Making Yogurt

I keep getting on my soap box about health, but I am pretty fickle when it comes to passing up certain little yum yum's in life. While pondering a healthy alternative to rich desserts, I decided to get back to making yogurt; something I did for years and years, while raising my three sons.  They loved it, but usually because of all the fruit, honey, syrup, jam, or any other crap I'd put in.  Seems at the time it was a good way to get them to eat it by taking away that certain tangy flavor, which they hated.  Nowadays, we all know better than to load in all that toxic sugar and are constantly coming up with new ways to sweeten it up.  I personally, love it plain and slathered on a baked potato with chives and pepper.  However, if you need a sweet and yummy treat, make a ginger peach conserve to scoop over the top (recipe follows).

I came up with a fairly easy way to make yogurt "Greek" style and with a method which allows some flexibility in thickness and flavor.  It is made in the oven, and I use whole milk....you can ponder that and decide what you will use.  This recipe makes a little over one quart of the creamiest and most delicious yogurt you could ask for.

1 cup of plain Greek style yogurt (with live cultures and at room temp.)
4 cups milk.

Fill a saucepan with 1 1/2 inches of water and bring to a boil.  Set a large stainless bowl over the saucepan and fill it with the milk; do not let the bowl touch the water.  Turn the heat to low and gradually heat the milk to 180 degrees--whisk once in a while.  Keep the temp at 180 for 30 minutes, remove the bowl and let the milk cool to 106 degrees while stirring often.  Heat the oven to 110 degrees.  Whisk the yogurt with 1 cup of the warm milk until smooth, then add the mix back into the rest of the warm milk.  Whisk the warm milk mixture for 3 minutes and pour into clean jars within one inch of the rim.  I used two quart size mason jars.  Place the jars into the oven and  keep the oven temp between 105-110.  Begin checking the yogurt after 4 1/2 hours; it's ready when it is thick, tangy and surrounded by a small amount of whey.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled or overnight.

Line a large mesh colander with several layers of cheesecloth-or a moistened cotton cloth and set over a large bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 6 hours or until desired thickness.  Anyone know what can be done with the whey????  Bake bread????

Ginger Peach Conserve
In a saucepan, combine 2 T granulated sugar, (or truvia, etc.) 1/4 c orange juice and 6 T brown sugar (or not) with a pinch of salt and simmer for 5 minutes stirring.  Add 2 T finely grated ginger and 1/8 tsp cinnamon. Thicken with 1/2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tsp water and simmer until thickened.  Use a blender if you want a chunky sauce.  YUM!