Tips for making yogurt in your bread maker

I was very excited to try out the yogurt function of my bread maker (Tefal Pain & Délices). It seamed super easy: mix some milk with yogurt in the yogurt pot, set the timer, wait half a day and bam!, you have your yogurt. As it turns out, what you get this way is drinking yogurt, both with the Yogurt setting (program 18) and with the Drinking Yogurt setting (19). This is because most of the moisture stays in the pot. If you want a creamy yogurt, you'll also need to strain it. But how? The recipe book doesn't give any guidance for this. I will.

But first things first: according to the recipe, you have to put the lid on the yogurt pot before starting the fermentation process. According to the instruction manual, however, you have to remove it. Now what do you do? I tried it both ways, and I didn't notice any difference. The liquid stays in the pot regardless, but the lid actually doesn't fit the pot and can easily slide to the side. So I suggest you to remove the lid from the yogurt pot. This way you can also easily check from time to time whether your yogurt is set: you can very gently (!) shake it to see the thickness of the creamy liquid, or use a spoon and test the top layer for firmness by taking a small amount. Don't put the spoon deep in the pot and don't stir the yogurt because it will stop the fermentation process!

Once your yogurt is ready, you can decide to keep it as it is (as a drinking yogurt if you like it) or to strain it. To strain the yogurt, the most common method is to use a big colander and put a cheesecloth in it. I don't have a cheesecloth so I simply used a kitchen towel which also works well. Then pour the yogurt over the cloth and let it slowly drip for 1-2 hours, depending on how thick yogurt you want (let it drip for longer for a firmer texture like greek yogurt). Since it's only for a few hours, you don't have to put it in the fridge while it's straining, unless your kitchen is unusually warm (like on a summer day). Don't stir, don't press, don't squeeze, just wait and check from time to time (with a spoon) whether it reached the texture you like in a yogurt. If so, use a spoon to put the yogurt in a clean jar with a well-closing lid. Store it in the fridge up to 7–10 days.

This is it, you have your creamy yogurt. It is still relatively simple, but a bit messy business because you will need to clean the cheesecloth (wash it). But you get your nice home-made yogurt in return. Look at this photo, I got this amount of yogurt from about 900 ml of fresh whole milk and 125 g of natural yogurt. (Sorry for the look of the jar – as I just said, it's a messy business!) To help with the scale: the spoon in the jar is a standard tablespoon.

 

You can eat it as it is, or add some flavouring. I like it with honey or with some home-made jam – also made in the bread maker. (Once I have a bit more experience with jams, I will write about that, as well, in a later post!) You can also look up different recipes on how to make your yogurt tastier.

What is your favourite flavouring? Share in the comments!