South 35th: Homemade Greek Yogurt Recipe

I admit it, I have jumped on the Greek yogurt bandwagon. It is low in carbs, delicious, full of good for you cultures....and expensive. I found myself going through a $5.00 container every 2-3 days and had to finally admit that I had a problem.

Only I didn't want to give up my daily fix! So, I decided to try and make my own.

I am quite happy to report that the results were quite delicious :).

Ingredients/Supplies:

1/2 gallon of 1% or higher milk
2-3 Tbsp of yogurt with active live cultures
kitchen thermometer
blanket/large towel
oven with a light/thermos
heavy bottomed pan or double boiler
mixing spoon
glass or ceramic bowl
coffee filters/cheesecloth
2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream of buttermilk

Pour entire 1/2 gallon of milk into heavy saucepan or double boiler with the heat turned to medium. Stir occasionally until the thermometer reads 180 degrees, then remove immediately from heat.Transfer your heated milk to a glass or ceramic bowl and set out on a counter until it reaches 105-110 degrees. Make sure to leave this uncovered so as to not inhibit the healthy bacteria.

When the milk has cooled, turn on your oven light to warm the oven. Mix together the 2-3 Tbsp of yogurt with the heavy cream/buttermilk until smooth.

Add the yogurt mix to the milk and stir well to combine.

Wrap the bowl in a blanket or towel and place inside the over for 7-8 hours. Make sure that no part of the cloth touches the light bulb.

Take off the cloth and voila, you have yogurt! You can stop here if you wish, but in order to make Greek yogurt follow these additional steps:

Remove the yogurt mix and place a strainer on top of a bowl. Line the strainer with coffee filters or cheesecloth.

Pour yogurt mix into strainer and place in the refrigerator for a hour. Drain whey from bottom of bowl. Return to refrigerator for another hour and again pour out the whey.