A Great Little Yogurt Machine

Dash Yogurt Maker

This has been the neatest little machine. I found it at Sam's Club for only 14 dollars. Along with the machine comes two plastic containers to store the made yogurt and a top to these containers to store nuts or granola. It also comes with two pop up containers to make and store frozen yogurt. 
 
This little machine is so easy to use. You heat up 5 cups of your milk of choice till it reaches 185 degrees, let it cool and then add 1/2 cups of yogurt, stir and then add to machine. This machine keeps the milk at the perfect temperature and no fiddling. Then to make a thick Greek-like yogurt you put the yogurt in a strainer and place it in the fridge to let it drain. Now you can flavor it to your hearts content or use it plain in smoothies.

Why make yogurt? The best reason is the ability to use the milk of your choice. Whole Foods now sells a milk that is organic and from grass fed cows. Plus it is not homogenized. It is the closest to raw milk that I can get right now. It is also nice to create your own flavors with the fresh berries and fruit found in season and to be able to sweeten the yogurt as you wish. Yogurt this way is superior to any store bought variety.

A little added bonus when you strain the yogurt: the whey. The whey can be used to add protein to shakes, soups or to make an interesting cultured lemonade-like drink. Something that I will share with you tomorrow. 

The machine also comes with a little recipe book too that shares some wonderful ways to flavor your yogurt. The recipe below is one that I got from my other new purchase: a great resource for cultured drink recipes.

Mojito Yogurt
2 cups whole milk yogurt
10 mint leaves finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
zest of one lime
1 tablespoon of lime juice
2 tablespoons of sugar or agave nectar
1/3 cup of coconut milk

1. Add the coconut milk, mint leaves, agave or sugar, lime juice, and zest to a small saucepan.
2. Heat over medium until it reaches a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Remove saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.
5. Using a small strainer, strain, the mint leaves from the mixture and discard them. 
6. Refrigerate the mojito mixture until chilled. The mixture should be fairly thick.
7. Once cool, combine the yogurt and mojito mixture.
8. Enjoy plain or turn it into frozen yogurt.