Saturday, January 31, 2009

Fresh Homemade Yogurt

I have made bread since my grandfather taught me as a youngster. A little over a year ago I started using a sour dough starter gifted to us from a lovely neighbor. Back about three months ago, I put out whole wheat flour mixed with filtered water to created my own "Aunt Debbi's Kitchen Sour Dough Starter" This was colonized completely by the yeast that was already hanging around my kitchen. Several loaves of whole wheat bread have been made with this starter and have been well received.

Last winter, my kitchen was turned into an incubator to allow cabbage to become sauerkraut. The results were yuummy.

About a week ago, I decided to try to make homemade yogurt. This is the easiest kitchen creation ever. Much like sauerkraut, I can't call this cooking. All I did was put about two tablespoons of a higher quality yogurt into about a pint of skim milk, placed it in a warm spot (over the food dehydrator, but any warm place will work) and wait. Eight hours later, I had yogurt. It was not as thick as store bought yogurt, but it tasted amazing.

Most people do not eat plain yogurt. I love it. I have been making dressings for salads and just eating it. Tonight, I bought some frozen fruit (we don't have much fresh fruit around these parts right now) and made the Monkey's some smoothies with the homemade yogurt. Yogurt smoothies turned out to be a big hit around here. I am out of yogurt, but there is a new batch brewing on the food dehydrator.