Creamy Live Yoghurt - Cheap & Easy to Make!

Most supermarkets carry an array of yoghurts (or yogurts) in no fat, low fat, full fat, calorie free (or not), flavoured or unflavoured varieties. Most are not that healthy because they are full of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Most are not 'live' in that they are pasteurised and the culture used to make them is no longer active.

Live yoghurt is very healthy for you but to buy a large pot can be more expensive than it needs to be - because it is so easy to make!

The health benefits of the live lactic bacteria in yoghurt are well-established. For those who have a dodgy gut and diarrhoea, the yoghurt adds a regular supply of 'friendly' gut bacteria which can aid sensitivity within the bowel and support normal immune system function. 

Research also suggests that live yoghurt can offer some protection against food poisoning bugs, and because it is a highly nutritious food it offers quality protein, vitamins and minerals. When you find whey liquid separating out in your live yoghurt, just mix it back in as this is full of protein.

So, if making it is so easy, why not have a go?

The recipe below is the result of trying lots of different ways of making live yoghurt, some of which involve the hassle of heating the milk up to 85 degrees, letting it cool and then progressing with the recipe. This recipe uses milk at room temperature. It uses UHT Milk, which is the longer-life milk on the supermarket shelves, not in chillers. This has already been heated and contains no rogue bacteria. I'm also using whole cream milk because the results are far superior to semi-skim - but use this if you want, it'll turn out a bit thinner and less creamy.

EasiYoYoghurt System

The starter culture is one small pot of live yoghurt, In the UK I recomment Yeo Valley as it contains a range of lactic acid bacteria. You only need one pot, as you will save some of your yoghurt to start the next batch, and so on. It's almost a one-off cost!

I add a small amount of skim milk powder, as this adds a little more protein which helps the texture of the final yoghurt. 

The only capital expense I had was the purchase of an EasiYo system, which is an insulated container (containing a shelf upon which to rest the pot. You can play around and do it differently but believe me, they're not expensive and they just do it perfect. But I don't buy their expensive powder mixes - waste of money!

Live Yoghurt Recipe

Ingredients

1 Litre UHT Whole Milk
1 small pot live yoghurt
4 tsp skim milk powder

You need a 1 litre EasiYo pot with screw lid and the EasiYo insulated container.

Method

1. Boil a kettle full of water
2. While it's coming to the boil, half-fill the 1L pot with milk, add the live yoghurt and shake to mix.
3. Mix the skim milk powder with a small amount of milk and add to the big pot.
4. Mix again, and then top up the pot with milk and shale to mix again. Put on the lid.
5. Pour boiling water into the EasiYo insulated container to the required mark, place the put on the stand inside the container, resting in the hot water, screw container lid on and leave for around 14 hours.
6. Remove yoghurt and refrigerate.
7. Before you use it, take out 6 tsp of your yoghurt, pop into a screw jar or pot and use to start your next batch.

And that's it! Believe me, it only takes a few minutes to make. In the UK I pay 75p for a litre whole UHT milk (semi-skim is 45p) so it doesn't take many batches to make this a very economical way of making a litre of quality live yoghurt (even with the initial expense of the EasiYo, which you can by on ebay and plenty of other places).