I made yogurt! And it's actually good! The girls have mentioned a couple of times they wanted yogurt. Funny thing is, when I buy yogurt they either don't like it or it doesn't get eaten before the expiration date. I like plain yogurt, okay vanilla too, but I like to add stuff to it and the stuff you buy at the store is either too sweet, has too much old fruit in it, or it's too sour. So, I decided to do some research to see how I could make yogurt without a yogurt maker.
I finally decided to try this recipe. It was a very easy process -although I wanted to add some sugar and vanilla to the batch, I'm glad I didn't- and my son got to help. This morning when we opened the jar to have some it was the best plain yogurt I have ever had. Nothing in the stores compares. It is definitely one that we are going to keep. We are going to tweak it a bit next time, as I would like a thicker product. I made a half batch and I may have been off a bit in my measurements.
Next time I make it I will photograph the process and share the recipe with my tweaks.
Of course we made pancakes this last week and with homemade buttermilk too! I've raved of these pancakes before and now I'm going to share with you the recipe. I've shared before how much I enjoy Happy's recipe I make her recipe and the only exception is I've been using unbleached flour. I did discover with our homemade buttermilk I need to use a little bit more buttermilk (really just a couple of tablespoons)because of the thickness of the batter. It is a thick batter on its own but add in our buttermilk and it's almost a dough :)
Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes
Ingredients
3 cups buttermilk *homemade buttermilk recipe to follow
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups whole wheat flour *or in our case just flour
Mix all the liquid ingredients, beat for one minute on high. Mix in sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly mix in flour until batter is smooth but thick.
Cook on a hot (350 degree) buttered griddle.
Making your own buttermilk is incredibly easy, you just have to be patient. I could have sworn that I took pictures, but I can't find them. So, I will have to share those at a later time. The recipe, as mentioned, is so easy.Homemade buttermilk
3 cups milk
1 cup buttermilk starter (any buttermilk)
Pour it directly into a clean quart size jar, mix well. Put the lid on. Wrap it in a kitchen towel and place in a warm place, undisturbed for 24 hours. *I put mine in the oven with the light on overnight, but it was on the counter before that* After the 24 hrs is up, shake it up, and open to make sure it has thickened up and smells sweet. Perfect! Just put it in the fridge, it will thicken more once it's in the fridge. You've made buttermilk and now you can go enjoy your pancakes. If you save a cup of this buttermilk, you'll have a starter for next batch and you'll never run out of buttermilk and all the land will be happy because they can have pancakes and buttermilk whenever they want.
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yum! i've never made buttermilk before, always thought, well, i hardly use it, so why make it. but i'd use it once a week for pancakes! my lil girl loves her some pancakes!
ReplyDeletei have made yogurt dozens of times though, and i'm sorry to say, it never comes out very thick. they add pectin or carageenen to store yogurt to give it that extra thickness. if you find a recipe that works though, please share! i'd love to know a trick.
We make our yogurt too. The longer you let it incubate, the thicker it gets, but it also gets a stronger/more sour flavor when you incubate it longer. Adding 1/4 cup of dry milk for each quart of yogurt makes it thicker too.
ReplyDeleteI found a yogurt maker at goodwill and use it to do the incubating. There's a hundred ways to keep your yogurt warm while it sets. . . I just found it easiest to plug in the little appliance than to deal with hot water baths or coolers, or other things. I'll have to see if I ever posted my yogurt making method. . . I can't remember now.