Bonus Resolution Recipe Brought To You By Stress Baking (cont.)

[madbaker]

Not baking, but close enough: Instant Pot yogurt.
We bought a 1/2 gallon of good milk at the farmers' market the previous weekend. I have no idea why I put it on the list; perhaps I had a dessert in mind that I didn't end up making. Well, whatever. It needed to get used, so:

1/2 gallon whole milk
2 Tbsp live yogurt

Sterilize the liner with boiling water, to remove any traces of that chili you made last week. Discard the water and pour in the milk. Close the Pot, hit yogurt function, and adjust to "boil". When it is done, verify that the milk is 180 degrees. Leave it in the Pot for 5 minutes; this will help the yogurt thicken up a bit better.

Cool the milk to approximately 105-110 degrees, about an hour on the counter. Skim off the top layer of milk skin and whisk in the yogurt. Place the liner back in the pot and hit yogurt setting for 8 hours. Close and let it do its thing.

What worked: It was easy and tasted yogurt-y. Decent with granola. It was way too liquidy when I took it out, but thickened appreciably to regular yogurt texture overnight. I didn't want to take the time and effort to drain it to Greek yogurt thickness (which I like better).

What didn't: Not as much tang as I'd hoped. Really there's not much flavor to it (but that's plain yogurt for you).

Will I make it again? I don't tend to eat that much plain yogurt; once I've gone through this we'll see. (Breakfast was granola and yogurt.) Other recipes go for as long as 12 hours, so I might try letting it cook longer.

Comments

[loup_noir]

Tim makes yogurt every week for us, but our setup is a lot more primitive than an Instapot. The longer the yogurt sits in heat, the tarter/tangier it gets. He's taken my ancient Coleman cooler and turned it into a fermentation chamber. FWIW, we use one gallon of milk and a quart of half-and-half, plus the innoculant. We eat plain yogurt plus something most mornings for breakfast. My goal is to work our way through the huge stockpile of preserves before it's time to can again.

[madbaker]

I suspected that was the case, but it's good to have it confirmed. Thank you!