Greek Yogurt

Greek Yogurt

1/2 gallon milk (I use fat free)
2 cups instant dry milk powder
1 6-8 oz. container yogurt with active cultures 

• Thermometer
• Large, heavy, pot
• Bath towel and a dish towel
• Sifter
• cheese cloth or a old washed t-shirt (double rinsed) cut into squares.
• Bowl that will hold the strainer up. 

Place milk in pot and add dry milk powder. Stir well.

 Heat milk to 180 degrees, stirring as much as you can to prevent burning. 

Fill sink with ice cold water and place pot inside sink, to Cool down to 110-115 degrees. Add yogurt and stir well (If you add the yogurt while it is above 115 you will kill the healthy bacteria that is in the yogurt and it will not set up). Preheat oven to 100-115 or turn on the oven for 30 sec then turn off. 

 Wrap lid in dish towel, placing it on the pot. Wrap the whole pot in the bath towel and place it in the oven (oven turned off and door shut with the light on)

Yogurt will be "done" in 4-6 hours you can leave it longer but it will make it more tart.

At this time I usually refrigerate the yogurt until it is firm. (I feel like you don't loose as much yogurt when you strain it. If you want just plain yogurt you can flavor it and eat it now)

Place your strainer in the bowl making sure the bottom of the strainer is not hitting the bottom. Line the strainer with cheese cloth or shirt and dump in half your yogurt (or all of it if you have a large strainer.) Fold the hanging flaps over the yogurt so the yogurt is covered. Place it in the fridge for 6 hr, periodically draining out the whey in the bottom of the bowl.

dump the strained yogurt into a airtight container. If the yogurt is too thick add back some of the whey that is in the bottom of the bowl.

Serve plain with any kind of jam, frozen blueberries, granola, honey, sugar and/or vanilla.