Organic Homemade Greek Yogurt

A few years ago I was trying to learn about homemade Greek yogurt, and I discovered Paula over at Salad in a Jar. And so began my love affair with homemade bread, salad in a jar, and of course, homemade Greek yogurt. This also resulted in me talking about Paula as if I knew her personally and she lived right next door or something. Sadly I’ve never met Paula, but I can dream, right?

Fast forward to the present, and I’ve tweaked my yogurt to make it my own, and today I’m sharing it with all of you. Homemade Greek yogurt is awesome if you are interested in ridding your house of processed food and saving money. Homemade Greek yogurt is easy-peasy; no fancy kitchen contraption or device required! Homemade Greek yogurt is also great for dips or sauces, using in place of sour cream or cream cheese in a recipe, or just eating as plain ‘ole yogurt. In our home, we recently made the switch to full-fat organic dairy and here’s why; however, if you haven’t yet made the switch, you can use any kind of milk. Let’s get started.

Supplies:

• Food thermometer
• 2 quart batter bowl with cover
• Half gallon organic whole milk
• 3 tablespoons yogurt containing live cultures (e.g. Stonyfield organic yogurt or plain unstrained homemade yogurt)
• Heating pad with ‘stay-on’ feature OR oven that goes to 100 degrees
• Bouillon strainer OR cheese cloth
• 2 towels

Instructions:

• Pour half gallon milk into 2 quart batter bowl. Microwave uncovered or heat in a pot on the stove until the milk temperature reaches 180 degrees. Use your food thermometer to check. This takes exactly 15 minutes in my microwave. If you heat the milk on the stove, make sure you stir constantly to prevent burning.
• After the milk reaches 180 degrees, leave milk uncovered to cool to 120 degrees. This takes approximately one hour.
• Once the milk reaches 120 degrees, skim off the “skin” that forms atop the liquid with a spoon.
• Whisk in 3 tablespoons of yogurt with live cultures (e.g. Stonyfield yogurt or unstrained homemade yogurt).
• Cover batter bowl and place directly on heating pad set to medium for 12 hours. Cover with towels to help keep the yogurt warm. If your oven goes to 100 degrees, place batter bowl in oven for 8 hours.
•  After 12 hours, remove the yogurt from the heating pad. Remove 3 heaping tablespoons of yogurt and save as cultures for future yogurt.
• Next scoop yogurt into bouillon strainer or cheese cloth and drain whey for about 30 minutes.
• Remove from strainer and whisk in bowl until smooth in texture.
• Add flavoring (honey, jam, extracts, etc.) at this time or wait and flavor individually.
• Pour yogurt into one large container or individual containers.
• Place in refrigerator. It will thicken nicely once it cools.
• Serve and enjoy!