I've been making plain yogurt, using organic non-fat milk powder purchased at our local "natural foods" store, and the "heating pad on low/with the mild in glass jars in a kettle with the lid on it" method for a couple months, now. The taste is fine and I'm pleased with the result, except that it is much more watery than I'd like. I've added "extra" milk powder as some recipes suggest to counteract this problem, but still quite a lot of whey (?) collects at the top.

Any suggestions for making it thicker, or is this just a natural part of homemade non-fat yogurt?? Thanks a lot for any help.

-- Marilee Thome (hotjmmt@ados.com), January 05, 2000

Answers

First thing to try is letting it incubate longer. I have an electric yougurt incubator, and I usually let my yougurt go 10-12 hours. It comes out pretty firm, with very little whey.

If that doesn't work, sterilize your equipment and try again. My last batch I did before moving turned out horribly watery, and I suspect that my yougurt glasses were not clean enough, and so I grew the wrong organisms. But if your yogurt tastes fine, this probably isn't the problem.

-- Becky Michelsen (beckymom@kjsl.com), January 05, 2000.

stocking up 3 lists this recipe for thicker yogurt, 4 cups warm water [110 to 115f], 2and 1/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk, 1/4 cup fresh, unflavored yogurt or 1 package yogurt starter, combine water and dry milk in medium bowel and mix thoroughly. stir in the yogurt or starter. Incubate using any method you like.Hope it works , seems to me i read that you can use gelitain in it as a thickner but could be remembering that wrong.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), January 05, 2000.

I make my yogurt by using unpasturized milk straight from the cow. I heat it up to 180 degrees, then let it cool down to 80 degrees. Then I whisk in some vanilla and Stoneyfield yogurt (organic, good bacteria) and put it into a mason jar under a pot over a heating pad. I can leave it there for 8-16 hours, and I never have any trouble. If you want to make it low or non-fat, you can let the cream rise and skim it off, but I think milkfat isn't harmful if the milk is not homogenized. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), January 06, 2000.

I have always used a package of unflavored gelatin in my yogurt (about one pkg per quart). This gives it a much firmer texture, you can use flavored gelatin (Jello) too, my kids really like this, it makes it taste more like the store bought. Just let it dissolve in your heated milk, make sure you wisk it in or it will be lumpy. Ive never used milk powder, only goats milk but I dont know why it wouldnt work with the powered milk. I also use the heating pad method.

-- Julie (juliecapasso@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

Like Julie, I have added Knox gelatin to my yogurt, but I have also added a little cornstarch to the warmed milk, about 1 tsp. for 4 eight oz. servings, and it seems to thicken it up a little.

-- Hannah (hannahholly@hotmail.com), January 09, 2000.

I think it's par for the course for skim-milk yoghurt, particularly plain unsweetened no-added-fruit varieties; and that you need to add a thickener. Both gelatine and corn-flour sound like they'd work; but the commercial one I use has agar (also called vegetable gelatine, and made from seaweed).

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 11, 2000.

Years ago when I first got goats, I bought a copy of Sophie Kay's Yogurt Cookery from Sunset Books. It has recipes for making plain and thickened yogurts using cornstarch and gelatin plus recipes for using these. I'm sure it's out of print by now as mine is copyrighted 1978 (hey, I'm an almost old lady) but Sunset is still around and it couldn't hurt to contact them directly.

-- Marilyn Dickerson (rainbow@ktis.net), January 18, 2000.

No, nonfat yougur CAN be made firm WITHOUT gelatin or food starch. I add 1/2 c. powdered milk to my skim milk, and it comes out nice and firm. I like to make cups of Fruit on the Bottom yogurt by putting 2T of jam in the bottom of each glass, and pouring the cultured milk over the jam. Then I incubate it. Works great.

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), January 26, 2000.