Experimenting with Yogurt Making

The soy yogurt is on the left, the organic milk yogurt is on the right.

Yogurt making is not at all difficult and you don't even need a yogurt maker! We love yogurt, but the problem is, most store-bought yogurt has gelatin in it. (No pork products for us.) I've tried some of the soy yogurts, but they are too expensive--$0.99 a cup! So it was time to start experimenting.

I wanted to make yogurt without a machine, I just don't have enough storage in my kitchen for another appliance. I started reading around the web about yogurt making and decided to give it a try.

I used Yogourmet as my starter. It's not 100% vegan -it does contain a tiny amount of skim milk powder. I've heard of some vegan yogurt starters, but I have yet to find one around here. I made a batch with a quart of plain store brand soy milk and another with a quart of organic whole milk for comparison. I followed the directions on the package and then I incubated the yogurt in the warming drawer of my oven. I turned the warming drawer on for just a few minutes, wrapped the quart jar in a towel, and set in the drawer. I let the whole milk yogurt incubate 5 hours, the soy milk took overnight (about 9 hrs) to thicken sufficiently. I did not check to see if the temp was just so or not, just left it alone.

Voila, homemade yogurt without the extra ingredients! I sweetened the soy yogurt with agave nectar-- very yummy! Neither were as thick as store bought yogurt, the milk yogurt was the thickest. I read that if you add a teaspoon of sugar, it will help the soy milk to thicken better. I strained some of the whole milk yogurt through a cheesecloth for several hours and ended up with a nice spreadable yogurt cheese. The soy yogurt did not strain as well, I'm going to try it again. Both also froze very well with blended strawberries for a great frozen yogurt treat.

Here's where I got the inspiration for yogurt making:

Making Homemade soy yogurt-vegan-- Bryanna Clark Grogan

Soy Yogurt from Fat Free Vegan blog

Hillbilly Housewife's easy soy yogurt

Crockpot yogurt