Yogurt

OK, here is the deal. In Sandpoint I pay anywhere from $.50 to $.78 for a cup of yogurt and that's for the store brand. So like a lot of you yogurt has been taken off the shopping list. In one of our food storage classes they introduced homemade yogurt. The woman doing the class does hers in a thermos, others talked about doing it in the oven. I tried and failed. So I went and for $25 bought this little Deni yogurt maker. To make six containers it takes one quart of reconstituted non-fat dry milk, 2 TBS. of yogurt and whatever sugar or flavorings you want. You either have to get a live culture start from someone else or buy a small container of active, organic yogurt from the store. The directions are pretty clear that come with the yogurt maker although they say to use 4 TBS of starter and to cook in ten hours, a book I got from the library say to use 2 TBS starter and cook it from five hours up depending on how sour you like. I cook mine eight. Before you cook the milk it definitely tastes like powdered milk, but after.... The directions call for you to cook the milk and then cool it to between a 100 and 110 degrees before adding you culture. I just use hot water from the sink and test the temperature with my kitchen thermometer. The whole process takes me about five minutes from start to being done with cleanup. Whoopee!!!! This is great yogurt. The texture is great, and the flavor is all you could ask for, it beats the store bought expensive and store brands by a mile. We are lucky to have lots of frozen blackberries, raspberries and huckleberries from the farm to add. Nelson is also know to add a little jam to his. The other good news. It cost about 12 cents a serving, to me that is a significant savings, and it finally gives me a reason to put dry milk in my food storage.