making yogurt

I gave my daughter a yogurt maker for her 4th birthday, and it has been well-used ever since.  I love the little glass jars and how the kids can help themselves to a nice sized portion.  She loves the yogurt, perhaps even more than I do, and particularly loves the homemade maple vanilla variety we make at home.  It is so simple, and therefore even more wonderful, to make at night and then wake up and eat warm homemade yogurt in the morning.  With strawberries, ideally, but jam can sometimes be substituted.



Yogurt Recipe
Whole milk: for our yogurt maker we use 42 oz. or 5 ¼ cups of whole milk 
(you can also use 2%, but then I add a ¼ cup of powdered milk to get it as thick as we like)
Vanilla: 1 tsp or so
Maple Syrup: 1/4 cup or so
Yogurt starter: we usually use 3 spoonfuls of a previous batch or plain organic yogurt from the store


Heat the milk slowly in a tall pot on the stove over low/medium heat.  It is important, if tedious, to continue watching the milk get hot.  Use a thermometer and wait for it to hit 170 degrees, but not have it boil.   If it boils it is not ruined, but try to catch it beforehand.  Then stir in the vanilla and maple syrup (and smell the delicious aroma), and set the pot in a sink filled with cool water.  Cool the pot until the milk temperature reaches 108 degrees.  


Next take a cup or so of the warm milk and stir or whisk in several tablespoons of existing yogurt until all lumps disappear; add the mixture back to the pot.  Then ladle or pour the milk into the small jars and put them (without lids) into the yogurt maker.  Push the button and set for 8-9 hours, and you too will have delicious yogurt in the morning.