Gettin the hang of it

So, it's been a while since I posted anything on here. I have however been busy making yogurt. The yogurt maker has been a huge time and effort saver. I have it down to about a 30 minute process from start until the milk is in the yogurt maker.

• Once in the maker, I set the timer for whatever time I know I will be able to put it away (timer ranges from 3-15 hours). Generally it is between 8-12 and I haven't noticed a big difference. 
• I have been adding 1/2 cup powdered milk every time to ensure that it is nice and thick. 
• The process makes 7 seven ounce cups. I eat 6 of them and use the last one for making the next batch.
• I still haven't figured out which is the quickest method for heating/cooling the milk; microwave vs stovetop. The milk in a glass bowl in the microwave heats it faster (~8 mins) but takes longer to cool down in the cold water bath because the metal pan that I use on the stove is much more efficient heat conductor and therefore cools much much faster (usually less than 5 mins). Next time I will use a timer for each so I can get maximum efficiency. 

I tried experimenting with flavoring last night. Once I had heated up the milk, cooled it down, and added the yogurt starter, I poured 3 of the cups so that if it failed, I would still have something to eat/use for next batch. I then took 2.5 tablespoons maple syrup and mixed that into the rest of the batch. Then I poured them into the cups and proceeded as normal. Today's taste test was great. Not too sweet but it definitely had a hint of maple flavor. This is going to become part of the routine from now on. 

I am excited to try different flavorings before I put it into the maker as I now have one successful flavored batch. 

No picture this time because they all look exactly like the other pictures, the maple flavored yogurt looks just like regular plain yogurt. 

Yogurt with a yogurt maker

So I finally caved and bought a yogurt maker. Total it was $42. I have made 2 batches and so far it is MUCH easier and produces much thicker yogurt than I was able to make by manually regulating the temp. I used the same recipe as before with 5 cups whole milk, 1/2 cup powdered milk, and about 6 oz of yogurt with live cultures.
This time I microwaved the milk for 10 minutes.

10 minutes proved to be a little bit too long and it ended up boiling a little and getting a little bit of "skin" on the top.

I put this in the fridge with my thermometer in it and waited ~30 minutes until it was 120 degrees.

Once this was at the right temp I mixed in the 6oz yogurt and then poured them into the cups that came with the yogurt maker and put them in it. I set the timer for 8 hours and walked away and did something else for the day. 

The final result was by far the best yet. It had the least milky taste and was by far the thickest. This is a picture of it upside down showing how thick it is. 

I just started another batch today. This time I heated it up on the stove and cooled it in a cold water bath. I also did not use any powdered milk. It took about 45 minutes to get it from scratch to the yogurt maker. I left it in the maker and then headed to work so I will report back on how it came out later. I found that the cold water bath took only about 5 minutes to cool from 180 degrees to 120 degrees.