I have joined the ranks of those who love greek yogurt. The creaminess is divine. But the price...well, not so much.
I decided to look into making it at home. There is a good amount of information out there on the internet with some variations, but the basics seemed pretty consistent. Off to the store I went today to buy milk and a small container of plain greek yogurt.
Here is the recipe I followed. Homemade Greek Yogurt from Tasty Kitchen. I love Tasty Kitchen's website. Everything I have tried has come out amazing.
I did divert and use greek plain yogurt rather than regular yogurt for my starter. A few posts I found seemed to claim that it made for a creamier texture. Regardless it would work, so I went for the good stuff. I also chose to incubate the little cultures in a bowl set in my crockpot on warm rather than in the oven (in case the girls wanted to make cookies). This worked perfectly. We even left the house to go to a wedding reception and came home to yogurt.
It took about 5 hours to set up in the crockpot. I currently have it draining off the whey to take it up from regular yogurt to the high protein creamy yummyness.
I can't wait for breakfast in the morning!
Update...Through the night I over drained the yogurt and it made a cream cheese like constancy. When this happens, there are two things you can do...add a bit of the whey liquid back in (which makes it more tart) or add some milk. The whey is high in carbs as they drain out from the yogurt leaving the protein. I chose to add more milk in, more protein and even creamier texture. Win, win. I then scooped some out and added a bit of honey. Yummy! It is a bit chalky though. I'll have to research and revise. It might take adding some dry milk to the milk along with the yogurt start.
Another breakfast I really like uses the "extra drained" yogurt as cream cheese on a bagel. It's much better for you than cream cheese. My most favorite uses some "yogurt cheese"(protien, calcium, live cultures), sliced banana (potassium), and chopped nuts (healthy fats), all mixed up and piled on a toasted wheat bagel (fiber) sprinkled with flax seed (protien, fiber) and cinnamon (helps regulate blood sugar levels). This is another example of simple food, yummy, without the extras you don't need (fat, cream, etc.).
