Valerie's Yoghurt & Yoghurt Cheese

[terstoo]

I am sooooooo excited!! I made yogurt last night!! And it worked!!! Yay!! I only did 1 lt just in case it didn't!! I used woolies lite milk and farmers union natural yogurt European style for my starter. Then I poured it into my easy-yo 1lt container and put hot tap water into the thermos part of the easy-yo and left it till this morning and opened it holding my breath and hoping it worked!!! And it did.... oh so nice and thick too!!!
So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who contribute to this forum. All the recipes, tweaks, all the help and advice!!!

[judydawn]

Good for youn terstoo, I take it that you are quite happy with the results 
This has to be one of the longest threads on the forum, certainly has created a lot of interest.

[andiesenji]

I had a brainstorm a few days ago and decided to try something different.  I had promised a friend to make a batch of clotted cream that takes a very long time doing it the traditional way.  I got busy with something else and managed to forget all about it until the evening before.

I warmed the heavy cream (2 liters) the same way I do when preparing regular yogurt, placed it in the Yo Life container, added a packet of the culture and put it in the (electric) Yo Life yogurt maker and left it until next morning.  Checked it at 6 a.m. and it was very thick.  I left it to incubate until 11 a.m., and it was perfect.  Very thick, almost crusty on top, exactly what one wants in clotted cream, and the flavor was wonderful.  I may never go back to my old, long, tedious method. 

Yesterday I tried making a 1 liter batch with half & half and it was also much thicker than with regular milk and holds it shape nicely. 

It's rather odd that as long as I have been making yogurt, (50 years) that I had never thought of trying this.  I've made yogurt with soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc., but never with cream.  I guess I had a blind spot when it came to changing my habits.

My regular method for preparing clotted cream, similar to Devon or Cornish, with photos, is documented  here!

[opi2kenopi]

I would also like to express my gratitude to all those who have posted on this thread.  I made yoghurt yesterday and when I got up at 5am this morning I had a sneak peek and it was set beautifully.  Phew!  Tastes really nice - doesn't have a huge amount of tang as others have pointed out, however, that won't matter in this house as DS1 doesn't get along with the tang so much.

Again, thank you all!!! 

[bigTcup]

This is resting in my thermoserver as I type  Fingers crossed

[fundj&e]

This time my yogurt was a failure, can it be used to make ice cream?

ciao

[opi2kenopi]

Hi fundj,

The first time I tried, mine was a failure too (earlier this week).  I mixed quite a lot of the 'milk' with some of Tenina's brownie milk mix and churned it in my icecream machine.  It's a little icy (due to lower fat content) but my DS loves his chocolate 'icecream'.  Or, as others have suggested on this thread somewhere, freeze it in icecubes and whizz it up in the thermomix for instant icecream.

So, the answer is yes

[bigTcup]

Very happy with how this turned out.  This will be on our fortnightly menu as my two little ones love yoghurt 

[meganjane]

I gave up trying to make yoghurt, mine just didn't work properly. I now use the EasiYo. I buy the Greek Yoghurt mix and often make yoghurt cheese with half of the mixture.

[cookie1]

I'm a bit like you MJ. I don't have success all the time so it's easier to go with easi-yo.

[TheCrone]

Hmmmm, just tried this last night and woke this morning to yoghourt which had lifted the lid off of the thermoserver, seperated into curds and whey and bubbling with a life of its own.

Any ideas what's happened?

[judydawn]

  Good thing it didn't escape from the bowl TheCrone, heaven knows where it would have gone from there and what it would have attacked 

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see what those in the know say about this strange occurrence.

[TheCrone]

It seriously looked like a souffle the way it raised up!

[Meagan]

I would say some bacteria in there made it grow?? I always boil the kettle and pour it in after washing out my mini thermoserver and my electric yoghurt maker bowl with soap and water, to ensure it is clean. Weird though........

[cookie1]

Could/would it have been because of the high overnight temperatures we've been having? I'm curious.