Homemade Yogurt with Lolans Farm Raw Milk

There’s something really satisfying about making yogurt at home. It’s simple, nutritious, and once you do it a time or two, becomes a pretty easy routine. It can be left plain or sweetened a little. Portioning it into jars makes it easy to grab from the fridge whenever you want it.

Ingredients

½ gallon Lolans Farm Raw Milk
1/8 cup maple syrup, honey, or sugar, optional
1/4 cup plain yogurt with live active cultures or yogurt starter culture
(note: if using yogurt, plain works best but I’ve done it with vanilla yogurt before)

Instructions

Pour the milk into a pot and heat it over medium-high heat until it reaches 180°F, stirring regularly. Try not to scrape the bottom of the pot, since that can pull up any residue that forms while heating.
Once the milk reaches temperature, remove it from the heat and stir in sweetener, if using. I usually use about 1/8 cup of maple syrup, but honey or sugar work well. Test the recipe a few times and get an idea of your own version.
Let the milk cool down to 110 to 112°F. The time will depend on the temperature of the house. I usually find I can make dinner while the milk is cooling so somewhere between 20-30 minutes.
Ladle some of the warm milk into a large measuring cup. If you’re using yogurt as your starter, mix 1/4 cup yogurt into that warm milk until smooth. If you’re using a yogurt culture instead, sprinkle the culture over the warm milk and let it sit for 5 minutes to rehydrate, then stir it in.
Once the starter or culture is mixed in, carefully pour the remaining milk from the pot into the measuring cup and stir gently to combine. I like doing it this way so I’m not stirring around at the bottom of the pot and accidentally mixing in anything that may have stuck during heating.
Divide the mixture into small glass jars and place the jars on a baking tray. You can fill them partway if you want to leave room for fruit or other toppings later.
Turn on your oven light and place the tray in the oven for 8 to 12 hours. If your house is a little chilly, you can warm the oven first by turning it on preheat for 60 to 90 seconds, then shutting it off before putting the jars in. The goal is to keep the yogurt warm enough to encourage the cultures to grow around 110°F. Don’t stress about getting the temperature perfect here (I was skeptical about the oven light being warm enough but it’s worked great).
Once the yogurt is done incubating, take the jars out, cover them, and place them in the fridge. Let them chill for 4 to 6 hours for the best texture.
That’s it! Simple homemade yogurt made with Lolans Farm Raw Milk. It’s great plain, or topped with fruit, jam, granola, or a little extra maple syrup. I hope you feel inspired to try this yogurt recipe! I love that it makes a thick yogurt with no straining required.