Greek Yogurt

A lot of people have been asking me how I make my yogurt.  I like the thick, creamy Greek yogurt.
So here's what you need:
a quart jar
a small container of plain Greek yogurt (I use organic, you can also use regular yogurt)
2 TBS powdered milk
3 1/2 cups milk, scalded (I'll explain below)
a warm place to put your jar, I have a yogurt maker, but I'll give you some suggestions below.

I use raw milk so I have to scald my milk.  You have to do this because you want to choose the kind of bacteria that grows in your milk(whatever is in your starter).  You do this by placing the milk in a heavy pan and heat it, stirring constantly, till little bubbles form around the edge of the pan.  You have to cool the heated milk down to at least 110 degrees.  I usually just test it with my finger and when it's the same temperature as my finger, I know it's ready.  Now, I add the powdered milk and the plain yogurt.  You don't have to add powdered milk, but it makes it thicker and adds calcium and protein.  Mix them up thoroughly, put a lid on the jar and put it in a warm place for at least 7 hrs.
Here are some ways people have kept their yogurt warm:
Wrap your jars in a heating pad on the lowest setting.
Place the jar in your oven with the light bulb on or if you have a gas oven with a pilot lite that's usually warm enough.
Place your jars in a cooler with a jar of hot water and replace the hot water every hour.
After 7 hrs check your yogurt.  If it's sour enough (you get to decide, some people like it really sour, I don't) you place the jar in the fridge for 6 hrs to stop the growth of bacteria.  I usually leave it in the fridge overnight.
Next you line a colendar with a coffee filter and put the yogurt into it.  Set the colendar into a bowl, put a plate on top of the colendar and set the whole thing back in the fridge.  Keep checking it till it reaches the right consistency, nice and thick.  If it gets too thick, just mix some of the whey from the bowl back into the yogurt till you get the right consistency.  You can add anything you want to this!!  I add a little Kefir milk to mine to make it even healthier.

Extended Butter

I have been blessed with a friend with a cow and I get a gallon of milk once a week.  We are not real big milk drinkers so I use the milk to make lots of different yummy things.  Today was butter and yogurt day.  I know that a lot of you already know how to make butter, but I'll share for those who don't.
I let my gallon of milk rest overnight so that the cream can come to the top.  The next morning I use a ladle to skim the cream from the milk (that's why non-fat milk is called skim or skimmed milk).  I put it directly into a heavy pan on the stove because I pasturise my cream for butter. If I don't it sours before we can eat it and we don't like sour or "country" butter.  I used to use a thermometer and bring the milk to 160 deg, but now I just scald it.  That means I heat the milk till little bubbles appear around the edge of the pan.  I pour it into a quart jar and let it sit it a bowl of ice water till it cools down enough to put it in the freezer to make it nice and cold.  Don't let it get too cold.  Next I put the cream in my Vita Mix (any blender will do or even a mixer) and I run it on high till it starts to chug and I can see yellow bits of butter floating in the milk.  The time varies, sometimes 1 minute sometimes 5 depending on the temp of the cream.  I strain the the milk into a jar and I use that milk for buttermilk or I mix it with my kefir grains, I'll explain all that in another post.  I put the butter in a bowl and wash it with cold water till the water is clear.  You do this by filling the bowl with the butter in it with cold water and cut the butter up to release the milk, then you strain the water off.  It takes several washings to get all the milk out of the butter.  This is the most tedious part of making butter.  When you're done with this you can add salt to taste and you're good to go.
HOWEVER, I use my butter to make extended butter.  It's easier to spread than regular butter and I think it's a little better for you.  So here's the recipe:
1 lb of butter (home made or store bought) room temp
1 cup of oil
1 tsp lecithin  (I use soy lecithin but you can get sunflower lecithin)
5 ozs of water
Mix the oil, the lecithin and the water in a blender till it is well blended and light.  Add the butter a little at a time and blend between additions.
Makes about 1 3/4 lb of butter that is lower in fat.
We used olive oil the first time and it was yummy on toast, etc., but was terrible on waffles and pancakes, so now, we use a canola olive mix.  I'm not really thrilled with canola, so when we use all this oil up I'll use expeller pressed safflower oil.

Here we go.....again

I haven't posted anything here since I set this blog up and the Lord's been pestering me to get back to this.  I have so much to share.  So many ideas and recipes.  So many things I do that people have asked me to share with them, I thought this might be the best way to do it.
So I'm going to start...today.  What did I do today and how did I do it.  Some people think I'm crazy for doing all this stuff, but I love it.  I would love nothing better than to be totally self-sufficient.
So...here we go.