Yogurt

Several months ago I purchased a yogurt incubating machine for myself, remembering how good the homemade yogurt was that I had in France, and I have been quite pleased with (most of) the results.  There have, of course, been a few flunks -- such as the time that something went wrong (I still don't know what) and I ended up with a quart of "yogurt milk."  Or the times when the machine got bumped during incubation, and I had 7 6-oz pots of yogurt milk to drink...  Bleck.  :-D
But as I already mentioned, most of the time it works wonderfully.  We've gotten to the point where we don't even really like store-bought yogurt any more (especially not flavored!).  The taste is not the only difference; the texture is also incredibly different.  I find that homemade is more smooth and not as chokingly rich, even though I do use whole milk.
I thought y'all might enjoy knowing about one of the tasks which keep me busy during the week.  I found out early on that I don't have to use just the 6-oz pots that came with the machine; I can also cook a quart of yogurt at a time, in one of our 4-cup glass Pyrex containers.  I cook it that way for general consumption, and I probably end up doing that about 3 or 4 times a week.  I use the little pots for my own snacks, and then I also cook 8 oz of yogurt with honey that I use as a protein/calorie supplement.
The "proper" way to prepare yogurt is to boil the milk, let it cool to room temperature, then mix in the starter.  My friends didn't do it that way, and as I don't have time to sit there and stir the milk while it boils I do it like they do.  I just let it sit on the counter and get to room temperature.  It has its own little spot next to the microwave, where I can let one light shine on it directly.

I usually leave it about 2 hours to get to room temperature.  To cook a new batch of yogurt, you can either use the proper amount of already prepared yogurt or else use a powdered culture.  This time I used the culture, because I had re-used yogurt several times and I was ready for a totally new batch.  And yes, the instructions on this packet are in French...  The one off the of the other side was English.  :-)

Next I pour it all into the pots.

It takes about 8 hours to cook, and as I already mentioned the machine is very finicky about getting bumped.  So I have made yogurt on some very odd open surfaces around the house...

When it's finished, I put the little white lids on and refrigerate them promptly, to stop the cooking process.  If you cook it for too short of a time or too long of a time it's runny, which is not happy. 

So although it is a little bit of a touchy process, I usually end up with delicious, healthy yogurt.  Yum!