Yogurt

So one of my favorite snacks has become yogurt mixed with granola.  This really isn't hard to do. It just has to sit for several hours, and it's always hard for me to remember to put it in the fridge later. It's pretty forgiving though. The other night I was supposed to put it in the fridge at 7 and didn't remember until 10, and it was just fine. I only like Yoplait yogurt -- no generic stuff, but I think this is really yummy. The original recipe that I saw was for double this amount, and she suggested getting one of those styrofoam coolers to put the jars in. Then you fill all the extra room in the cooler with a heavy blanket. We don't need that much. I make half of that and just use a small cooler that I think is for picnic lunches, and I stuff extra dish towels around it to fill up the empty space in the cooler. Anyway, this is the recipe that I use:

In a medium saucepan, combine 3 cups milk with 1/4 cup powdered milk (3 c. water, 3/4 c. + 1 T. dry milk). Whisk til smooth. Heat to 200 degrees or until milk starts to bubble on the sides and crawl up the pan. Remove from heat and pour into a glass bowl. Allow to cool until warm to the touch (100 degrees, and it takes a while). Add 1/2 cup yogurt starter (you can either use some from your last batch, or if you forgot to save some, use Dannon plain). Mix until smooth, then fill 2 pint jars.

Immediately place in thick blanket and cover. Allow to sit 9 hours before refrigerating.

For vanilla yogurt, add 1/4 cup sugar  and 1 Tablespoon vanilla to the heating milk. For fruit yogurt, place a few tbsp. of your favorite jam at the bottom of the jars before filling.