Baby Food: Yogurt

My family loves yogurt, but I rarely buy it because it costs so much.  For years I’ve been thinking about making homemade yogurt so we could keep it in the house without paying the high price.  I finally tried it a few months ago and am hooked!  And April is hooked too!

It’s actually very simple.  There are yogurt making machines out there, but they are completely unnecessary if you have an instant read thermometer.

I try to avoid giving my babies pre-flavored yogurt because it has so much added sugar.  By making plain yogurt and flavoring it myself, I can control their sugar-intake.  And I don’t add any sugar that isn’t from fruit.

Plain Yogurt

1 qt. milk

½ c. plain yogurt with active cultures (store-bought or from previous batch)

On stove or in microwave, heat milk to 185° in an oven-safe dish (this takes 8 minutes in my microwave, but times will vary).  Cool to 110°.

Stir in yogurt.

Place in pre-heated 150° oven overnight or for about 6-8 hours.

I advise employing an oven thermometer.  To get my oven
thermometer to read like this...

...the dial has to be set like this.  If your oven gets too hot,
you'll end up with really gross custard.

Remove as much of the whey (liquid) as possible.

I start by pouring as much off as I can
without dumping the yogurt down the drain.

I then spoon some off.

I then use a tea towel or paper towels to soak
up the remaining whey from the surface.

Once it's stirred a little, more whey will come out.  Just
spoon it out and mix in what you can't get.

Whisk smooth.  Refrigerate.  Yield:  1 qt.  Cost:  the same as 1 qt. of milk.

Because it is plain, it is a bit on the sour side.  April will eat it about half of a serving plain before she starts to reject it.  I then mix in some bananas with the rest of it, though any puréed fruit would do.

Yogurt face!