Homemade Yogurt (Laban)
I remember as a child watching my Mom make homemade yogurt.
This is her making it when I visited Tennessee.
She had this awful orange colored yogurt maker that held 6 cups of yogurt and kept the Homemade Yogurt warm while it incubated. We would eat that stuff like it was candy.
If you are Lebanese you will probably know what I am talking about. We eat it with pita, kibbeh, grape leaves, for breakfast, mixed into a cucumber salad and list goes on. Yogurt is the “ketchup that you dip your fries in.” I can eat plain yogurt with nothing in it..actually I prefer my yogurt that way which a lot of people can’t stand (it can have a tart flavor).
Fast forward years later ..my Mom decided to give the orange yogurt maker to Goodwill. This brings us to 2012 and my one year old son. I try my hardest to keep the foods he eats healthy, wholesome and also try to eliminate as much processed stuff as I can (those ingredients you can’t pronounce). He loves yogurt but as I started buying it week after week the amount of sugar and other ingredients started to really bother me. The cost of buying the organic, no sugar yogurt seemed a little ridiculous when I can make my own Homemade Yogurt .
I remembered as a child all of that yogurt that my Mom made us in her kitchen. She knew exactly what she was putting in it and could control the fat, the ingredients and what fruit or sugar was in it. That’s it, I thought! The solution to my yogurt dilemma (yes, I know, some people may think that is a pretty lame dilemma…but controlling the sugar and weird ingredients is important to me!).
When I went home to visit my parents my Mom taught me how to make homemade yogurt the way that she has been making it for years. I found it surprisingly easy, not to mention you only need two ingredients–the starter and the milk.
You only need 2 ingredients (can’t beat that):
- 4 cups of 2 % or whole milk (We used 2%, skim milk creates a very thin yogurt with not as much flavor.)
- 3 tbsp. of plain yogurt or 3 tbsp. starter (We used Stonyfield’s plain low fat or regular yogurt. I do not recommend using non-fat yogurt as a starter as you want it to have some fat in it. Try to buy the freshest yogurt possible that have live and active cultures. Other brands that you could use are Dannon, Fage or whatever your preference is. See the tip section at the end if you would prefer to buy a starter instead of store bought yogurt.)
Other things you will need for making Homemade Yogurt:
- Thermometer
- Towels to keep container of yogurt warm
- Large container with lid
- Large pot
- Measuring cup
- Stirring spoon
Now that you have everything that you will need here’s how to make your own yogurt:
Pour 4 cups milk into pot and bring to just below a simmer, you will begin to see foam when it is close to being done. Make sure you are stirring constantly (set to medium high and it should take about 10-15 minutes to get to a simmer depending on your stove). You do not want it to boil- if it starts boiling remove immediately (it will scold the bottom of the pan and milk if left on too long).
Remove the heated milk from heat and let cool until the temperature drops to 120 degrees or when you can hold your finger in the milk to the count of 10 comfortably (you can use a thermometer like below).
This can take a good 40 minutes for the milk to cool or longer depending on the temperature of your house (you will begin to see a layer of foam forming).
Put the 3 tbsp. of the starter yogurt (Stonyfield in this case) into a mixing bowl. Mix several tablespoons of the warm milk with the starter yogurt and mix until a smooth paste. Add paste to the remainder of the warm milk and stir it in gently.
Pour the mixture into an enamel or porcelain bowl, cover with a lid or plate and wrap a towel (in summer) or blanket or two towels (in winter) around it and allow to stand in warm place for 4-12 hours hours or until set (we let it sit overnight, you will know if it is set because it will be firm on the top of the yogurt).
These are the towels cover the container with the yogurt..we used two towels and put it in the corner of the kitchen where we knew it would stay warm.
It turned out great and we had it alongside a traditional Lebanese meal of Kibbeh, pita and hummus.
Tips:
- When we made the Homemade Yogurt we did not have a starter so we used 3 tbsp. of Stonyfield plain yogurt. If you have a starter use that. Here is some I found online:
- http://www.culturesforhealth.com/starter-cultures/yogurt-starter.html
- http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/yogurt-starter
- The longer the yogurt sits the better it will taste (in our humble opinion). You can cover and let sit for 3-4 hours but we let it sit overnight. My Mom has also let the yogurt set (incubate) in the oven.
- Once you make your yogurt you can set a small amount aside in a container to use as a starter for your next batch of your yogurt and keep doing this with each batch.
- The taste of the yogurt will vary according to the age of the starter. If the starter was refrigerated for a week or more the yogurt will be tart. If the starter is fresh it will be sweeter.
Please email me with any questions or leave a comment below! I was very intimated the first time I made yogurt but it gets easier the more you make it.
Julia
Ok, I just made this. I put it in the ceramic container with lid at around 3 pm yesterday, wrapped in two blankets and let it sit over night. It’s now 9 am the following day and it’s still like milk ? Does it need to sit out longer or did I do something wrong? It’s Spring time here in MO and yesterday it was 65. I followed the directions to the letter! I’m so sad ??
So unfortunately yogurt can be tricky to make based on temperature, the ingredients you are using, ect. So here are a few questions- did you use skim milk or what milk did you use? Skim milk can sometimes cause thin yogurt. Also, what type of yogurt starter did you use? If you use non-fat yogurt that will create a thinner, less flavorful yogurt. Another question- did you pull the mixture off the stove right when it started to boil but you didn’t let it boil a lot? Then once you pull it off the stove you have to let it sit until it reaches 120 degrees. Let me know what your thoughts are on those things…sorry!!
Yes, I let it go till right before it was boiling. It frothed and started to rise to the top of the pot. That’s when I turned the gas off and let it start to cool down. Then checked the temp till it went down to 120. I used 2% milk and plain low fat yogurt. The store didn’t sell full fat plain yogurt in a small container. I’m going to try it again. Thoughts on putting it outside in the sun versus inside??
You did everything correct so I do not know why it wouldn’t have worked. We have never put it outside in the sun. I think as long it is inside the house with something covering it to keep it warm that should work. I am so sorry it didn’t work. When making it yogurt it can be tricky sometimes…
This time it worked but there is still a small amount of liquid on top. Does it need to sit longer or do you drain that off somehow? Thank you so much for all your help! There’s a Persian restaurant I love in STL called cafe Natasha. She makes her own yogurt and then adds garlic, lemon juice and saffron sprinkled on top. She sets it on top of olive oil and has cut up radishes and red onion on the side. You spread it on this super thin pita. Her’s has a little more thickness to it than this does, but is not as thick as Labneh, that’s why I’m not sure if this is right or not. This is the consistency of yogurt you’d eat from a cup. Is that how it’s supposed to be? Thank you so much for all your help!!!
Yes! This recipe isn’t like the thick labneh that I think you are talking about. This is more the thickness of the store bought plain yogurt you would buy. I would suggest just draining that water off the top or you can try stirring it to mix that water in but I think I would just drain it off. Glad it worked a bit better the second time. <3
I let mine sit over night but it did not set at all. Any fixing this ?!
It sounds like it did not get warm enough. Did you make sure to do this part: Pour the mixture into an enamel or porcelain bowl, cover with a lid or plate and wrap a towel (in summer) or blanket or two towels (in winter) around it and allow to stand in warm place for 4-12 hours hours or until set (we let it sit overnight, you will know if it is set because it will be firm on the top of the yogurt). It is important that it keeps warm to help it set.
If you did that here are some other ideas: Let it set for a few more hours-if after 12 hours your yogurt is still the consistency of milk, which means it wasn’t kept warm enough during the incubation, consider keeping it warmer next time. That would mean making sure you cover it with at least two towels and keep it in a corner of your kitchen that stays warm. Meanwhile, failed yogurt can be salvaged by re-heating it carefully over low heat back to 110 degrees and incubating it for the second time.