Travel & Lifestyle Blog (2024)

Ever since my childhood, I’ve been eating homemade yogurt. My mom used to make us a batch for the whole week every Sunday afternoon, and when she got good at it she even had a side business selling fresh yogurt!

Today, I’m sharing my mom’s famous homemade yogurt recipe. It’s not only tasty, but will save you some serious bucks at the grocery store!

There are so many ways to make homemade yogurt! The process sounds intimidating and difficult, but I promise it’s not! Once you read this blog, you'll realize it’s actually very simple to make your own super yummy homemade yogurt.

How to Make Yogurt At Home: Step By Step

When making your own homemade yogurt, there are several ways to go about it. Many people use fancy utensils and expensive kitchen tools, like kitchen thermometers or even yogurt machines. These can help you get identical results each time, but they’re more complicated to follow and overall way more time consuming. And you don’t need them!

We always prepared our homemade yogurt the old fashioned way, and in 15 minutes you'll be able to make your own with just a few things:

• The basic ingredients (milk & yogurt culture)

• A pot (we currently use this 6 quart cast iron Dutch Oven)

• A glass container or jar ( I use 1L similar to these ones for this recipe)

The Basic Homemade Yogurt Ingredients

1: Milk

When making your own homemade yogurt, you’ll obviously need milk! You can use any kind of milk, but we recommend using whole cow’s milk that has been pasteurized.

2: Yogurt Culture or Plain Yogurt with live and active cultures

The other basic ingredient you’ll need when preparing your own yogurt is the live bacteria culture! That might sound weird, but all yogurt has a live culture... it’s part of what makes it yogurt. The live bacteria are actually necessary for maintaining proper gut health, so yogurt is a great way to keep your insides happy and healthy! You can use yogurt culture, or just add some pre-made plain yogurt that has live and active culture (check the ingredients). No matter which one you decide to use (or which is more accessible) you’ll end up with a great batch of homemade yogurt.

Note: We love using this Greek Yogurt Culture to prepare our delicious homemade greek yogurt!

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

This is the exact method my mom has used to make her own yogurt for many years. It makes a delicious and creamy yogurt that’s better than anything you’ll find in the supermarket!

First, get the milk. We typically use 1 ½ liters of milk and pour it in a stainless steel pot on the stove.

If you are using raw unpasteurized milk, make sure to start off byheating it over medium heatuntil it reaches 180-200 °F.

If you’re using milk that’s already been pasteurized (like most store milk)you can skip that step.

Next, either let your 180 °F milk cool down to115 °F (similar to a baby‘s bottle temperature) or heat your pasteurized milk up to 115 °F.

When the milk has reached around 115°F, remove the pot from the stove and pour it into two 1L glass mason jars (half in each). Next, add 8 ounces of the yogurt culture (or the pre-made yogurt) to each jar of milk.

When using store-bought yogurt, I love to use the organic plain Friendly-Farms Greek yogurt for my starter.

Once the culture has been added, the mix is ready to incubate. To cover up the mixture, we normally use cheesecloth instead of regular lids, which lets the mixture breathe a bit. A regular lid will work too!

Incubate the yogurt overnight (for at least 20 hours) in a warm dark place. My mom uses the oven as an incubator and cover each jar with some aluminum foil to make sure it’s dark.

And voila! 20 hours later, you’ll have your homemade yogurt... it’s that simple!

Once the yogurt is done incubating, pour off the extra liquid at the top to make it thicker and creamier. Next, refrigerate the jars for a while to fully set the yogurt .

If you drain the yogurt and then press it a bit in the cheesecloth (to remove almost all moisture), you’ll have a yogurt cheese, or labneh. This makes a delicious spread for bread and you can eat it with berries andhoney as well!

Note: If you want to be precise about the temperature of the milk, you can always use a digital quick read thermometer. Otherwise, you can usually just estimate!

Homemade Yogurt Health Benefits:

Yogurt is one of the healthiest foods you can get, especially homemade yogurt. You’ll get plenty of protein, calcium, and nutrients, as well as those awesome live cultures to keep your stomach happy! Making homemade yogurt also allows you control the fat content, which is great when adjusting your calories.

Plain, unsweetened (or with minimal added sugar) yogurts are the most beneficial for your health. Your body will benefit a lot from the probiotics, which help your natural gut flora to maintain a healthy balance. This is vital for many reasons, including your body’s supply of vitamin K!

Yogurt is also rich in other important nutrients that your body needs. It contains calcium, potassium, magnesium, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin D, which will help to protect your body against osteoporosis . Moreover, yogurt is naturally High in Protein to keep your muscles happy, and will help maintain your immune system and promote weight management.

If you enjoyed this recipe, we share all of our favorite yogurt parfait recipes here. Make sure to check them out, you’ll find some great recipes to combine with your homemade yogurt for a quick grab and go breakfast or snack!

And don’t forget to pin this recipe so you’ll have it for later!

If you haveany questions about this recipe or your own yogurt-making tips, please let us know in the comments. Hope you enjoy it!

Bon Appetit!

Besitos from the kitchen,

Laura