Monday, November 10, 2008

Homemade Low Fat Greek Yoghurt

Since I had no trouble making yoghurt out of Easiyo sachets, I had assumed I would have no trouble making it from scratch. How wrong I was !! It took me 3 months of trial and error before I succeeded. At first I blamed the cold weather. It was afterall the start of winter when I began trialling this. Just as I was about to give up, I got my first container of the most perfect thick and custard-like yoghurt. Ever since then I had not made a dud batch.

I use the Easiyo yoghurt maker which makes the incubation process much easier. All it takes is only 5 minutes preparation time. I find this greek yoghurt has hardly any whey. It makes the most delicious yoghurt ice cream.

Low fat greek yogurt

Ingredients
600ml low fat milk (light blue top)
2 Tbsp low fat milk powder
1 Tbsp whole milk powder
2 Tbsp low fat greek yoghurt starter (frozen)

Method
1. Pour the milk into the yoghurt container. Heat milk in the microwave for 3 minutes (650W) until you see little bubbles on the side. Stick a clean finger in to test, it should be hot but not hot enough to burn your finger.


2. Add the milk powder and stir until thoroughly mixed.

3. Add the frozen greek yoghurt starter and stir until dissolved.

4. Add hot water into the Easiyo thermos and put in your yoghurt container (in winter, wrap a towel around the thermos). Leave for 8 hours or overnight. The milk should coagulate into a firm custard-like consistency.

Easiyo incubation thermos kit
5. Remove and refrigerate. It will keep well in the fridge for a week.

Homemade greek yoghurt
Note
1. Heating times will vary with different microwaves.

2. I use a mix of low fat and whole milk powder as the only low fat milk powder available here is skim milk powder which has only 0.1% fat which I find too watered down.

Tip
I made a litre of yoghurt solely to be used for my starter with a sachet of Easiyo low fat greek yoghurt, freezing it in tablespoon lots using ice cube trays. By doing this, it means I have a first generation of yoghurt starters for many many batches which can last me for months.

4 Comments:

Sinner said...

Hi Tricia,
Of course you can use whole milk powder by itself.
The only reason I am using the low fat stuff is because we are watching our weight.
We use the low fat yoghurt to make our ice cream.
With low fat, I am hoping it will have less stress on the waistline ;)

Anonymous said...

I thought that would probably be the case but wanted to check! Thanks...

Anonymous said...

Okay, so I tried it out and it tasted fine but was not at all set - a bit like very runny cottage cheese. The weather is warm so the temps were probably high enough. I don't have a microwave so heated the milk until my finger told me it was ready. I used the EasiYo greek yoghurt as starter. Any ideas as to what I should tweak next time?

Sinner said...

Oh dear...I got those 'not quite there yet' type yoghurt initially too. Tried all sorts of things until I hit the jackpot by adding just that 1 extra Tbsp of milk powder.

I believe you are using all whole milk (blue top) - all the more reason for the yoghurt to turn out absolutely perfect.

When you add hot water to the easiyo, do you use 'boiling' water ? Try this....I use the hot water from the laundry hot tap.

I make this at least once a week. It comes out really thick. Even when I stir and leave it for a few hours just to test whether any whey forms on top....none.

The ice cream made from this yoghurt is creamy with no icicles.

Would love to hear how you go ?

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