French Style Yogurt

Several months ago I was doing my regular grocery shopping and some cute little jars caught my eye. These cute little jars contained French style yogurt. I was extremely intrigued! I grabbed a couple and put them in my cart.

When I finally tried one of these little yogurts… Oh my goodness!

I have never had yogurt anywhere close to what I was experiencing then. It was thick, so thick it held its shape on the spoon! No dripping yogurt here. The flavor was a mild vanilla and not very tangy. And the texture was incredibly smooth.

I was hooked, so I kept buying them. But at $1.49 per 5 ounce jar it was getting pricey. So I did some recipe searching and I did some experimenting and what I have here for you today is a recipe for French style yogurt that is just as good if not better than the store-bought stuff.

AND it equals out to about $.50 per 5 ounces. That sure as heck beats $1.49, right?

I incubate my yogurt in a Yolife yogurt maker. This makes the process so smooth and you don’t have to really think about your yogurt, until it’s done. Because it keeps a constant temperature. I let my French yogurt incubate for about 12 hours. If you want it more tangy, then just let it incubate longer.

The Yolife yogurt maker comes with 7 little jars with lids for convenient single-serving sizes. But it also comes with two sizes of domes. One short one for the small jars and one tall one so you can fit whatever container you happen to want to incubate your yogurt in.

You can fit quart jars in there if you want. But for French yogurt, I think it’s best to incubate it in smaller jars because there’s something about the texture that I don’t like to compromise by stirring it. If you stir it, it still stays thick, but it’s not stiff. It’s that stiffness that I like.

But that’s all personal preference. I use the jars that came with my Yolife and because this recipe is pretty large, I’ll also use half pint jars.

I also like to use Yogourmet freeze dried yogurt starter. When I use it I know my yogurt is going to set. I’ve never had yogurt fail when I’ve used this. However, you can still use yogurt that you’ve made as a start for other batches of yogurt.

This will help with making you yogurt even cheaper. But after a while the cultures in the yogurt will start to be less effective and so you’ll need to start a fresh batch with the freeze dried starter.

INGREDIENTS

4¾ Cups Whole Milk
¾ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
⅓ Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Teaspoons Plain Yogurt

Directions

Pour 4¾ Cups Whole Milk & ⅓ Cup Granulated Sugar into a saucepan, heat on low until it hits 190°F and hold it around that temperature for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the milk cool to 110°F. Use a kitchen thermometer to monitor the temperatures. You can place your pan into a cold water bath in the sink to help cool it faster. If a film forms on top of the milk, be sure to remove it or it will give your yogurt a stringy texture.
Place 2 Teaspoons Oui Yogurt into a bowl and add 2 Tablespoons of the cooled milk – mix very well with a whisk, making sure there are no yogurt lumps – this ensures that you’ll end up with smooth yogurt. Pour the yogurt starter and ¾ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract into the saucepan with the milk and stir well. Avoid scraping the bottom of the pan, there’s usually milk solids stuck to the bottom that can give your yogurt a gritty texture.
Ladle the mixture into your jars. Seal the jars with lids or cover each jar with homemade foil lids. Place the jars directly in into the Instant Pot.
Press the Yogurt button and make sure it’s on the “Normal” setting, set the Instant Pot for 9 hours. After it’s done, give it a taste—if you prefer it more tart, you can incubate the yogurt for a few more hours.
(This recipe can also be made in any Yogurt Maker)
Refrigerate the jars for at least 6 hours before serving. Enjoy without stirring.