I often check out
Today's Deals on Amazon. Recently they had a ten dollars off deal on a
YoGourmet Electric Yogurt Maker.
We've been buying fruit flavored soy yogurts at Trader Joe's, and I like them very much, but they are small containers with lots of plastic and I don't think they are very cost effective. So I decided to give making my own soy yogurt a whirl and ordered the YoGourmet gadget on a whim. Obviously if we can
buy soy yogurt it must be possible to
make soy yogurt.
The first challenge, since we are strictly vegan at our house, was trying to find a vegan source of yogurt starter culture. This turned out to be very difficult. I finally decided to buy some capsules containing
Acidophilus and Bifidus bacteria cultures of the type intended to be swallowed to repopulate the gut. It seems these are the same little creatures used to make yogurt, and I figured if they really are live as the seller claims then I should be able to adapt them to my purpose. It seems to work. Since the capsules I'm using are made out of gelatin, an animal-derived product, I discard those after emptying the powdered bacteria stuff from about 8 of them per batch.
Soy milk does not normally contain the same percentage of sugars as cows milk, so I've been adding about a quarter cup of sugar to each carton of soy milk in order to help the little critters to be fruitful and multiply. I also bought some frozen fruit to blend into each batch when it is done, just before I refrigerate it.
Since everything I'm putting into this soy yogurt is gluten free, the soy yogurt is gluten free too. And the YoGourmet device, with the advantage of hindsight, seems to have been a good choice because it consists of two containers. The inner container, designed to hold about two quarts, is where I put the sugar, Acidophilus and Bifidus bacteria culture and soy milk. The outer container gets a few ounces of plain warm water. When you put the inner container inside the outer container the water rises up around the edges to transmit the heat from the heater below evenly all around the inner container. It is a very simple device, so I expect it to be reliable, and it is a clever design as is indicated by how well it works.
So far I've made several batches of blueberry soy yogurt. The first batch was gone very soon after it was "discovered" in the refrigerator
I use a little hand held stick blender to mix everything up at the start of each batch, then I use the same stick blender once it is yogurt to blend in and chop up some frozen fruit. Using frozen fruit helps cool off the fresh batch of yogurt, then it goes into the refrigerator.
The only waste produced per batch of yogurt is the empty coated cardboard soy milk carton plus 8 empty gelatin capsules, and each batch provides the same amount of yogurt as maybe 5 or more of the little single serving size plastic containers. I have not done the math but I feel certain it must be a cost savings and that the expense for the yogurt maker will soon be paid back in reduced shopping bills at Trader Joe's.
If you skipped adding the extra sugar I'm sure this would be a fine way of making gluten free regular yogurt from cows milk.
It's pretty fresh when you make it at home too!
I'd urge everyone trying this to be sure to use boiling water to sterilize your containers between each batch of yogurt. Otherwise less friendly bacteria would eventually begin to colonize your utensils, and those of us with celiac disease hardly need any additional reasons to run to the restroom.
On the other hand eating live culture yogurt, which this certainly is, is widely believed to be a good practice for those with grumpy digestive systems. Obviously anyone with lactose intolerance should not use dairy milk to make yogurt, but I do not know if I am lactose intolerant or not. Since I have not intentionally eaten any dairy products in about ten years, it's a good bet I would be lactose intolerant today.
After all of those considerations, we find the home made soy yogurt is not as sweet as the TJ's brand soy yogurt, and we like it better with less sweetness.
