I won a yogurt maker about a year ago on a blog giveaway. It wasn’t until just the other day that I finally tried to use it. I had thrown away the directions (oops!) but found them online, thankfully. The directions were fairly straight forward, but I was annoyed to find out I had to purchase dried starter cultures separately. Sorry, but no thanks. They did provide the option of using store-bought yogurt for a starter culture, even though it was pretty clear they did not recommend this. Despite the company’s recommendations, I used store-bought yogurt as my starter culture….
I used unsweetened almond milk but right before I turned on the yogurt maker I started thinking…“what are the cultures going to use as food? There is no added sugar or lactose in this milk….”
I ignored my thoughts and pushed “start”. Within one hour there was proof of heat and condensation on the lid.
12 hours later I opened the lid, very excited to try my yogurt.
Don’t be fooled. This spoonful may look appetizing, but it tasted like curdled milk (which, it was!).
My yogurt making experiment was a failure. As you can see the only “yogurt” was at the top of the glass jars. The rest was just all the water from my almond milk. Gross.
Well, at least my refrigerator is at the proper temperature….
I scrapped out all the yogurt and it made a total of about 6 ounces. I saved it for about 3 days, thinking maybe I would eat it in a smoothie, but that never happened. I went back to read the directions and realized almond milk was indeed listed as an option, but not unsweetened almond milk. I should have listened to…myself.
I think I spend enough time in the kitchen making things from scratch; ice cream, popsicles, granola, granola bars…you get the idea. I really never had the desire to make my own yogurt, therefore I’m sticking to my favorite store-bought brand.
At least I know it’s the good stuff, with live and active cultures, and a nutrition profile that’s hard to beat!
Want to try making your own yogurt at home? I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. It sounded simple enough, but I’ll leave it up to you to make it. Yogurt making is not for me!
QUESTION: Have you ever attempted to make yogurt? Have you ever been successful?
