Homemade Yogurt using an Instant Pot
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Ingredients:
1 gallon milk (2% or whole)
1/4 c. yogurt with live active cultures
1/2 - 1 c. sugar or other sweetener
2 t. Mexican vanilla
Supplies:
Instant Pot with a yogurt function
1. Pour milk into instant pot
2. Add lid and press yogurt button until it says boil. This process will take about an hour and the screen will display yogt when finished.
3. Insert the thermometer and use the saute function to bring the temperature of the milk to 185 degrees. This takes only 4-5 minutes.
4. Remove inner pot from the pressure cooker and let cool until temperature reaches 110 degrees. (This takes at least an hour, depending on the temperature of the room)
5. Mix in the yogurt.
6. Place the pot back into the instant pot, lock the lid in place and press the yogurt function button until it reads 8:00. The milk/yogurt mixture will now incubate for 8 hours.
7. Once the time is up, place the yogurt into the fridge for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
8. Strain the yogurt by placing it into a nut milk bag and hanging it above a bowl to catch the whey. Let the yogurt strain at least 1/2 hour or up to 12 hours. The amount of time you strain the yogurt determines how thick it becomes. I prefer between 3-4 hours for perfectly thick and creamy yogurt without it becoming "greek" yogurt.
9. Put the yogurt in a bowl and mix in the sugar and vanilla.
10. Store in air tight containers in the fridge.
11. Keep 1/4 c. yogurt to make your next batch!
Tips:
~When increasing the temperature to 185, it doesn't take very long in comparison to all the other steps. Be sure to stick around so your milk doesn't overflow.
~I find that often the bottom of the pot has a layer of yogurt that has curdled a bit. Because of this I don't scrape out all of the yogurt from the pot. I leave that little layer so that my yogurt is not lumpy.
~If you would like to use the yogurt for baking, no sweetener or flavorings are needed.
~Sugar can be replaced with honey, maple syrup, sweetened condensed milk, agave, or other sweeteners.
~ When adding the sweetener, begin with 1/2 c. Taste and add more, a tablespoon at a time, to reach the sweetness you like.