Starter for homemade yogurt
Description
A simple way to make it ahead. This yogurt can be kept in the refrigerator for 3–5 days, but it’s usually eaten much sooner! You can balance the yogurt’s slightly tangy taste with any berries and fruits, honey, nuts, and even seeds. Improvise, and you’ll get an original, filling, very tasty, and healthy dessert. Jars keep for up to a year in a cool place.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Pour the milk into a clean saucepan and heat it to a temperature of no more than 38-40 degrees. If you overheated the milk or, worse, brought it to a boil, you will need to cool it down, because in an environment that is too hot, the bacteria from the starter culture will simply die.
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Step 2
Open the starter culture package and pour it into the milk. This “powder,” made up of viable lactic acid and bifidobacteria, is what gives you good homemade yogurt. There are many such starter cultures today; they come in different types and are sold in supermarkets, specialty health food stores, and even pharmacies.
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Step 3
Now mix the milk well so that the starter culture is evenly distributed throughout it. If you don't do this, you may end up with yogurt that doesn't look very appealing — it will have denser clumps in places, and the entire mixture will be uneven.
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Step 4
You can set the milk and starter mixture for making yogurt either in the same container where you mixed everything, or by pouring the future fermented milk product into separate containers—for example, into small jars or lidded cups. If you have a yogurt maker, the process is as easy as it gets: just follow your device’s instructions. If you don’t have a yogurt maker on hand, don’t worry: simply wrap the container of milk well and place it in a warm spot so the temperature stays optimal for beneficial bacteria to multiply for as long as possible.
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Step 5
After 8-12 hours (depending on the type of starter culture), your homemade yogurt is ready to eat!