Yet Another Yogurt Making Adventure!
1253 days agoAlright, here is yet another pictorial on my yogurt making adventure. Just like my beer brewing adventure, if you guys had been following this blog (which means you are pretty free), it is going to be just same old same old. But from what I know, it is still very interesting for some. So for those who appreciates yogurt making, please continue reading. For those who don’t think that it is interesting, I understand, please endure for I have become one with the yogurt. That means I am sour.
Okay, today we are going to make Banana flavoured yogurt. The Easiyo sachet I bought just last weekend and I have finished my peach flavoured yogurt already. Easiyo yogurt making is really addictive and of course, most of the flavoures are quite nice. There are some exceptions like Mango and Nectrine. The Mango flavoured yogurt tastes like the cheap mango sweets you get from your downstairs convenience store which the Nectrine smells like 2 day old Papaya. Not too say that they are really really bad but it is indeed off-putting when eating homemade yogurt. I would recommend you against getting these two flavours. But the rest like raspberry (I tasted this from the Phoon Huat lady who made her own yogurt), Boysenberry, Peach and Sweet Greek, they are great. I just love the semi-sweet and delicious peach flavoured yogurt. If only the Easiyo sachets are cheaper, I would be making even more yogurt. But with the economy going down, I guess I will have to cut down on sachets and buy my own milk to make yogurt.
Now, let’s begin the yogurt making adventure!
The stuff you need to make the yogurt. The yogurt container and lid, the heating flask, baffle and cover, the sanitizer (Iodophor) and finally the Easiyo Yogurt Sachet (Banana flavoured!). The Iodophor is optional as it is normally used in beer brewing the sanitize the equipment, killing all the bacteria present.
Please note that this is a clean yogurt container. But even with it looks clean, there might be some bacteria present and when making yogurt or any fermented product, you will need to ensure that there is as few bacteria competing against the yogurt cultures as possible. You can do this by applying sanitizers on the container.
After I have poured some water into the container, I add the sanitizer(Iodophor) to the water. Just one or two drops should be enough, do not pour too much. And once the container is covered and shaked to cover the entire interior of the yogurt container with the diluted Iodophor, please it for 2 minutes for the sanitizer to do it’s work. After the 2 minutes is up, pour away the diluted Iodophor and quickly rinse the container with water. This is to make sure that very little sanitizer remains on the container. As there are live cultures in the yogurt base, you don’t want to kill them with the sanitizer.
The picture of the IO Star Iodophor sanitizer I bought from iBrew Marketing. They supply beer brewing ingredients. Beer brewing is a bit like making yogurt, you will need to let the cultures ferment. Beer brewing requires the fermentation of malt by beer yeast.
Okay, this is a picture of me cutting the Easiyo Sachet. Pretty interesting, no?
This is a picture of me pouring the contents of the Easiyo sachet into the yogurt container. You should make sure that you pour every ounce of powder into the container. Don’t waste. Wasting is not good.
Okay, after I have poured the contents of the Easiyo sachet into the container, I top up with water and cover tightly. The next step would require vigourous shaking of the yogurt container to dissolve all the milk powder. Check that all the milk powder have been dissolved before opening the yogurt container. You can see that the milk level has dropped and you will need to top up with even more water to the level indicated on the Easiyo Yogurt container.
There, make sure it is re-filled to the top after shaking the yogurt container like mad.
Now, let’s put the baffle into the heating flask and pour some boiling water into the flask. You will need to get the water level to that of the red baffle top. If you are living in Singapore, I would recommend NOT to fill it to the top but about 1cm below. Our weather is warm unlike those in New Zealand, so you should be fine. In fact for all my yogurt I made, I didn’t fill the flask to the top of the Baffle and they turn out fine. Well, at least I am still alive right now after eating so much homemade yogurt. lol
Now, let’s put the yogurt container into the flask and ensure that the container rests firmly on the baffle. You are almost done. Two more steps to go.
Now it is time to cover the flask. This is to prevent heat from escaping. As you know, yogurt cultures need a certain temperature for them to convert the lactose (milk sugar) present in the milk to lactic acid and this will form curds and whey (yogurt). Let the flask rest for 12-16 hours in a corner of your house.
Well, that took about 15 minutes tops? Was that easy? Making yogurt is probably one of the easiest thing I ever done, except for making Kefir. Man, that was even easier since Kefir ferments at room temperature!
