Homemade Yoghurt

The ordinary yoghurt we bought in the supermarket in Harbin was superior to the yoghurt we get here. So I decided to see if homemade yoghurt can replicate the effect.

To do this, need some yoghurt with live culture (you are going to provide the medium to grow the bacteria). You are supposed to start off with store bought yoghurt, but once you make your yoghurt, you can use that as a starter. 1 portion by weight of live culture yoghurt can be used to 20 portions of milk to make yoghurt.

Basic model
1. 25g of yoghurt with live culture. 500g of milk.
2. Bring the milk to a 82C temp in a pot. Stir the milk to make sure its the same temp throughout.
3. Let it cool till about 43C.
4. Spoon some of the cooled milk out to the yoghurt and break up the yoghurt with a spoon.
5. Pour the yoghurt/milk mixture back into the main body of milk. Mix it.
6. Heat the mixture to 42C for 7 hours.
7. Refridgerate to let it set. 24 hours seems to be better.

Result: the texture is good and creamy. But slightly acidic to my taste. I added about 3-4 tablespoons of honey and mixed it in. Tastes pretty good for a first try. 

Good for breakfast with fruit and spelt cake. But also good with toasted pine nuts in a shot glass, as a after dinner dessert.

Seems to me this can go 2 ways going forward. I can experiment with adding in the additional ingredients in the beginning. And I can experiment with adding heavy cream, for the fat. Also, there's a possibility of turning this into an ice cream.

In a shot glass with toasted pine nuts on top. The pine nuts lend texture, and a long finish at the back of the tongue

The break in the surface is due to me testing its texture before I took the pic.

Not all yohurt comes with this. Also apparently the more types of bacteria the better for the starter.