whisk and a thermometer for this recipe. That’s it, it is pretty easy!  Tastes great with honey drizzled on top.  Other great toppings are nuts and berries. I use substitute yogurt for sour cream in some recipes and it works quite nicely.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon milk (preferably organic)

Yogurt Starter (Each yogurt starter has there own instructions.  Yogourmet calls for two 5-gram packs for a 1/2 gallon of milk)

Directions:

Place 1/2 gallon of milk in a saucepan and place a thermometer in the milk.  Turn stove burner on to medium setting and set the timer for 8-10 minutes.  I recommend whisking milk to keep it from scalding.  You want to keep an eye on the milk as you don’t want it to get warmer than 180′.  Once it reaches 180′ turn the burner off and let the milk cool.  Once the temperature cools to 90′ place your milk into the container that came with your yogurt maker. Add your yogurt starter to the milk and mix thoroughly.  Follow directions on your yogurt maker to start fermenting the yogurt.  I choose to ferment my yogurt for 24 hours.  Place yogurt in the refrigerator for about 8 hours to cool.