One of the things I’ve struggled with since changing over to a whole foods diet is the “convenience” factor. These days most families are on the go all the time and our family is no different. Our girls are grown now and it seems that the little bit of time I see them I am trying to get them to eat some sort of healthy snack as they’re heading out the door rather then being tempted to grab some fast food on the go. One of our favorites is homemade yogurt. I tried to figure out a way that everyone could grab something out of the fridge already made, quick and still have some nourishment as well. I stumbled across these small 8 oz. jam jars and got an idea. I could make the yogurt and actually culture them in these small jars with some headspace in the top! By doing it this way, each person can add a dollop of jam or fruit, stir and eat ON THE GO! Here is the easy recipe I use:
Ingredients:
1 gallon grass-fed whole fresh milk
2 Tablespoons unflavored gelatin
1 cup plain organic yogurt
1 cup sucanat sugar
Method:
Heat milk to 180 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to 130 degrees. Soak gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water. Add gelatin mixture, sugar and yogurt. Stir. Pour into jars quickly before it cools to much. Fill an ice chest with the hottest tap water you can and then submerge jars in the water. Be sure the water covers the neck of the jar. Let the cooler set undisturbed for 12 hours, then refrigerate. The jars will often seal which keeps the yogurt fresh. Top with a spoonful of jam or fresh fruit and enjoy!
does this temperature not just pasteurize the milk? Any recipes I’ve seen only called for temp to be brought to around one hundred degrees or so, which would not completely pasteurize and is desireable, and then put in an ice chest for twelve hours. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Heated up higher resulted in globby and grainy yogurt. I finally gave up for a lack of consistency.
I have always found this recipe to work perfectly for myself. Yes it will pasteurize it. One of the tricks to it not being to globby is to make sure your gelatin is dissolved really well before adding it to the milk. I hope this works for you!