Homemade Yoghurt

For a long time on this diet we didn't think we could have yoghurt because most of the varieties the supermarkets sell are too high in carbs, mostly because they're focused at low fat so increase the sugar. But recently we thought about it and decided to try making our own so we knew exactly what was in it and could control this. We already had a yoghurt maker so we dug that out and started using it. As a side note our yoghurt maker is just the basic one from Lakeland and is just designed to hold the yoghurt at around 40-47oC so it can ferment. 

Yoghurt Maker from Lakeland

We had a few failed attempts with the yoghurt and couldn't really work out what was going wrong. We started off using fresh whole milk with a new starter culture and we were finding that the culture was splitting and curdling, almost like it was getting too hot. We did get one mixture to work and we worked out we were leaving it too long and the milk was getting over hot. 

Previously when we made yoghurt we used UHT milk so we decided to give this a go and see how successful it was. Turns out this is the key to the yoghurt and it has worked every time since. We also add a spoonful of dried milk powder to make our milk slightly thicker. At the moment this is skimmed as that's all the supermarket had but we intend on upgrading this to whole when we need more. 

Once the milk is finished we also strain it through a cheese cloth for a couple of hours, it doesn't take long, to remove the whey and make the mixture thicker. I actually prefer the yoghurt this way as it's thicker and creamer but it also had the bonus of removing more carbs from the yoghurt in the whey. 

Recipe

1 litre UHT Whole Milk

1 tbsp Dried Milk Powder

1 tbsp of live yoghurt. we used a starter sachet the first time which we purchased from Amazon but now we use a tbsp of the previous yoghurt. You can just purchase any natural live bio yoghurt from the supermarket and use this as a starter as well. 

Put all the ingredients in the yoghurt maker and mix well. Leave it for at least 8 hours, we tend to leave ours overnight so it gets closer to 10. The longer you leave it the tarter the flavour but also the fewer carbs in the yoghurt. It's generally accepted that this has reached it's end by around 12 hours. 

Once the yoghurt is completed we put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to stop the fermentation. Then I strain it using a cheese cloth over a sieve. The yoghurt will last in the fridge for up to a week, if you haven't eaten it by then. The fresher the yoghurt the better it'll be as a starter for the next mixture. You can freeze the yoghurt you need for next time and then use this when you want another batch. We haven't personally tried this becasue we are making yoghurt regularly enough at the moment for it not to be an issue. 

There isn't really clear information about how much carbs are in yoghurt, especially homemade because of the way it is made. The bacteria that turn milk into yoghurt feed on the lactose in the milk, lactose is the source of carbs. The longer the bacteria is active the more lactose it uses and therefore the fewer the carbs. It is estimated that the maximum amount of carbs remaining is 70% of the total but in the case of homemade yoghurt it is estimated to be much lower. Also, as I stated earlier, the whey contains carbs that we have strained off, but again we don't know precisely how much. So if you start with 4.7g per 100ml (which is what our milk carton states) you will have reduced this to at least 3g in the fermentation (probably much more) and also the straining. So the resulting yoghurt is low carb, just don't have too much of it!!! 

I hope you have fun making yoghurt and enjoy it as much as I do. I keep having a little mouthful each time I go in the fridge at the moment, not ideal!!