Food Friday! Homemade Vanilla Yogurt!

Lately, I've been asked questions about food. For those of you who know me, know I do a lot of things from scratch but you may not know why I do things this way. For those of you who don't know me, welcome to my new adventure. Well, first and foremost, I believe that God designed us to eat a certain way. I've found that taking a little extra time to prepare the things we eat truly benefits our health! With that said, this week I would like to demonstrate homemade vanilla yogurt!

What you will need!
Candy thermometer
4 1/2 cups of milk (I use whole, but it works with 1% and 2%...I haven't tried skim)
4 Tbsp powdered milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp plain yogurt (starter)
1 Tbsp vanilla


Step 1: Pour 4 cups of milk into pot and place over medium heat


Step 2: In a cup mix 4 Tbsp powdered milk with 1/2 milk. Mix until dissolved and pour into pot.


Step 3: Pour 1/2 cup sugar into pot and mix until dissolved. Occasionally stir to keep from sticking.


Step 4: Bring mixture up to 185* and hold for 5 minutes. You'll notice my thermometer reads 190*, that's OK, just adjust your heat and try to maintain 185* as best as you can.


Step 5: Let mixture rest until cooled to 112*. Pay attention to this step, because you'll end up with a separated cheese if you let it cool below 112*...BLAH!


Step 6: In a cup, mix 4 Tbsp. yogurt with vanilla and 1/2 cup of mixture form the pot. Mix well and add back to the pot. Let me explain this step a little more. Yogurt has good bacteria in it that aids in proper digestion. You must add bacteria to the milk as a starter for more bacteria to grow. One important thing you should notice when picking out your yogurt is how many bacteria or cultures are in the yogurt. You need for it to have at least 3 active cultures for the good bacteria to make it past your stomach acid into your intestines to do their job! I personally use Stonyfield Organic because it has 6 active cultures.


Step 7: Pour mixture into jars.


Step 8: Let jars rest in yogurt maker for at least 4 hours. After 4 hours you can periodically check a jar to see if it has reached the consistency you like. We prefer ours a little firm, which is like a custard style, so I leave mine in for about 8 hours.

Step 9: Place in refrigerator and cool at least 3 hours. Then it's ready to eat and boy is it worth the wait! The flavors are limitless, my kids like chocolate syrup in theirs, Danny adds granola to his, and I like adding some of my homemade jams with granola to mine!