What to Do.

I've been making batch after batch of yogurt. Almost everyday I heat up milk, adding dry milk and culture, mixing, cooling and then waiting 6 hours before refrigerating 2 hours. Yes, I'm addicted. I've found a wonderful culture that makes a sweeter yogurt so you don't have to sprinkle in sugar or vanilla and I think I'd eat it all day long if I had an endless supply of blueberries.

The kids and I made smoothies with our yogurt the other day. It was delicious.

Then I pulled out a large metal mixing bowl. My perfect colander and two sheets of cheesecloth.

I made a fresh batch of yogurt and plopped all 4 cups of it onto the cheesecloth.

I let it drain, untouched for 30 minutes. Got a good amount of whey collected in the bottom of the bowl.

 

Then I pulled up the ends of the cheesecloth. Looped a few rubberbands around the end because I couldn't find my kitchen string and plopped it back on the strainer and into the refrigerator. The longer you let the yogurt drain the thicker your end result will be. You can drain it as few as 8 hours and as long as 24 hours. I went for 16, seemed like a good number to start with.

This is what my yogurt looked like after 16 hours of draining in the refrigerator. It's Yogurt Cheese. Though it's not really a cheese, letting the whey drip out of the yogurt turned it into a cheese consistancy.  Dump the yogurt cheese into another dish and wash out your cheesecloth, and hang up somewhere to dry.

I smoothed the yogurt cheese into a nice serving dish and poured the whey into a jar. I can't believe how much whey dripped out of the yogurt in 16 hours. I need to find something to do with the whey, it just say around for a day or two while I tried to figure out how to use it. I will figure out how to use it!!!

Then I made a non-bake Yogurt Cheesecake. So yummy. It didn't set up like I was hoping and I think the next time I make this I'll let my yogurt drain for a full 24 hours if cheesecake is on the menu.

Then I cut the crusts off of two slices of then white bread. I mixed some honey and a few drops of vanilla extract into 1/4 cup of yogurt cheese and spread that on one side of the bread. Then I thinly sliced some peaches and layered them just so on top of the yogurt cheese. Looks good doesn't it?

Then I dry grilled them in a hot skillet, about 2 minutes on each side.

Transfer to a plate and drizzle with a little more honey.

Then let your 13 year old daughter come in and eat them all before you get a bite and have to make a whole new sandwich!

I'm going to make Yogurt Pancakes next. I hear they are more like a dessert pancake than a breakfast pancake...sounds perfect for me and my crew.