I think that making yogurt had been one of my unfulfilled birthday goals in some year in the past.
There is something that appeals to me deeply about being able to, knowing how to make the things that have become a part of your daily life. There is something separately appealing about understanding how some things work.
When you pare away the loftier reasons for wanting to know how to make yogurt, it comes down to realizing just how much I spend on yogurt. During the work week, I usually eat yogurt for breakfast every day. Also, I send yogurt to lunch with Alex a few times a week. Additionally, if I am taking a dance class in the evening, when I come home I might feel hungry, but tired so I eat, you guessed it, yogurt. Which yogurt do I like to eat? Oh, that would be the yogurt that costs $6 for 32 ounces. That adds up quickly, when you know that there’s another way.
So I made yogurt.
And this time I enlisted help.
Yogurt was not a first time success situation like many of my kitchen projects. Recently, I made yogurt taking into consideration the many, many, many things I had read about making yogurt. I so feared a thin, snot-like yogurt that I overcompensated on the other side. The yogurt was thick, but it was closer to a cheese territory in texture, and when I tried to mix my apple butter into it…let’s just say it wasn’t pretty at all.
The more recent try, inspired by a friend on Facebook who was singing praises to her home yogurt-making, I decided to try it again, using a recipe I found on the Kitchn. This time I didn’t add powdered milk. I also didn’t use skim milk. I used whole milk. And all was well. Success was mine!