Thick Creamy Yogurt — Sous Vide

Thick Creamy Yogurt — Sous Vide

This easy and delicious recipe can be adjusted to make any number of servings with a little calculation. The milk to yogurt ratio is 1 : 0.05 (for example, a quart of whole milk weighing 800 grams (800 × 0.05 = 40) would require 40 grams of yogurt).

Ingredients

• 1 part milk
• 0.05 part yogurt with live, active cultures

Note

I usually use whole Fairlife milk and Oui French Style yogurt or Fairlife skim milk and Fage 0% fat yogurt to start with. The type of milk and yogurt used does change the texture of the yogurt, but any dairy milk (that isn’t processed with ultra-high heat) and any live active culture yogurt will work. I like to store the yogurt in 4-ounce jars but any jars with lids and rings will work.

Tip

Make sure to save a refrigerated and unopened yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch of yogurt.

Directions

1. Set up the water bath and circulator but don’t worry about setting the temperature yet.
2. Wash and sterilize a quart jar (to heat milk) and nine 4-oz Ball jars (for fermentation process and storage), a glass or metal mixing container with a spout (you want a container that will hold all of the milk with enough room to stir), and a whisk. Set the items to dry on a clean dish towel. Dip the lids in simmering (not boiling) water and set aside to dry on a clean dish towel.
3. Place the sterilized quart jar on a kitchen scale. Make sure the scale is set to grams. Tare to zero so the jar’s weight is not part of the calculation. Pour the milk into the jar, leaving about an inch of headspace, and record the gram weight of the milk.
4. Place the lid and ring on the jar and submerge it into the water bath, making sure the water covers the milk line. Set the circulator temperature to 180°F. Set the timer for 30 minutes. During this time you can use the weight of your milk to calculate how much live active culture yogurt you need.
5. The milk will heat as the circulator comes to temperature and the 30-minute timer will start when the temperature reaches 180°F.
6. At the 30-minute mark, remove about half of the hot water, replacing it with ice water or very cold water. You can leave the quart jar of milk in the water bath for this step.
7. Set the circulator temperature to 110°F. The milk will cool as the cool water comes up to temperature. Pull out the jar and give it a gentle shake a couple of times during this part to help the milk cool evenly. When the circulator shows a steady reading at or below 110°F, set the circulator timer for 15 minutes. The timer will start when the temperature reaches 110°F.
8. At the 15-minute mark, leave the circulator running at 110°F, remove the quart jar from the water bath, and pour about 1 cup of the milk into the spouted mixing container. Don’t worry about measuring; you just need enough milk to mix with the yogurt and not so much that you can’t tell if it’s mixed well. Add the predetermined amount of yogurt into the milk and whisk until well combined. Pour the remaining milk into the mixing container and stir to thoroughly combine the milk and yogurt.
9. Pour the combined milk/yogurt mixture into the sterilized 4-ounce Ball jars. Hand-tighten the lids.
10. Fully submerge the 4-ounce jars in the 110°F water bath. Set the circulator timer for 5 hours.
11. At the 5-hour mark, remove the jars, dry, and refrigerate. After several hours of cooling, enjoy the thick creamy yogurt.

800 grams of milk (almost a quart) makes nine (4-ounce jar) servings of yogurt.

Tap here for the same recipe with quick-reference instruction boxes