Goat Milk Yogurt
Do you know the ingredients in your store bought yogurts? Are your yogurt ingredients clean? If you are buying clean yogurt from the grocery store you are probably paying around $7 for two small containers.
Did you know you can make yogurt, from scratch, at home with minimal effort? You get to control and limit your ingredients. You know it’s fresh. And you get a little more than half a gallon for the same price you are probably paying for about 5 store bought clean yogurt containers.
Homemade Instapot Goat Milk Yogurt
- 1/2 gallon raw milk + 1 extra cup if adding gelatin
- 2-4 tbs starter culture *any organic store bought yogurt with live cultures will work. Or yogurt starter culture. Or grab some starter from a friend who makes yogurt.
- If using goat milk I highly recommend using a clean gelatin to thicken as goat milk yogurt is very thin. If you like drinkable yogurt, don’t use gelatin.
- Chill your Instapot stainless steel bowl with cold icy water for ~ 15 mins then pour ice water into a separate larger bowl to save for a later step. This will keep the milk from burning the bottom of the pot
- Pour half a gallon of raw goat milk into chilled Instapot stainless steel bowl
- In a glass measuring cup add an additional cup of milk + clean gelatin. I use ~ 2 tbs. Mix well and set aside. This will thicken goat milk yogurt. If using cow milk you can skip this step.
- Press the yogurt setting, then hit the adjust setting until it says boil. I highly recommend using a candy thermometer for this step.
- Let the temperature rise until 165° so that the gelatin will set when we add it. Remove film and discard it. Pour in the cup of goat milk with gelatin, mix well, and turn off Instapot.
- Drop the temp quickly to 115° by setting the Instapot stainless steel bowl into the larger bowl of ice water. Stir until it drops to 115°. Should only take a few minutes. Use a candy thermometer. Temperature is important.
- Pour 1 cup of that goat milk mixture into a large measuring cup or bowl. Quickly add in your starter and mix until incorporated. Then pour the starter milk mixture into the rest of the milk mixture in the Instapot stainless steel bowl.
- Dry the outside of the Instapot stainless steel bowl and place back into Instapot.
- Press the yogurt button. Then hit the adjust setting until the screen reads 8 hours. Put the Instapot lid on and leave the valve to vent.
- Let incubate at 115° for 8 hours. When it’s finished it will say YOGT
- Once finished save 1/2 a pint for your next batch. This will become your starter.
I make my own non pectin jam to add flavor.
Homemade Non-Pectin Jam
This recipe is enough for the entire batch of yogurt:
- 4 cups organic berries (or any organic fruit)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup – 1 cup organic raw cane sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla optional
Add lemon juice and fruit to a heavy bottom pot. Simmer on two until juices release. Blend then return to the pot. Add in sugar. Continue to simmer on two until thickened. Let cool until 115° before mixing into your yogurt. Anything above 115° will kill off the good bacteria in the yogurt.
I ended up with 1 starter jar, 10 half pints, and 7 quarter pints of fresh strawberry goat milk yogurt.
Other Jam Ideas: Blueberry, Strawberry, Peach. Cherry, Mixed Berry, Vanilla, Blackberry. Raspberry, etc. I recommend staying away from bananas. Without a stabilizer it will turn brown quickly.