Home made powdered milk Yogurt

Make it yourself Yogurt (the instructions are very detailed and aren't half as hard as it looks!!)

2 cups non-fat dry milk in water to make 3 cups total
5 cups whole milk
2 Tbs. Starter (plain yogurt, must say that it has live/active cultures, I used mountain high brand and I have heard dannon is good to.)
Avoid yogurt that is heat treated to increase shelf life. The process kills bacteria that are healthful to the human digestive tract and also renders it useless as a starter.

In this recipes, we will heat treat the milk, but for a different reason. At 180 degrees for 20 minutes, milk protein becomes stable, producing a more firm bodied yogurt. It also improves the taste and no helpful bacteria are killed because the starter isn't added until the milk has cooled.

Begin by placing two super clean quart size canning jars in the refrigerator. Now combine the drymilk, water and milk in a large saucepan and heat the milk at a fairly high temperature. The milk should be stirred constantly, but not necessarily with a spoon. A steel spatula for turning pancakes works best. Keep running the falt edge over the bottom of the pan to prevent the milk from scalding and sticking.

A floating candy thermometer is another useful tool ( I used a cordless barbque one and it worked great!) Heat the milk to 180 degrees, turn off burner and cover. Wait 10 minutes and repeat heating to 180 and cover and wait ten minutes.

Allow the milk to cool to 140 degrees. You can speed up the process by placing the pan in a sinkful of water. Afterward, pour the milk into the chilled glass jars. This also will help reduce the temperature quickly.

When the milk reaches 104 degrees, thoroughly stir a tablespoon of starter into each jar. If you want very tart yogurt add the starter at 120 degrees.
Cover each jar with a saucer (small non plastic plate) to retain the heat (If you were to use a canning jar lid it might soften the rubber seals enough to make unscrewing the lid difficult, that will complicate your effort to inspect the progress off the yogurt.)

Place the jars in an oven or a microwave that has a stay hot element**. Turn the heat on low for three or four minutes. Thats just enought to warm the oven and keep the jars at a constant temperature. Don't overheat and don't turn on the microwave unit iteslf. Both will kill the starter. (**I don't have this stay hot element so I would turn my oven on to heat at 170 for about 2 minutes and then turn it off. I would repeat this every hour to half hour depending on what my thermometer said. I made sure it stayed between 105 and 115 (sometimes it got higher than that so I would just open the oven for a minute.) Just monitor it and keep it as close as you can.

After 4 hours in the oven, carefully remove the saucers from the jars. Yogurt is very delicate when warm, so don't jostle it. Gently tip the jar to see if the milk has barely solidified. If so immediately refrigerate the uncovered jars for at least eight hours. The cold will solidify the yogurt even more.
If the milk is still liquid cover the jars and put them back in the oven for one or two hours. Keeping the same temp.
Don't delay checking your yogurt after the four hours. If a mass has formed and you allow it to remain in the oven, the yogurt will become more acididc. Also by using too much starter, you will make your yogurt extra tart. One Tablespoon starter per quart is plenty.
When the yogurt is cold, you can safely cap the jars with regular canning lids.

We like to sweeten ours with Agave Nectar or Honey, althought it is pretty good just plain! This yogurt is way better for you because it doesn't have all of the additive the other yogurts from the store have. And it helps you go through your food storage with the powdered milk.