It worked! Here is my successful first attempt at homemade greek yogurt.
It's empowering to know how to make basic foods like this. In college, I studied up on bread-making and learned all about yeasts, starters and grains while relaxing at the pool on weekends. Making yogurt gave me that same earthy, homey feeling as baking freshly-ground-whole-wheat bread with honey. I could hear Bob Dylan singing Mr. Tambourine Man in my mind as I tied the yogurt up in several layers of cheese cloth to let the whey strain out into a wooden bowl. Hippy-dippy happiness.
Last night, I discovered that a sprinkling of brown sugar along with the raspberries hits the bullseye. I like a lightly-sweetened vanilla yogurt (nearly plain) with a swirl of honey or brown sugar—so there are bursts of sweetness to contrast with the natural flavor of the yogurt. Prepared this way, yogurt can serve as a sophisticated, healthy dessert.
Another favorite way to enjoy yogurt is with a drizzle of honey and a scoop of muesli. I swirl everything together and then wait a few minutes for the muesli to absorb a slight bit of moisture from the yogurt.
I thought about donning my Birkenstocks and loading up my VW Bus with yogurt samples to share at the next Grateful Dead concert. But then the fog cleared and I realized that I don’t have Birkenstocks, nor a VW bus, and The Grateful Dead are long-gone.
Will you be sharing how you did this with your crockpot? Please?
I would love to. I’ll make another batch next week & take photos.
I love to eat my yogurt with a tablespoon of homemade jam or marmalade, because sometimes I just cannot eat my yogurt plain.
I’ll have to make another batch, because it has been too long!
my fav breakfast is Cascadian Farms Honey Granola with yogurt, will have to try my hand at making my OWN yogurt! Thanks for the tips and links!
p.s. I do own Birkenstocks, maybe I’ll wear them while I make the yogurt! ha ha!
Fantastic results! Good for you!
Where did you get your starter? (Maybe this will be included in a future post….) I’ve been wanting to make my own, but really want it to be ‘greek’ yogurt and it’s not as easy to find!!
Looks very yummy and it sounds like its doable without major investment…a good thing!
I used Fage Non-Fat Plain Greek Yogurt from the grocery store. You only need a couple of spoonfuls. In fact, my research indicates that using too much starter can be a bad thing for the yogurt; it won’t set properly.
It worked perfectly. Then, before I sweetened my finished yogurt, I put a quarter cup of my yogurt in a tiny tupperware to save as my starter for the next batch.
I could be wrong, but from what I have read, what makes greek yogurt is the particular cultures that are grown, along with straining out more whey than you might with traditional yogurt. I’ll make sure I have the facts straight when I post my process.
If you want to start with a freeze-dried greek yogurt starter, here’s a link:
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/greek-yogurt-starter.html
Yay! Sounds awesome Heather.
I started making yogurt last weekend using Stoneyfield organic yogurt as my starter culture (I couldn’t find a freeze-dried starter at my grocery store). This weekend, I made 2.5L of it! We’ve been eating it sweetened with frozen wild blueberries and bananas or with strawberries. It’s so goooooood!
I still have my Birkenstocks. I think I might have to pull them out today. 🙂
Looks wonderful ~ Can’t wait to try it. Thanks
I live quite near Greece and I’ve been there a lot of times. Let me tell you, none of the Greek yogurts looked so good like those raspberries do.
Oh my! These raspberries make me drool! Haha! They look tasty and healthy. My stomach jumped with joy after seeing a treat like this.
A couple years ago I bought a little machine that makes yoghurt and it is brilliant. I found that goats yoghurt was my favourite and loved to pour it on my breakfast cereals.