My yogurt is on the left, with the yogurt that I used as a "starter" on the right; I used Siggis Plain Icelandic Style yogurt.
I recently started listening to the book French Women Don't Get Fat after it was recommended to me by a friend. It's a wonderful book full of stories/tidbits about the French and their relationship with food. Whether or not you're looking to lose weight, I highly recommend it as a way to reset and re-evaluate how you view food and what you eat.
The French have a lovely way of seeing food not as necessary to live, but as a beautiful compliment to and part of life.
The book is also FULL of amazing recipes that I plan on working my way through. One of which is for yogurt. The recipe for yogurt is actually very simple and is about the same no matter where you find it. All you need is 2% or whole milk and a bit of yogurt. I know, it seems contradictory making yogurt from yogurt; it's like defining a word with the word, but it works! You can also use yogurt starter (when I make it again I plan to), but it seems hard to find. I wandered around a Whole Foods for 30 minutes before I gave up and purchased a small single serving yogurt.
There are also recipes for making yogurt without a yogurt maker, but my Instant Pot has a setting for it so I was able to use that. The steps were easy enough to follow and the result tastes wonderful, however, it is quite a bit runnier than I expected it to be. With this batch, I've ended up drinking it more than eating it. I've also found some hesitation from my husband when I've asked him to try it, I think because of this. More details below and stay tuned for attempt #2!
Quick details:
Pearl hours: 1 hour
Start to Finish: 10 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Pearl Tips:
- Stay tuned, I'm going to try this again and then hopefully I'll have some ways to make it thicker!
- If you do end up with runny yogurt, it can be used as a base in smoothies and sauces (like curry). I've also enjoyed it with:
- pureed mango & vanilla extract stirred in
- chia seeds & coconut
- fresh fruit, granola and nuts as a smoothie bowl
Lessons learned:
- My thermometer doesn't let you set it to beep when something reaches a lower temperature (example: cooling the yogurt from 180 to 115). I might look into getting one that does
- The Instant Pot is a miracle maker and made this SO easy! <-- kind of already knew this, but it continues to amaze me
- Cooking it for 8 hours (the suggested time for an Instant Pot) yielded a very liquid yogurt (though I did double the recipe so that may have contributed?)
- I also used 2% milk which may have contributed to the liquidity
How I'd I'll do it differently next time:
- Cook it for longer and see if that thickens it up a bit more
- ^If that doesn't work I will give into straining it
- Try using a yogurt starter instead of yogurt