Friday, February 06, 2009

Yummy, yummy yogurt

So, Wednesday night I made another batch of yogurt. This time I tried a slightly different method- I heated the milk to boiling on the stove top and brought it back down to temp in a cold water bath before adding the starter and wrapping it up for the night. The resulting yogurt was much milder than the crockpot version. The milk itself might have made a difference, too. When I went to HEB they had half gallons of organic milk on sale for $2 a piece (when I bought milk for my last batch of yogurt they were $2.99 a piece), but they were out of skim so I had to use 1%.

Whether it was the method or the fat, this batch of yogurt is gooood. The flavor is so mild that there's no need to add any honey. I just mixed in some diced apple and homemade granola and breakfast is served.

I will probably use the crockpot to make yogurt again at some point, but for right now the stove top version is my method of choice. With the crockpot it was hard for me to be available to start it, stop it, stir it at the right times. Even being off work, I'd be napping or at a PT appointment or I'd forget to start it and then I'd have to stay up late to finish it. With the stove top version, as long as I've got a half hour to spare I can do it and be done.

In the meantime, I found another use for my crockpot- chicken nuggets. I made the Crockpot Lady's chicken nugget recipe for dinner tonight, and they were yum. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-chicken-nuggets-recipe.html
I will definitely be making these again. I used tortilla crumbs for the breading, seasoned with onion and garlic powder and seasoning salt. They were a little tortilla-ee, so I may consider trying a different gluten-free bread crumb option. Maybe I'll crush up some Glutino pretzels and make a pretzel crust. Although at $6 a bag, the Glutino pretzels may be a little pricey to use in cooking.

It's only 9:30 but I'm getting tired. I think it's off to bed for me.

3 comments:

  1. ooh, I'm glad the nuggets worked out. the yougurt is tricky. I wonder if this time of year the house just gets too darn cold for it to work properly?

    --steph

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  2. Well, living in Texas my definition of "cold" is often different from the rest of the world! I've been using Yogourment as my original starter, and the second batch of yogurt set perfectly well using some of the first batch as a starter. I was trying to use some of batch 2 as a starter for batch 3, so I may also have been pushing it a little bit.

    Even if a batch doesn't work out now and then, I will definitely continue making yogurt. It, with the granola from "Gluten-Free Quick and Easy" by Carol Fenster, has become my favorite breakfast. Thanks for inspiring me to try making my own yogurt! I'd been wanting to for ages, but I thought I had to buy an expensive machine first.

    Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

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  3. I'm a mess with the crockpot. Everything seems to come out overcooked! So I'm going to use it to dye yarn! :)

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