Yogurt is rich in nutrients and boost your health when consumed regularly. However, make sure to choose your yogurt wisely. My advice, don’t buy, make your own. It is incredibly easy to do, especially if you own a Instant Pot or similar tool. Best part, you know exactly what ingredients went into making it. The instructions below is based on using a Instant Pot for fermenting the yogurt.
Homemade Yogurt with Golden Flaxseed meal:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup homemade yogurt,
Tsp golden flaxseed meal. (Buy the flaxseed seeds and grind in a coffee grinder for best freshness).
Spoon the yogurt into a cup, add the flaxseed meal and mix through. Enjoy as a snack or treat any time of day. Give it a try, odds is you’ll live it.
For your yogurt starter:
You can use shop bought dry culture, or some shop bought yogurt with live cultures if you prefer. My recommendation is to make your own. Only need to do it once, thereafter you can use a little from each batch yogurt you make for the next batch.
Ingredients:
500ml full cream milk,
Stems cut from a few fresh chillies. I used 10 in the video.
Instructions:
Pour the milk into the pot and use the yogurt boil function to bring to boil. It will be quick for such a small amount of milk. When it is complete, let the milk cool down to approximately 46°C. Place the inner-pot in a basin with cold water if you want to speed up the cooling process. If you do not have a thermometer, you can use your finger, milk should be warm to the touch, but not burning you.
(If you do not have a Instant Pot, the boil part implies heating the milk to a temperature above 85°C, don’t bring the milk to boiling point. The perfect temperature for yogurt bacteria to thrive is between 37,7°C (100°F) and 46,1°C (115°F).)
Rinse a couple of chilli’s, you can use red, green or a combination. Cut the stems of and add the stems to the milk in the inner pot. Select the yogurt option and set the time for 14 hours. For me it seems that the curdling process only properly starts happening at around 13 hours.
When done, remove the stems and immediately use as a starter, else place in container and refrigerate till needed.
If you want to watch a video of the process, click the link below:
Making Yogurt:
The process is the same as for making the starter.
Ingredients: (using a 6 quart Instant Pot)
2L full cream milk,
2L fresh cream. You can use only milk, but will have to strain off more whey to get a really thick consistency.
Instructions:
Pour the milk into the pot and use the yogurt boil function to bring to boil. When it is complete, let the milk cool down to approximately 46°C. Place the inner-pot in a basin with cold water if you want to speed up the cooling process. If you do not have a thermometer, you can use your finger, milk should be warm to the touch, but not burning you.
(If you do not have a Instant Pot, the boil part implies heating the milk to a temperature above 85°C, don’t bring the milk to boiling point. The perfect temperature for yogurt bacteria to thrive is between 37,7°C (100°F) and 46,1°C (115°F).)
Add your starter to the milk, if you use refrigerated yogurt, leave it out to adjust to room temperature while boiling the milk. Select the yogurt function, and set the time you prefer for fermentation. The default setting is 8 hours. You can reduce if you want, or if you want your yogurt slightly more tangy, increase the fermentation period. I prefer to ferment for 24 hours, this gives the bacteria sufficient time to digest the lactose to give you lactose free yogurt.
If you want to watch a video of the process, click the link below:
https://youtu.be/5YF_0wVfFtg
Dining and Cooking