Well, my webhost did a data transfer yesterday and when it was done, my data was 4-6 hours old. Thus I have to rewrite this article again.
Okay, you might think I am overdoing it but well…..maybe. I do that pretty often. Anyhow I am here yet again to make another batch of homemade yogurt using the Easiyo Real Yogurt Maker set. But this time, instead of the Easiyo sachet of yogurt base and live culture, I will be using the Fernleaf milk powder I purchased the other day. The Easiyo yogurt base is actual powdered milk anyways. The only difference is that they have added freezed dried yogurt cultures (and flavours or sugar) to the mix. Due to the fact that I don’t have freezed dried yogurt cultures, I will be using my previous batch of yogurt. The live cultures in the previous batch of yogurt will help convert the milk to yogurt. Pretty cool isn’t it? You merely use your previous batch of yogurt to make more yogurt! All you need is about 2 tablespoon of the previous batch of yogurt to make about 1kg of fresh yogurt. They grow, multiply and thrive on milk sugar.
The most important part of all this is to find the correct milk powder to use and the correct amount. If the milk powder contains certain types of additives like preservatives, then it may not work. And nowadays, the milk powder we find in the stores seemed to contain a lot of other ingredients. The reason why I am using Fernleaf Family Milk Powder is because it is the cheapest I can find. And in Singapore, we don’t have much choices here.
The ingredients to make homemade delicious yogurt. The yogurt container (or jar), the flask for keeping the jar in the correct temperature range, the Fernlead Familk Milk Powder and my previous batch of yogurt. If you are attempting to make homemade yogurt this way, you can get plain store bought yogurt. Just make sure you get one that is the freshest and comes with live and active cultures.
The photo above shows me pouring the milk powder into the jar. Not difficult.
Well, I have poured about 200g of milk powder into the yogurt jar. On the left, you can see that I left a piece of the Fernleaf foil corner which I had cut off on the floor.
Since I don’t have a weighting machine, I have to guess the level which I will be pouring the milk powder to. If you remember, the previous batch of Sweet Greek Easiyo Yogurt base, I poured to the 500ml mark. So I guess for this batch, if I poured to the same level, I should get to approximate the same amount of milk powder. Hey, yogurt making is supposed to be fun and if that doesn’t involve some trial and error, then it won’t be fun. I also enjoy experimenting. If you get it wrong, then try again later.
Pour water into the yogurt, cover the container tightly and shake the hell out of it. You will have to ensure that the milk powder is completely dissolved into the water. I found that the Fernleaf Milk Powder is rather difficult to dissolve in cool water. Perhaps next time, I will use some hot water instead. Of course, if you use hot water, you should let it cool down first before adding the live yogurt to the mix.
From the photo above, you can see that the milk level has dropped quite significantly (to the 670ml mark). Perhaps the reason is that the Fernleaf Powdered Milk is a bit too loose and thus when pouring, it fills up more than the Easiyo Base? If so, does it mean that I will need to add more Powdered milk? No idea. Will have to see the results of the yogurt first.
Okay, top up with more water and fill it to the top of the yogurt container.
That’s my previous batch of yogurt. It is Sweet Greek Yogurt. It is better to use plain yogurt but I didn’t have any at hand and the sweetness in this Sweet Greek seemed very weak. I really doubt that 2 tablespoon of this yogurt will affect the taste very much.
That’s me adding the yogurt to the milk. After you have added two tablespoon of yogurt, gently stir the yogurt to mix it in. After that you should do as in the instructions in the Easiyo manual. If you are interested, please take a look at the step by step guide on making yogurt with the Easiyo Yogurt Maker.
I will update you guys on the result once it is done.
Update 24/11/2008: Well, I am not sure what to say about the result. Yes, it became yogurt but somehow something went wrong somewhere. First of all, the final product tastes like yogurt, smells like yogurt and looks like yogurt. However, there is a thick layer of very thick yogurt (like soft creamy cheese) on the top and a thick layer of whey on the bottom of the yogurt container after 12 hours. I had forgotten to take a photo of it because I was just so surprised to see the result.
So I guess there are two possibilities. One is that the milk powder was not completely dissolved into the water. Perhaps the water is just too cold to dissolve the milk powder completely. Hence we get a layer of thick yogurt on top and the whey on the bottom? Or perhaps the yogurt is lighter than whey and it floats on the whey itself?
Another possibility is that I did not mix the yogurt into the milk properly. The yogurt cultures are all on the top and that’s why yogurt is formed only at the top and nothing at the bottom?
Anyway, I managed to stir and mix the yogurt with the whey and it looks just like regular yogurt we see in the stores. However, the yogurt tastes a bit too tart and sour. I have tasted plain yogurt before, but never so sour.
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