Yogurt

I stopped buying yogurt (unless it's free or almost free through couponing of course) once I figured out how to make it on my own a couple months ago. It's super easy, uses my powdered milk from my food storage, and can be a substitute for sour cream and even cream cheese depending on how thick you make it.

Yogurt:

7 1/2 c hot water
2 c dry powdered milk (non-instant)
6 oz store bought PLAIN yogurt as a starter (I used the Yoplait Greek kind and you could probably use 4 oz. instead of 6 oz. and be just fine as long as it says it has "live and active cultures" in it)

Mix your powdered milk into warm / hot water in a glass container that will be used as your incubating container. Spray a large (at least 3 Qt) sauce pan with non-stick spray and pour in the warm milk. Stir the milk often as you heat it up to atleast 180 degrees Ferenheit (mine gets around 200 or so) making sure not to scald it and hold this temp for about 2 - 5 min. This kills all the bad bacteria you don't want growing in your yogurt and keeps the yogurt from turning all liquidy again when you stir it after it's set up.

Clean out the glass container and pour the heated milk back into it to let the milk cool to 110 degrees Ferenheit. Don't cheat because if the milk is too hot it will kill the good bacteria in the yogurt and it will never set up. Pull off a cup or so of the warm milk and mix the starter yogurt into it. Pour everything back together and give it a good stir.

Let the yogurt thicken by sitting in an undisturbed, warm place for 6 - 8 hours (overnight worked great for me). I warmed my oven up to the lowest setting it had (as low as 100 degrees Ferenheit will work) and then TURNED IT OFF. I wrapped my 2 quart glass jar in a thick towel, turned on the light in my oven, and let it sit over night in the warm oven and it was nice and thick the next morning. You can also let it sit on a heating pad all wrapped up in a towel or put it in a cooler with hot water bottles. One girl even used her solar oven to keep it warm. Just do what works for you.

After it has set, let it cool in the fridge and then mix in any jam or fruit when you serve it and even top with granola if you'd like. Eat within about a week. You can use a store bought yogurt as your starter every time if you’d like, but it is possible to just use about a ½ cup from your last batch to start the next batch for a few batches in a row until it becomes too weak to use as a starter. I just bought a big tub of Dannon plain yogurt and froze it ice cube trays. I used around 4 - 8 cubes in each batch and they all turned out about the same.

It works great as a substitute for sour cream because it is plain yogurt. You can thicken it and use it as a cream cheese substitue as well. You can strain it through cheese cloth letting some of the whey drip out to thicken it. Another way to thicken it is to put some paper towels on the top of the yogurt and a dish towel on top of that for some weight. Every couple hours ring the whey out of the dish towel until it gets as thick as you'd like, toss the paper towels, and it should be ready to go.

I really like the blog www.everydayfoodstorage.net and she just started a series of posts and videos about making yogurt if you want to check them out as she posts them.

Resources:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/yogurt.htm (great explantions)

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html (great tips and tricks in comments section)

http://www.remodelaholic.com/2010/06/yogis-welcome-yogurt-recipe-and-link.html (good ideas on thickening)

“Natural Meals in Minutes Book 3 Powdered Milk Cheeses with Yogurt & Other Milk Recipes” by Rita Bingham (recipe actually comes from LDS Cannery milk)