Homemade Probiotics (36 hour Greek Yogurt)
This is less a yogurt recipe, and more a vehicle for bacteria.
Bacteria are living, breathing creatures with a mind of their own. The longer the yogurt ferments, the longer the culture has time to multiply, making more bacteria eating up almost all the lactose (and natural sugars) in the milk. I love the super high fat yogurts (18%+) made with organic half and half.
I found this long fermented yogurt starter with its special bacteria. If believe the hype, it can do crazy things like help you grow muscles much faster, smooth out skin wrinkles, increase libido and speed up healing. Sounds like magic. I’ll have to get back to you on the specifics in a couple weeks.
But even if it’s just a nice, thick fatty yogurt, I’m a happy lady. Those low fat yogurts in the store need some kind of additives and stabilizers to make them thick enough to be palatable, or its whey is drained out. Either way, i like being able to do my own thing.
1 quart of organic half-and-half (or cream, whole milk, canned coconut milk (need to add 1Tbs sugar to prebiotic w cocos), goat’s milk/cream, sheep’s milk/cream)
2 tablespoons inulin (or unmodified potato starch or other prebiotic)
10 tablets of BioGaia Gastrus, crushed
How to Make Instant Pot Yogurt:
To sanitize, place 1 cup water in the inner pot, place the lid on and set the valve to Sealing. Select PRESSURE COOK, check it is on High and set to 5 minutes. Discard the water.
Pour the milk into the clean Inner Pot and put the lid back on. (Use a separate clean liner or no liner at all bc used ones hold a smell that gets into your yogurt)
Heat Milk to 180°F. Using the Insta pot, close lid (venting knob position doesn’t matter). Use the Yogurt function to boil the milk to at least 180°F. It will say “boil” on the screen. It will take roughly 35 – 40 minutes. The Instant Pot screen will change to “yogt” when the boiling is done. Stir milk and check again that reached over 180F. If needs more heat, close back up and slow cook another 15 min.
Cool Milk to 100°F
Add Yogurt Starter and 2 Tbs insulin to Milk
In a large glass/ceramic bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of warm milk with the inulin, sugar or other prebiotic, and the crushed probiotic tablets. (We start by making a slurry, as inulin or potato starch will form hard clumps if just throw it all in.)
Mix and make sure everything is dissolved. Then add the remaining liquid and stir.
Keep the mixture at 100 degrees F 36 hours.
Strain Yogurt in fridge overnight or 4 hours min.
Makes around 8 one-half-cup servings
Make sure your instapot has the ability to within the 95-105°F range, and can stay there for 36 hours. You can do a test batch with water just to be sure.
Heat the milk to 180 degrees, then let it cool to 100 degrees. Hold the dairy+inulin, whisk at above 180°F for 10 minutes, then cool in a water bath to 105. (needed for raw milk, and makes the yogurt smoother). Then its about time to add the starter and move to the instapot.
If using raw milk, we HAVE to heat the milk first, bc we want the specific bacteria to be the only microbes growing, esp with such a long ferment (3 days!).
This step is optional with pasteurized milk, but you still need to heat to 100 before incubating.
I like to pasteurize every time, everything but the starter (which dies above 100 degrees)
If using frozen saved starter, that adds more time. Treat it as a 52 hour process.
Check for fermentation (thickening) after 12-16 hours with a thermometer. WHile you have yogurt, you want to leave it the full time. Some people just put the 100 batch in the oven, and turn the oven on to 300 degrees for 60 seconds, then turn off, every 4 hours or so. (At night, heat before bedtime, then again when you awake—no need to get up in the middle of the night.) Hopefully your insta can work. anything over 115F kills the bacteria we want.
Eat 1/2 c every day!!
A simple overview of making yogurt in the Instant Pot:
Ingredients
1.5 litres whole milk (6 cups, or 1.5 quarts)
2 tbsp Greek/natural/live yogurt* rounded
Essential equipment
An Instant Pot
A reliable thermometer
A whisk
A small bowl
A large sieve lined with kitchen roll or muslin OR a "nut milk bag" cheesecloth
A jam funnel is helpful for neat portioning into small glass yogurt pots
Glass jars which can be sterilised to store the yogurt in
Instructions
2 tablespoons prebiotic fiber (inulin), added every time
Starter: Either 10 tablets BioGaia Gastrus or 2 tablespoons previous batch of L. reuteriyogurt
1 quart of organic half and half (18% fat), or whole milk (notes for coconut milk, below, kind of lengthy)
Some method of maintaining at 100 degrees F
Pour the milk into the clean Inner Pot and put the lid back on. Press YOGURT. Press ADJUST and the display will show "BOIL". This cycle takes about 25-30 minutes.
When complete, remove the lid and whisk the milk and check the temperature, looking for 83ËšC minimum. If not there yet, repeat this cycle once or even twice more. Press Cancel. Note - it does not matter if the vent is open or closed in yogurt making.
When the milk is at 83ËšC, remove the Inner Pot carefully and place in a sink filled with a few inches of cold water in to cool the milk down quickly. Whisk frequently, cool to 43ËšC. Discard any skin** and take the pot out of the sink, drying the outside off completely.
Take out a ladleful of the hot milk and in a small bowl, whisk in the yogurt starter until smooth then pour it into the hot milk and replace in the base of the IP. Replace the lid. It does not matter if the vent is open or closed in yogurt making.
Press YOGURT. The display should read "8:00". Adjust using the ADJUST button to "10:00" if using store bought yogurt. Since I am using a special probiotic, the instructions are to go max 100 degrees, and cook for 36 hours (3 days!!) The IP should hold the yogurt right around 100 F, and will count up from 0 and the alarm will sound when it is finished.
When the incubation phase is complete, cool the yogurt at room temp for about half an hour before covering the pot and transferring to the fridge to chill fully. This may take 6-8 hours. Sterilise your jars by washing in hot soapy water, rinsing and drying in an oven at 100ËšC or run them through a dishwasher on high. Do not touch the insides with your finger once sterile to prevent contamination.
Set a large sieve lined with several pieces of kitchen roll over a large bowl (my KitchenAid glass bowl is a perfect size for the job) and scrape all the yogurt into the sieve. Press 2-3 more pieces of kitchen roll to the surface of the yogurt and return to the fridge to strain for at least 2 hours for a good and thick yogurt. This can be done with a nut milk bag if you have such a thing too!
If adding any flavouring or sweetening agent, such as vanilla, honey or maple syrup do it now then spoon into your jars and seal the lids tightly.
Don't forget to save a couple of tablespoon's worth of plain yogurt for the next batch.
Recipe Notes
*= to begin with, you will need to buy a yogurt to start off your own. Once you have made a batch, reserve a couple of spoonfuls to use as your "starter" for the next batch. Freeze in ice cube trays if not using immediately - homemade yogurt will however keep for up to 2 weeks in sterilised jars in the fridge. If you have yogurt regularly, you won't need to freeze as you can start preparing a new batch the day before it runs out.
**= if a skin forms, the yogurt will be "bitty" so do remove it before incubation.
*The silicone ring in the lid of the liquid pot tends to retain the flavors/aromas of what you have cooked in there. If this is the case for yours, you can either order replacement rings to have a designated one for desserts/yogurt, or just use the lid of a different pot or even just a plate while making your yogurt.
*I strain my yogurt for 1-4 hours to get that super thick and creamy greek yogurt consistency. I’ve been saving the liquid (whey) which is full of protein and nutrients, to add to our smoothies!
Coconut Milk Notes:
And i do want to learn the coconut yogurt method as well. Notes on that below. Seems a little tricker, so i may make this one completely separate and taste the difference. I like the idea of fully diary free.
If you use coconut milk, you will need to add sugar, e.g., one tablespoon, to the prebiotic or use more sugar in place of the prebiotic, as there is no lactose to ferment in coconut milk. You will also need to preheat the coconut milk in a saucepan to 180 degrees F; add 3 tablespoons powdered gelatin and stir until dissolved; cool to 100 degrees F, then use a stick blender for 30-40 seconds to emulsify the oil; add crushed tablets or two tablespoons of a prior batch.
L. Reuteri coconut milk yogurt:
Heat 1qt coconut milk (cans by Native Forest) to 180deg
Let cool but not all the way. While still warm, add 2T beef gelatin, and blend with a stick blender.
Cool to 110deg
Add 2-3 T yogurt from previous batch), OR for first batch use crushed BioGaia tablets- x10
Add 2 heaping tablespoons inulin
Ferment in sous vide at 97deg for 42+ hours (longer than dairy, 36h)
Daphne specific Coconut Notes:
Ingredients:
2.5 liters Aroy-D coconut cream in tetra pack
1 T. inulin
2 to 4 T. tapioca starch or unmodified potato starch
21 grams of gelatin or 3 envelopes of Knox unflavored gelatin
150 grams Coconut Milk Powder (Z Natural Foods brand or Native Forest) from Amazon
2 T. maple syrup
10 BioGaia Gastrus tablets or 1/2 C starter reserved from previous batch or some of both!
OK, after 3 months of making this yogurt I have a better method figured out and it is much easier and faster (except for the incubation time)!
You will need a stick blender or a regular blender to completely homogenize the coconut milk powder, starch, inulin and gelatin into the liquid coconut milk. This recipe is tailored to the amount that 2 adults and 3 dogs can consume in a week or slightly less. Feel free to reduce or increase ingredients as you wish. I initially experimented with canned coconut milk. It didn’t taste like the yummy coconut yogurt I could buy at the store - Coyo brand. So I found Aroy-D tetra pack coconut milk and didn’t look back <smile>. I highly recommend you try it too. It does NOT separate in the carton so when you pour it into your yogurt making pot it is creamy and homogenized - and doesn’t taste like a can.
I use brown glass wide mouth quart Mason jars during incubation and after for refrigeration. A long time ago I read that light can destroy some of the B-vitamins, thus the dark colored jars to protect those microscopic, energetic B-vitamin making L-reuteri bacilli that thrive at 100 to 118 degrees F.
Get out your yogurt making pot. Mine is a Faber ware 4 quart stock pot. Pour the Aroy-D coconut cream into the pot.
Sprinkle the gelatin over the top to soften while you open/weigh the powdered coconut milk and get out the inulin, tapioca or potato starch and maple syrup or whatever "sugar" you are going to add, as per Dr. Davis. Recall that there is no milk sugar or lactose in coconut milk, so you need to provide some sort of sugar for the L-reuteri to consume. I assume that the tapioca or potato starch and inulin also serve this purpose. I have made this recipe without inulin, btw.
Now put the inulin, tapioca or potato starch, maple syrup, and coconut milk powder into your pot on top of the other 2 ingredients (coconut cream and gelatin) and stick blend to homogenize. If you have a blender, you can use it.
Key thing here is the get your ingredients well mixed. No lumps please. (The coconut milk powder is always lumpy when it is added, but it quickly dissolves as it is blended.)
Turn on the heat under the pot and bring to 120 F while stirring. Check with your probe thermometer while stirring.
The gelatin and other powders will dissolve and you should be looking at smooth creamy liquid. Turn off the heat and stir to cool to about 108. Inoculate with starter and stick blend again to insure that you have a homogenous mixture. Remember it is possible to kill the starter if you do not carefully monitor the temperature before you add it.
Pour into your glass culturing jars and cap. I use BPA free plastic lids. I also leave about an inch of room in the top of each jar. The quantity in this recipe will fill 3 quart jars and one pint jar. Or you can fill 4 quart jars about 3/4 full.
Incubate for 30 hours (or your preferred length of time). The last time I made this, I put it in my ice chest with seed starter mat in bottom (an $18.00 purchase on Amazon) at about 9AM and took the jars out at 3PM the next day. When you remove the jars from the incubator the yogurt will have separated. Let the jars sit on your counter for about an hour to come to room temperature. Then before you refrigerate, open each jar and gently stir the contents with a spoon or spatula that can reach all the way to the bottom of the jar. The contents of the jar will be thin and bubbly - especially just after you take it out of the incubator. Again, cool to room temp, open and stir gently and then refrigerate until completely cool. The morning after I put these jars into the frig, I opened one of them and turned it upside down. The yogurt did NOT come out. It had not re-separated. The evening before when I tested, the yogurt was still not quite as thick as it had become the next morning. This yogurt is ready to eat right out of the jar. The yogurt I was making by cooking to 180 F (if you read my previous recipe) was rock solid in the jar and had to be pried out to be stick blended.
I realized that the tetrapack coconut cream had been flash heated to preserve it before the package was closed. Also, the other ingredients are sterile or sterile enough so that it is not necessary to cook the base to such a high temperature. Sorry it took me 3 months to experiment and figure this out. Hope you guys will give this recipe a shot.
