How to Make Yogurt with a VitaClay Multi-Cooker

By  Chef Austin

Make yogurt at home with real ingredients and no preservatives. Flavor with fresh fruits and extracts of your choice. 

When you make your own yogurt, obviously you can choose whatever flavors you like. And as a bonus, you can also choose to make a healthy dairy treat even better, by making yogurt that's free of preservatives and artificial flavors. Making yogurt from scratch isn't as daunting as it might seem, especially if you have an awesome yogurt maker. Now, you could purchase a single-task machine that only makes yogurt, but why? With a VitaClay multi-cooker, you get a machine that was built to multi-task. This multi-cooker makes perfect fluffy rice, slow-cooks twice as fast as a typical slow cooker, brews bone broths, and - can make yogurt! 

With their organic zisha-clay cooking vessel, VitaClay is bringing the ancient tradition of cooking in clay to your 21st-century kitchen. Clay transfers subtle earthy tones and brings out the natural flavors of the food you're cooking. No other cooking method flavors food the way that clay-cooking can. 

Use the highest quality ingredients you can get - quality ingredients mean better-tasting yogurt.
Locally sourced honey and bourbon-infused vanilla extract add exciting depths of flavor.

 

Chef Austin's Pro Tip: Unglazed clay is naturally seasoned by the food it cooks. This can impart complex flavor profiles to subsequent cooking, which can be great in savory dishes but perhaps a bit off-putting in lighter fare. If you plan to make light foods like yogurt in your VitaClay multi-cooker, we second VitaClay's recommendation of using a separate clay pot so you don't end up with a savory yogurt!

Here's a basic yogurt recipe to get you started making your own yogurts. What's nice about this recipe is that you can add more or less of the flavoring ingredients to suit your own taste preferences. As you become more comfortable with making yogurt, you can play around with a multitude of flavors, like other kinds of extracts, jams and jellies, compotes, fresh fruit - you get the idea. The two ingredients that are absolutely necessary are the milk and the yogurt cultures. And VitaClay multi-cookers come with more yogurt recipes to broaden your yogurt repertoire.

 

 

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Honey-Vanilla Yogurt

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Makes eight 4-oz. servings

Ingredients:

• ⅓ Cup Honey (We recommend using locally sourced honey)
• 1 Package Yogurt Cultures (We recommend New England CheeseMaking Supplies - Sweet Yogurt Cultures)
• 4 Cups (32 oz.) 2% Milk
• 2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract 
• 1 Tsp. Orange Zest

Directions

Step 1
Add milk to a large stock pot or dutch oven set over medium heat. Heat milk to 180°F and turn off heat. Continue heating milk for another 1-2 minutes then remove from heat.

Step 2
Whisk in honey, vanilla, and orange zest. Let mixture cool to 110°F. 

Step 3
Sprinkle package of yogurt cultures over milk mixture. Allow to sit for 2 minutes. 

Step 4
Whisk yogurt cultures into milk mixture. Transfer milk mixture into VitaClay clay pot. 

Step 5
Place clay pot into VitaClay multi-cooker. Set  control to Yogurt setting for 8 hours. 

Step 6
After 8 hours, you've got yogurt! Transfer your yogurt into air-tight Fido jars and store in refrigerator. Yogurt should last for 2-3 weeks. 

Make More Yogurt With Old Yogurt!

When it's time to make another batch of yogurt, follow the same steps but instead of adding a yogurt culture, add in a 1/2 cup of previously made yogurt. The active live cultures in the old yogurt will create a new batch of yogurt.

 

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 Video: Making Homemade Yogurt with a VitaClay Multi-Cooker

 

 

 

 

Add as much or as little honey, according to your preference. You can also experiment with other sweeteners, like agave nectar or fruit jams.

 

 

VitaClay Multi-Cookers are a kitchen's ultimate multi-tasker. In addition to yogurt, they make perfect rice, and cook twice as fast as a slow-cooker, in their dual-seal environment.

  

About the Author:  Chef Austin Merath is Everything Kitchen's Culinary Wizard, Kitchen-Gadget Reviewer, and New-Product Tester. He studied under chefs in College of the Ozarks' Culinary Program. It's his job to make sure you choose the kitchen tools that are right for you, by testing the best we offer. When not cooking, Austin can be found tinkering with computers or exploring the Ozarks with his wife Amy. Click here for his full bio.