Anyone use Yogurt Makers?

[WindingRoad]

I'm looking to buy a yogurt maker and I have never owned one. I do however remember my mother making it when I was a kid and how much I loved homemade yogurt. I also like baking with it so I use a considerable amount of it besides I just like the taste. I was curious if any of you had one and would recommend a good make and model? :)

[LilBolt]

We have one called EURO Cuisine. I think my bf ordered it from Target online. It makes six little jars at a time. Seems to work like a charm!

[PamNY]

I've been wondering about a yogurt maker, too. Does anyone know if you can make a drinkable yogurt? Can you use them for kefir?

Pam

[Blueberry]

I have a yogourmet maker and love it. Can make up to 2 quarts in one big jar. I found it tedious to deal with smaller jars (washing, etc).

Kefir sits at room temperature, as I understand it. I know yogourmet sells a culture (I haven't tried it), but all you really need is the "mother" and you can make kefir for ages.

CA

[OakLeaf]

I have a Yogourmet also. And the large capacity is what I like about it, too.

[jillm]

I make yogurt in a crockpot. Google "crockpot yogurt" and a lot will come up. It's basically this:

Heat 1/2 gal milk on low for 2 hours, unplug and let it sit for 3 hours, take a couple cups of the warm milk and mix with 1/2 c room temp yogurt and mix that in to the crockpot milk. Cover with a heavy towel and let it sit for about 7 hours. (the longer it sits, the tangier it gets) I like to strain mine in a cheesecloth for a couple hrs in the refrigerator for thicker (Greek) yogurt.

yum!

[GLC1968]

I also have the Yogourmet maker. I failed at yogurt making over and over again until I got this machine. I'm living evidence that it's idiot proof! :p

[WindingRoad]

Thank you all for the info. I didn't know you could use a crockpot. I will have to check that out. :D

[bambu101]

I also have a Yogourmet yogurt maker, but have not used it since buying this one:

http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/100-Yogotherm-Yogurt-Maker.html

It uses no electricity, and I find that the yogurt is thicker and better than the Yogourmet version. It makes more of a Greek-style thick yogurt. The other trick is to use pasteurized milk, but NOT ultra-pasteurized milk. The ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to such a high temperature that it kills all the good yogurt-making bacteria.

[badger]

I have the EuroCuisine yogurt maker. I haven't used it that much as it can be a bit of a hassle boiling milk first and cooling it back to room temperature. But I do find that the yogurt I make is much "cleaner" than the ones I buy at the store as all I put in is organic milk and the culture. I add jam afterwards to sweeten.

[bmccasland]

I make yogurt in a crockpot. Google "crockpot yogurt" and a lot will come up. It's basically this:

Heat 1/2 gal milk on low for 2 hours, unplug and let it sit for 3 hours, take a couple cups of the warm milk and mix with 1/2 c room temp yogurt and mix that in to the crockpot milk. Cover with a heavy towel and let it sit for about 7 hours. (the longer it sits, the tangier it gets) I like to strain mine in a cheesecloth for a couple hrs in the refrigerator for thicker (Greek) yogurt.

yum!

If I use good quality yogurt as a starter, then in the future, do you use your own yogurt as starter for the next batch?

May sound crazy but does it make a difference with skim or 2% milk?

[jillm]

If I use good quality yogurt as a starter, then in the future, do you use your own yogurt as starter for the next batch?

May sound crazy but does it make a difference with skim or 2% milk?

You can use your homemade yogurt as a starter for the next batch (and it's recommended) but I never plan ahead and end up eating it all! So I just buy a sm plain yogurt (with live active cultures)when I'm buying the milk for the next batch. As for skim vs others, for some reason I use 1%. Don't know why. One of these days I should do a taste test. And as stated in previous posts, "ultra pasteurized" is bad, you want plain ole "Pasteurized" milk.

I made a dip this weekend from yogurt I'd strained all day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is right--you strain plain yogurt for a couple of hours to get "greek" yogurt, and if you strain it all day it becomes "labneh," yogurt cheese! Anyway, I mixed a small bowlful (1-2 c ) of labneh with about 1/4 c chopped cilantro, a few squirts of Sriracha Chili sauce, a little salt, and a little apple cider vinegar. Dipped carrots, pita chips, and cucumber slices. Tasty!

[ny biker]

By timely coincidence, this blog item is about making yogurt in a crockpot:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/?hpid=sec-health

[Becky]

I'm so excited about the idea of making yogurt in the crockpot! Thanks for the links :)

[hipmama]

I have the Euro, and love it. It's a little time consuming setting up but that's part of the fun- never made yogurt with cows milk in it but have done great with soy and hemp milks in there. Want to experiment with rice milk and use a little bit of agar agar to thicken it up.

[bmccasland]

I missed going to Farmer's Market yesterday (one looonnnnggg meeting) to get milk from my local dairy, so I'll have to put off the yogurt crockpot experiment for a week. He pasteurizes but not homoginzes his milk, so even the skim tastes creamy (just have to remember to shake the jug every time).

[malkin]

I cultured out of the most recent batch for about a couple years. It was still going strong, but there was one of those accidents with a gravitational surge in the kitchen, so I started over.

The maker I use is branded Salton, and a quart canning jar fits inside it.

[smilingcat]

I also have the EuroCuisine. But my partner doesn't like the style of yogurt I make. :( so the equipment is collecting dust. Maybe I just need to add simple syrup to the milk... :confused:

I prefer the European style with the tang.

[malkin]

I've found that starting with a more sour yogurt to begin with produces (surprise!) more sour yogurt!

[badger]

if you don't want the sourness of the yogurt, try putting inulin in next time (you should be able to buy it at places like Whole Foods). It's a pre-biotic, so it's beneficial in yogurt, it's literally like sugar so it'll cut down on the "sourness".

Hipmama, how do you make yogurt with hemp/almond/soy milk? I tried once with soy and it just curdled. I know it needs something in it, I believe a type of sugar. Do you use a particular brand?

[hipmama]

Badger-I use Edensoy for the soy milk and living harvest hemp milk - for sweetener I use agave nectar or maple syrup, depending on what flavor I'm going for. Never had it curdle- are you watching your heating temp?

[badger]

I'll give Eden soy a try. I read it in the instruction booklet for the yogurt maker, and it said it had to have something in it, and I can't remember what it was (nor can I find the manual at the moment!).

I'm assuming you're using the starter out of a packet? I use the yogourmet type, and when I tried it on the soy milk, it just curdled (same temp as the dairy yogurt as it's a maker). Any other tips would be great, I'm not a huge fan of dairy so I wouldn't mind making my own soy/hemp/almond yogurt.

[hipmama]

For a starter I just use a spoon or two of already made soy yogurt- I either save a little from a batch to start a new one or buy one small container of plain soy yogurt to put in there and it works just fine.

[OakLeaf]

Hipmama, how do you make yogurt with hemp/almond/soy milk? I tried once with soy and it just curdled. I know it needs something in it, I believe a type of sugar. Do you use a particular brand?

It's the opposite - you need to use UNsweetened soy milk or the culture won't take.

+1 on Edensoy because (1) their quality control is SOOOOO much higher than the others (they actually test regularly for GMO contamination!) and (2) it's less diluted so you're getting a thicker yogurt and a better value for your money. Of course homemade soy milk will be even less diluted and way less cheaper and wasteful.... but it's just too much of a PITA for me.

I've got to try hemp milk now! I didn't think it would culture. Grain milks won't.

[badger]

ok, I just found the user guide for my yogurt maker. For soy, it says:

"Be sure to use UHT soy milk which contains one of the following ingredients: fructose, honey or malt. These ingredients are necessary for fermentation and you will not succeed if none are available in the milk."

I've got two kinds of soy milk at home and neither have the above ingredients. The both have evaporated cane juice but I don't think that qualifies as fructose.

[OakLeaf]

Well, whatever the instructions say, the only soy milk I've been able to culture with yogurt bacteria has been UNsweetened, either homemade or storebought. I've been successful with Westsoy unsweetened, very successful with Eden unsweetened and obviously the most success with homemade. Then I've tried it with two brands of soymilk sweetened with cane juice (typically 45% fructose) and both times it came out very runny and fragile.

I did try hemp milk the other day, but unfortunately I think it got too hot. Anyway it did culture to some extent, but it didn't set at all. I'm going to try it again.

[badger]

what do you use for culture? a store-bought soy yogurt?

[OakLeaf]

I've used store-bought dairy yogurt (I'm not THAT allergic to milk), store-bought cultures (usually dairy grown), probiotic pills (non-dairy; split them open and guess at the dosage ;)).

Where did I just read that big-brand store-bought dairy yogurt has the most stable and vigorous cultures, and the sugar and additives aren't enough to hurt your initial batch? Was it someplace someone on this thread had linked to?

I don't make yogurt often enough to keep a culture going. Now that I've discovered hemp milk yogurt though, I just might! :)

[badger]

let me get this straight, you use dairy yogurt as a starter for your soy yogurt? I used the packaged starter for my attempt and I figured it curdled because maybe I used one intended for dairy. I could buy a small thing of soy yogurt as my starter, but I don't think I've seen an unflavoured soy yogurt in the stores.

[ZenSojourner]

I had a yoghurt maker years ago, it was a Salton. It worked OK, but I discovered making it in a pan on top of the refrigerator worked just as well.

Unfortunately I've not made yoghurt for probably 15 years so whatever process I was using is lost in the mists of time, but I bet there are dozens of sites on the internet that will describe the process more than adequately. I will say the refrigerator-top yoghurt was better than what came out of the yoghurt maker. The Salton product was OK, but the purely home made stuff was better.

[OakLeaf]

let me get this straight, you use dairy yogurt as a starter for your soy yogurt? I used the packaged starter for my attempt and I figured it curdled because maybe I used one intended for dairy. I could buy a small thing of soy yogurt as my starter, but I don't think I've seen an unflavoured soy yogurt in the stores.

Yes, I've been very successful starting with dairy yogurt. Also with probiotic pills (different culture blend, different flavor and consistency), some of which are non-dairy, if that's an issue for you. I have a whole Excel spreadsheet going - what I started with, what I cultured it with, how long it grew, tartness, firmness and creaminess. Did I mention I'm a total data geek? :p

Whatever I read recently said that the additives in any storebought yogurt are not enough to make the culture unusable. However, storebought soy yogurt tends to have a pretty short shelf life, and I'd worry about the cultures already being contaminated. I don't think I'd buy soy yogurt to use as a starter.

Also, remember that a lot of the temperature control in the Yogourmet maker comes from the water bath you start with. It IS possible to get it too hot if you start with a water bath that's too hot.

[Grog]

Ah! Refrigerator top! That's so smart.

I'll try that next time.

[WindingRoad]

So I'm in the process of making my first batch of yogurt. I'm 'improvising' since I really don't have the money to spend on a yogurt machine. My oven is an orange box with a heating pad in it. I lined it with a bath towel and I have another to cover the holes in the top of the box. Going to use a quart jar for my first time in case I screw it up I don't waste a half gallon of milk. I have some yogurt left from my Costco yogurt to start the culture with. I just heated my milk under boiling then I'm going to add a half cup of Costco (plain) yogurt and incubate in my homemade oven overnight. I'll keep you all posted if this actually works. :D

[Blueberry]

So I'm in the process of making my first batch of yogurt. I'm 'improvising' since I really don't have the money to spend on a yogurt machine. My oven is an orange box with a heating pad in it. I lined it with a bath towel and I have another to cover the holes in the top of the box. Going to use a quart jar for my first time in case I screw it up I don't waste a half gallon of milk. I have some yogurt left from my Costco yogurt to start the culture with. I just heated my milk under boiling then I'm going to add a half cup of Costco (plain) yogurt and incubate in my homemade oven overnight. I'll keep you all posted if this actually works. :D

Make sure you cool it sufficiently (I don't know the range off the top of my head) before adding the yogurt. Too hot will kill the cultures. Otherwise, sounds like a great plan.

[malkin]

For temps I always remember 180 for the high and 108 for the cool.
I know there's a range, but this works for me, unless I get it in mind that it is 80 for the low.

It will be time to stay out of the kitchen if I ever try to heat the milk to 801 degrees.

[OakLeaf]

180 is scalding.

105-115 F or 40-45 C is incubating temp. Much hotter than that will kill the cultures - I've done it.

It's hard to really screw it up. Worst case, you just have a partially cultured or uncultured liquid to put on your cereal.

[Becky]

I've made a couple of batches lately, and had good luck with the following temperatures:

185 for the scalding, 115 to add the starter, and incubation at 105-115. I tempered the starter with a ladle of 115 degree milk before adding to the rest of the milk.

I've been using the instructions and recipes at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=525.

[badger]

Grog, I think you should look into Kefir. You don't need too much - just kefir grains, milk, and room temperature.

[WindingRoad]

OK! The cardboard orange box and heating pad method works like a charm. It was very easy to do. It was a little on the runny side but part of that was I incubated the jar on its side then stood it up so the whey mixed in with the yogurt. Solution: turn box on it's end this time (why didn't I think of that last time, geez). I'm going to add a little powdered milk to see if the next batch comes out thicker. I'm eating the last of it (aside of the bit I saved for culture) so it turned out very tasty too! :D:D:D:D:D

Oh..and I did let the milk cool to lukewarm before I added the yogurt culture, thank you.

[badger]

if you want thicker yogurt, the instrction booklet said to boil the milk first (then cool to room temp). And it works, I use 2% and it comes out like full fat yogurt.

[Becky]

Mixing in powdered milk works really well to make thicker yogurt. Something about increasing the concentration of solids... I suppose that you could reduce the milk volume by heating and achieve the same thing.

[WindingRoad]

Oooooooh yeah! It turned out thicker and creamier this time! Quite awesome, thanks for all the tips! ;):D;):D

[Becky]

Any suggestions for how to make bigger batches? I've been using a half-gallon of milk in my removable crockpot liner, and incubating it in a cooler with some hot water bottles. The problem is that DH and I chow down those ~8 cups of yogurt in less than a week.

I'm looking for ideas on other containers to use (several mason jars, maybe?) and more importantly, a way to incubate bigger batches so that I can make up a gallon of milk at a time. I've considered buying a bigger cooler....

What are other folks doing? Thanks for your help!

[Blueberry]

No specific ideas for you - I end up making 2 batches over the weekend (have trouble finding time during the week to have time to boil, cool and then incubate without staying up too late). 4 quart mason jars should do the trick for you (and I really prefer glass for yogurt - though I'm using plastic for now). Any way to make a 2nd batch mid-week?

CA

[ZenSojourner]

Mixing in powdered milk works really well to make thicker yogurt. Something about increasing the concentration of solids... I suppose that you could reduce the milk volume by heating and achieve the same thing.

I do this when I'm making paneer, a soft cheese. If I have to use grocery store milk, they've stripped a lot of the milk solids out in the processing. The powdered milk helps to replace some of that.

Of course, if I can get 5% fat unpasteurized unhomogenized Jersey Milk, I don't need to do that, but I can't get it here.

Oh how I miss Young's Jersey Dairy!

[Becky]

No specific ideas for you - I end up making 2 batches over the weekend (have trouble finding time during the week to have time to boil, cool and then incubate without staying up too late). 4 quart mason jars should do the trick for you (and I really prefer glass for yogurt - though I'm using plastic for now). Any way to make a 2nd batch mid-week?

CA

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat. I don't have much time to babysit yogurt temps unless I stay up too late.

Maybe I'm buying a second cooler tonight. But that would mean a second thermometer too (Yeah, I'm a control freak about things like this).

:D

[OakLeaf]

Young's Jersey Dairy!

Mmmmmmmmm. I don't even like dairy products, but what a great place. :)

[ZenSojourner]

Yeah, if I ever get a chance to do a bit of traveling sometime, I'm heading up there with all the coolers that will fit in my trunk.

[malkin]

I use a double boiler for the scald.
When the milk reaches temp, I set the top of the double boiler in an ice bath and forget about it for a little while. The next time I think about it, it is usually down to inoculation temperature.

If I do this before bed, it can culture happily overnight. In the morning, it is done, but not cool (bleh), so it needs a little fridge time before I'll eat it.

None of the steps require my complete attention.

[Blueberry]

My yogurt maker is really quick. When I'm re-culturing off a relatively fresh batch, usually 2 hours or so...

Still...I rarely have that much time in the evenings...

[GLC1968]

You can also incubate in the oven. Just leave the oven light on with the door closed (no peeking) and it should keep the yogurt warm enough overnight (unless your house is REALLY cold, like ours was this winter).

If you use larger containers, the yogurt will probably take longer unless you add more starter, too.

Ball makes a half-gallon glass jar. Get a 6-pack of those at your local ACE hardware and you can easily do a gallon at a time in glass. (We use these to store our goat's milk).

[Becky]

You can also incubate in the oven. Just leave the oven light on with the door closed (no peeking) and it should keep the yogurt warm enough overnight (unless your house is REALLY cold, like ours was this winter).

If you use larger containers, the yogurt will probably take longer unless you add more starter, too.

Ball makes a half-gallon glass jar. Get a 6-pack of those at your local ACE hardware and you can easily do a gallon at a time in glass. (We use these to store our goat's milk).

I like those ideas! I'll have to see how well my oven light works. My kitchen is the coldest part of the house, but it's getting warm enough outside that it might work :)

Those glass jars sound perfect, and no more tying up my crock pot liner with yogurt-making!

[bmccasland]

I make yogurt in a crockpot. Google "crockpot yogurt" and a lot will come up. It's basically this:

Heat 1/2 gal milk on low for 2 hours, unplug and let it sit for 3 hours, take a couple cups of the warm milk and mix with 1/2 c room temp yogurt and mix that in to the crockpot milk. Cover with a heavy towel and let it sit for about 7 hours. (the longer it sits, the tangier it gets) I like to strain mine in a cheesecloth for a couple hrs in the refrigerator for thicker (Greek) yogurt.

yum!

It worked! :D I made a batch on sunday. Used my favorite local dairy's skim milk (pasteurized but not homogonized), and some good plain Greek yogurt from WF as starter. Had a bit of slop pouring the fresh yogurt into the cheesecloth lined colander (but Nala-dog cleaned it up :rolleyes:). Strained it in the frig for a couple of hours - was surprised how much whey strained out. Now all I have to do is work on my flavors....

Thank you for the recipe! :D

[WindingRoad]

"Strained it in the frig for a couple of hours - was surprised how much whey strained out. Now all I have to do is work on my flavors...."

I was surprised how much whey comes out of the yogurt and it's a stickier consistency than that I noticed on the bought yogurt? Anyone else notice this? I just carefully pour off the whey, I don't eat it. Is that what you are supposed to do with it?

[ZenSojourner]

You can use it to cook with. There's a lot of protein in whey. Vegetarians use it to make soup stock, instead of beef or chicken stock.

[ZenSojourner]

Using Whey instead of some or all of the water in bread:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3590/whey-how-use-it-and-why

Use it instead of milk or water in pancakes or cornbread mixes

Use it as a substitute for buttermilk or sour milk in recipes calling for those

Use it to cook rice (probably ok) or oatmeal (ummm, yuck?)

Add it to dog food - for the DOG of course

Soak beans in it instead of in water (I imagine you'd want to do this in the fridge?)

If you're using it to soak beans or cook rice, I've seen suggestions varying from adding a couple T of whey to the normal amount of water, to using 100% whey.

If you're using it in soup, one source I saw said not to add it until after any beans in the recipe are nearly cooked, claiming it will slow bean cooking down. I'm not sure why that would be, you would think the acidity of it would break beans down faster.

The following are from here:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/353018

They make ricotta cheese from whey left over from cheese making, I don't see why that wouldn't work with whey from yoghurt, It needs to have never been boiled for this to work. I don't think I remember boiling the milk for yoghurt. Anyway here's the recipe:


Take the whey and heat it to 200 degrees plus (F of course). If your whey is acidic enough, little specs of the albumen will start to precipitate out once it gets to around 200. If this does not happen, add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar. Once the albumen starts to separate, maintain the heat for a few minutes so it all has time to set up, then pour through a very fine cheese cloth. It usually takes several hours, if not overnight, to drain completely.

Salt if you like, then use it however you like. I usually get 1/2 - 1 cup of finished ricotta from the whey produced by a gallon of milk, after cheese making.

The cheese cloth they re talking about there is REAL cheese cloth, not the gauzy stuff they sell in the grocery store. And if you want to try ricotta, one source I saw said to let the whey sit over night to increase acidity.


Here's something else to try, if you drink coffee I guess:


add a bit of sugar and sloooowly cook it down into a delicious caramel-like sweet syrup that's great in coffee or on ice cream.. Norwegian gjeyost (sp?) is this type of cheese. I would make pints and pints of this and can it. It's addictive.

Here's a similar recipe from Iceland:

http://icecook.blogspot.com/2007/08/brown-whey-cheese-mysuostur.html

Hope that helps.

[OakLeaf]

one source I saw said not to add it until after any beans in the recipe are nearly cooked, claiming it will slow bean cooking down. I'm not sure why that would be, you would think the acidity of it would break beans down faster.

Acid hardens bean skins, preventing them from taking up water. If the cooking liquid is too acidic, beans won't cook at all. Same reason you don't put tomatoes in bean soups/chilis until the beans are fully cooked.

By the same token, I'd be leery of soaking dried beans in whey - have you tried it? (In any event, it seems wasteful - the beans will take up very little if any of the nutrients in whey.)

[ZenSojourner]

Acid hardens bean skins, preventing them from taking up water. If the cooking liquid is too acidic, beans won't cook at all. Same reason you don't put tomatoes in bean soups/chilis until the beans are fully cooked.

By the same token, I'd be leery of soaking dried beans in whey - have you tried it? (In any event, it seems wasteful - the beans will take up very little if any of the nutrients in whey.)

Nope, I don't usually cook with whole beans. I usually use my whey making curries or dahl soups. (Dahl are split, shelled legumes such as chickpea, pigeon pea, etc). I've also used it making potato soup, for which I have a killer recipe.

Oh yeah, and you can freeze it to use later. In fact I used to make ice cubes of whey and then I could just add them to whatever I was cooking for a little extra tang.

[bmccasland]

Consistency was just fine. And considering I immediately started filling available plastic containers, I couldn't tell you what 1/2 gallon of yogurt condensed down to. I had a viscous glob, in fabric, that I spooned to containers. Nala was doing her best to not be directly underfoot, but let me know she was available....

I was wondering about using unflavored gelatin to thicken the yogurt - I know from reading labels that commercial yogurts do this. Any thoughts? Figured once I eat my way through this batch, and make my second batch, I'd give it a try. Maybe one envelope?

[bambu101]

You can add some dried milk powder to thicken up yogurt, especially if it is made with skim or low-fat milk. Works great!

[Becky]

I was wondering about using unflavored gelatin to thicken the yogurt - I know from reading labels that commercial yogurts do this. Any thoughts? Figured once I eat my way through this batch, and make my second batch, I'd give it a try. Maybe one envelope?

I tried this using 1 envelope to a half-gallon of milk. I just stirred it in right before the starter. What I ended up with was rather thin yogurt, with a gelatinous rubbery layer on the very bottom of the container. I think it would have worked if I'd more fully dissolved the gelatin in something hotter before adding it to the milk.

[ZenSojourner]

I was wondering about using unflavored gelatin to thicken the yogurt - I know from reading labels that commercial yogurts do this. Any thoughts? Figured once I eat my way through this batch, and make my second batch, I'd give it a try. Maybe one envelope?

I wouldn't try this. The thing that makes yoghurt yoghurt is the action of the yeastie beasties in the milk. Adding something like gelatin is liable to interfere with the natural processes that turn milk into yoghurt.

Adding powdered milk as has been suggested a couple of times will probably work pretty well, I do this all the time when I'm making paneer. It increases the amount of milk solids available. Using whole milk (3%) to start with will also help.

[Blueberry]

Gelatin will work (you have to dissolve it in the milk when it's at 180), but I don't like the flavor/texture. I use whole milk, and my yogurt has a nice texture. I've used powdered milk, but also thought it modified the flavor (yogurt tasted like re-constituted powdered milk - ick!).

CA

[bmccasland]

I was thinking about adding the gelatin after the milk and yogurt starter got to know one another - maybe warm some plain milk to the right temp to melt the gelatin, then stir that in? But doesn't too much stiring thin out the yogurt? So maybe I'll go the extra milk powder route. I'm trying to keep the fat content down, so use skim milk - but what I buy from my local dairy doesn't taste at all watery. ;)

Last thing I want is globs of gelatin in my otherwise yummy yogurt. :eek:

[sgtiger]

How about straining the yogurt for a thicker texture? Cheesecloth or a coffee filter in a strainer? Many of the commercial natural yogurt makers do that since they don't add any thickening agents. Greek style is double, sometimes triple, strained. Yum! So think and creamy, and absolutely wonderful as a dessert with fresh seasonal fruit. I had it once with strawberries macerated in port: almost felt like a guilty pleasure while eating it.:p

[Deborajen]

I made some yogurt in the crock pot this weekend and it turned out tasty but a little runny (especially yummy with a little homemade cherry jam stirred in!). I used 1% homogenized pasteurized milk and Dannon plain yogurt.

Has anyone tried stirring in a little instant pudding at the end (after it's done and in the refrigerator) for texture and flavor?

[OakLeaf]

I'm just starting on my second attempt at hemp yogurt.

The only brand of hemp milk available locally is Living Harvest. The unsweetened kind was absent from the shelves for several weeks, and now it's back in a new package. It doesn't say it's been reformulated, but it only has one gram of protein per serving (as opposed to four grams in the sweetened original in the old packaging).

I really doubt that'll be enough protein to curdle. But since I opened the package before reading it, I'm going to try it anyway. :rolleyes: Here goes nothing, well, I have to get rid of that yogurt starter before it expires anyway. ;)

Hipmama, do you know? Did they reformulate it? Do you know what the minimum amount of protein is, to curdle enough to make yogurt? You mentioned Living Harvest, have you tried any of the other brands of hemp milk? I see on the website that Hemp Bliss has 5 g protein per serving, and Hemp Dream has 4 g but isn't available unsweetened. Kind of academic at the moment since all I can get around here is Living Harvest, and no one has hemp seeds even if I had the initiative to make my own.

[OakLeaf]

Well the hemp milk did curdle, but it was obviously way too diluted and low-protein. I wound up with literally half a jar of whey, and the other half very, very loose yogurt, really more liquid.

Don't think I'll try that again. Maybe I'll try again with Hemp Bliss. But really, of soy beverages, only unsweetened Edensoy (12 g protein per serving) is rich enough to make decent yogurt. So I'm not getting my hopes up for Hemp Bliss. If I can get my hands on some hemp seeds I'll definitely try making my own, though. The main reason making soy milk is such a PITA is having to grind it hot; other nut/seed beverages aren't so bad.