Sourdough Rye Bread

February 23, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Recently, I was finally able to find a bag of rye flour. Of all the things I knew would be harder to come by after moving here, rye flour was not one of them!

In anticipation of baking day, I got a rye sourdough starter going last night, using 2 cups rye flour, 2 cups warm water, and about 1/3 cup of our usual starter.

Allow me to introduce you to…

Overnight Rye Sourdough Starter

…The Rye of Sour-on.

My kids are hilarious.

Sir Sour Alot is looking good!

Because our original starter has aged so well, it can be shared or used as a base for “overnight starters”, which some recipes call for.

The girls didn’t bother looking up any rye bread recipes. They just modified their usual Quick and Easy Sourdough recipe (minus the optional garlic and Parmesan with herbs). With their usual double recipe, they used 2 cups of rye starter, substituted the sugar with molasses, and added 3 cups of rye flour before switching back to all purpose.

Rye sourdough bread

The result was a denser bread that didn’t rise as much during backing. Which is good, because it means they slices will fit completely in the toaster, unlike our usual loaves, which sometimes need to be flipped. :-D

Still warm from the oven!

Hearty and delicious!

I like the idea of using multiple kinds of flour when baking bread, but that requires having multiple kinds of flour on hand. Which we really don’t have the space for, anyhow. So we usually just use all purpose flour, since it gets used for so many other things as well. I think I’ll make an exception for rye flour – which was only available in a small bag, anyhow.

It looks like we’ll be maintaining two sourdough starters now; Sir Sour Alot and the Rye of Sour-on.

The Re-Farmer

Sourdough Cornmeal Pancakes

February 20, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

It’s been ages since I’ve made these, and they are absolutely my favourite pancake recipe, ever. They’re just a bit of a PITA to make. :-D

The original recipe called for sour cream. I substituted yogurt “cheese”, which my daughter described as “sour cream 2.0 – like sour cream, but MORE”. :-D I was out of yogurt cheese, but I still had some of our homemade yogurt, so I quickly made some. It took two batches to get the amount I needed for a double recipe, and I also have some whey for our next bread baking.

So I’ll start with instructions on how to make small batch yogurt “cheese” for a sour cream substitute.

Needed:
About 1/2 cup yogurt
2 coffee filters
fine sieve/strainer that will fit over a measuring cup
2 cup measuring cup

Place the strainer over the measuring cup. (If yours has a heavier handle like mine does, you might need to have something next to it to prop it up.)
Line the strainer with 1 coffee filter
Pour in the yogurt. Let sit to drain long enough that, when you pull the coffee filter inwards, then let it fall back again, the yogurt stays behind cleanly. About an hour or so. You will find the outer edges are thicker and the middle is still soft.
Draw edges of coffee filter in and lift out the yogurt. Place the second filter into the strainer. Gently roll the yogurt into the new filter, so that the softer middle is mostly on the bottom of the filter. Leave to drain until desired thickness.
At this point, if you want it to drain faster, or want a thicker “cheese”, fold the filter sides over the yogurt to completely cover it. Place a small, flat object (I used one of the many tiny dishes in my collection) over the filter, than add a weight, such as a can of beans, on top.
When at desired consistency, remove from coffee filter, place in a sealed container and refrigerate.
Reserve the liquid for bread baking.

The 1/2 cup of yogurt will yield about 1/3 cup yogurt “cheese”, depending on how long you let it sit to drain.

And now… on to the pancakes!

This recipe is modified from “Cornmeal Pancakes” in The Sourdough Cookbook by Rita Davenport.

The amounts pictured here is for a DOUBLE recipe of Sourdough Cornmeal Pancakes.

Here is the ingredients list for a SINGLE recipe.

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream (or thick yogurt or yogurt “cheese”)
1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Sourdough Cornmeal Pancakes

In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients, then set aside.
In a small bowl, beat the egg, then mix in milk and starter.
Add egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
Fold in oil and sour cream or sour cream substitute.
Preheat and oil frying pan. Cook 1/4-1/2 cup of batter per pancake for a minute or two, each side.

Note: kitchen chemistry! When the wet and dry ingredients combine, the acidic sourdough starter and sour cream/yogurt cheese will react to the baking powder and baking soda, causing it to bubble up. The batter will still be very thick, but light and fluffy at the same time. Be gentle with it, to keep those bubbles for light and fluffy pancakes!

I like these with nothing but a bit of melted butter on them, but of course you can top them with whatever you want.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

The Re-Farmer

My Non-traditional Slow Cooker Chili

February 15, 2018February 21, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I do love my slow cookers! I’ve got two 8 quart sized cookers, and have found they are the perfect size for us. Especially for making something like chili; it’s enough to feed us for a couple of days, making life much simpler!

The chili I make is not at all traditional. In fact, I’m sure it would horrify true chili aficionados! :-D I’ve looked through various recipes and they either use ingredients I never tend to have – or ones I can’t use. My chili has no heat to it. At all. You see, for some reason, I have these massive crevasses in my tongue. It seems to be a hereditary thing, as my father had them, as does one of my daughters. The oils that cause that spicy heat gets into them, and once there, there’s nothing I can do to alleviate the pain of it. So as much as I love the taste of spicy food, I can’t actually eat it.

Which makes me sad. Because I love Indian food.

Ah, well.

So here is my non-traditional, totally mild (though you can make it spicy, if you want), slow cooker chili.

Remember; this is for a big slow cooker, so feel free to cut the recipe in half. I’m pretty loosey-goosey with the quantities, too.

First up, start browning the ground meat.

I like to use lean or extra lean ground beef, but I’ve also made it with combination of beef and pork, or beef and turkey, since those three ground meats are all pretty inexpensive at Costco. I used a family size pack of lean ground beef, which was about 5 pounds, and browned it in batches and transferred it to the slow cooker liner using a slotted spoon, so what little fat there was in the pan, stayed in the pan.

While the beef was browning, I chopped up a large yellow onion. I like leaving the chunks a bit on the large side. Just because.

I added the onion to the last batch of browning beef.

Next on the chopping block; 4 or 5 small carrots.

I usually use about 5, but used only 4 this time. I finished off one bag and didn’t feel like starting another. I like to chop carrots smaller, too. This made just under a cup of chopped carrots.

Then I chopped up 2 small sweet potatoes.

Yes, sweet potatoes.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chili recipe with them in there, but it was something I decided to try some years ago, and it’s been a permanent addition, since. I like to chop these even smaller than the carrot. The idea is for them to be so soft that they disintegrate into the chili when you mix it at the end. There’s something about the creamy smoothness of it that really appeals to me.

After the meat and onions were browned, I added the chopped carrots and sweet potato, then 1 can of mixed beans and 1 can of white kidney beans (both 19 oz cans, drained and rinsed).

I like to change up the can with one type of beans, but I always include 1 can of mixed beans.

Next up is a large tin of crushed tomatoes, a small tin of tomato paste, seasonings and water.

The seasonings are typically whatever I have handy; usually a steak spice mix and garlic. Slow cookers are where dried foods are in their element, so I used dehydrated garlic pieces that I’ve been able to find. Strangely, I hardly ever saw them before our move, but our local grocery store carries it! In refill packages, too, so it’s really cheap. :-)

The 4 of us have very different preferences when it comes to seasoning, so I tend to use a light hand with it, then everyone can add their own later on.

Then mix it all together! Not an easy task, with the crock so full!

Add more water, if needed.

The water is another one of those loosey-goosey measurements. Food in slow cookers release their own moisture, so they need less added to begin with. How much to add is a judgement call. I find it’s safer to add less at the start, then check after it’s been cooking a while. If it seems to need more, I’ll add boiling water, so it won’t cool the slow cooker down too much.

I then set the slow cooker on low for 5 hours. I did end up adding more water part way through. In the time it took to finish adding the water and stirring everything, I increased the time a bit to compensate for lost heat.

This is what it looked like when we got back from town. There was a bit over half an hour on the timer at this point.

This would be the time to give it a taste and adjust the seasonings, then give it a good stir.

I then stirred in my final ingredient.

Whipping cream. About 3/4 cup.

That was another one of those “Hmm… I should try this” experiments I’d made some years ago that stuck around.

At this point, I like to stir it very thoroughly to break up the sweet potato pieces. I then returned the cover and left it for the last few minutes to make sure the cream was warmed through.

Between the sweet potatoes and the cream, we have ourselves a wonderfully rich and saucy chili.

Top your bowl with some shredded cheese, sour cream or some yogurt cheese (which, sadly, we are now out of), and enjoy!

Here’s the recipe:

Non-traditional Slow Cooker Chili
for: 8 quart slow cooker
cook on low for 5 hours

Lean or extra lean ground beef (family pack; about 5 pounds)
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 small carrots, chopped
2 small sweet potatoes, chopped small
1 tin mixed beans (19oz), drained and rinsed
1 tin white kidney beans (19oz), drained and rinsed
1 tin crushed tomatoes (796ml – 26oz)
1 tin tomato paste (170gm – 6oz)
4 cups water (to start)
Seasonings to taste (steak spice mix, dehydrated garlic or garlic granules, salt, pepper, etc.)
hot water, as needed during cooking
3/4 cup whipping cream, or to taste
shredded cheese for topping (or sour cream, or yogurt cheese)

Brown beef and onions. Drain and transfer to slow cooker liner.
Add chopped vegetables, beans, crushed tomato, tomato paste, 3 or 4 cups of water and seasonings. Mix. Cover.
Set slow cooker to low for 5 hours.
Check after a couple hours to see if hot water is needed. Add if necessary and stir.
Shortly before done, taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
Stir in whipping cream. Cover and let warm through for final cooking time.
Serve topped with shredded cheese, sour cream or other toppings of choice.

Sourdough Banana Bread Muffins

February 13, 2018February 13, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While my husband and I ended up being away for far longer than expected, our daughters did some baking. Along with the now regular baking of 4 loaves of sourdough bread, they made sourdough banana bread muffins with chocolate chips, modifying a recipe they found for banana bread online.

It was a marvelous treat to come home to!

20180213sourdough.bananabread.muffin

Sourdough Banana Bread, with muffin variation

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 brown bananas
1 egg
1 cup starter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup nuts, chips, etc.

preheat oven to 350F
cream butter and sugar
add banana, egg, vanilla. Beat like hell.
slowly mix in starter.
mix in flour, soda and salt
stir in your choice of nuts, chocolate chips, etc.
pour into greased loaf pan
bake for 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For muffin variation, add paper liners to 20 muffin cups. Fill 3/4s full with batter and bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Slowww….

February 8, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

A slow day for me today. So… first, the fun stuff!

I wasn’t around to see if any deer came today, though from the looks of the feeding station, they were certainly here.

So instead, I have a cat picture for you!

20180208DaBoy

DaBoy sure loves the top of the piano! His mom doesn’t go up there. She’s not as good of a jumper, and there’s nothing close that she can use to take it in stages. He was just so adorable, with his face hanging over the edge, I had to get a picture!

Yesterday, I spent a long time stirring a pot to make this…

20180208fudge

It is a delicious failure. I’d doubled the recipe for a type of cream fudge I’d made recently, and I just didn’t cook it down long enough, I think, even though I’d cooked it for at least 45 minutes, stirring constantly. It’s an attempt to recreate a type of Polish cream fudge that is so addictive. It has a unique texture that is hard to match, and this doesn’t match it at all. Leaving it overnight to cool and set didn’t change the texture as much as I’d expected. It still tastes great, though!

Once I’ve got it worked out, I will share the recipe.

Oh, dear! One of my daughters just came by to share with me something that had happened upstairs. They were talking and when she laughed, her sister could actually see her breath!

It’s just a touch chilling up there!!!

They moved the heater into the room they were in.

That upstairs needs a lot of work.

Meanwhile…

Today, I focused on doing something I have been letting stew in my brain for a while; figuring out what to do about the Co-op withholding our shares. That resulted in my spending what ended up being about 4 hours, working on a letter. Doing it meant having to revisit a pretty traumatic time, and has left me feeling drained. Then after a break to help with the bread baking, I went back to it to add in something I’d forgotten, then go over it for typos. It was difficult, and I am recognizing the damage living there has done to me, and that even though we don’t live there anymore, it is still affecting my mental health.

Now that I’ve written it, though, I have to do something with it.

I am not looking forward to it.

Moving away from there was supposed to end this toxic garbage. Ah, well. I’ve never been one to avoid doing the right thing, just because it’s difficult.

The Re-Farmer

Vanilla Sugar

February 4, 2018February 4, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This is one of the things I tried a few years back and now keep handy all the time. Making vanilla sugar is super easy, too. I keep mine in a quart jar in the cupboard, and when it starts to run low, I just top it up with more sugar, give it a shake, and leave it for a while before using it again.

vanilla.sugar

Ingredients for 1 quart jar

1 vanilla bean pod
granulated sugar, to fill

Take the vanilla pod and carefully cut into it, lengthwise, to split it open. Cut the entire pod into 3 or 4 pieces.

Pour sugar, with cut up pod pieces, into the jar, leaving an inch or two of head space. Seal the jar tightly, then shake thoroughly to distribute the pod pieces throughout.

Set jar aside for a week before using. Shake occasionally.

If you wish to use the sugar in baking, which can be done to replace vanilla in a recipe that uses both vanilla and granulated sugar, make up a larger batch. If you went up to a gallon (4L) size container, two vanilla bean pods would be enough.

The vanilla bean pods will continue to flavour the sugar for a long time, as fresh sugar is added to the jar to refill. I’ve had mine for about 3 years, give or take a few months, and am just now thinking of refreshing the vanilla bean pieces. I rarely use it for baking, but then, we don’t bake sweets very often. Instead, I keep a separate sugar bowl for vanilla sugar on the table for our tea.

That’s it! Easy peasy!

Stocking Up for the Month

February 3, 2018February 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, I got word that the parts for our van are in, but the work won’t be done until Monday.

I had hoped to do our big monthly shop with our own vehicle instead of my brother’s. We aren’t out of food, but running low on things and have made a few trips into the next town to get enough to tide us over.

Unfortunately, doing that is murder on the budget.

My husband and I headed into town earlier in the day – his first real outing in some weeks – and were able to trade in his sharps container. I had to decide whether or not to make the trip into The City, though. Costco isn’t open on Sundays, so it had to be today, or we’d pick up some more “tide us over” stuff before coming home, then do the big shopping on Monday. Assuming the van can be worked on early in the day. Which I don’t know. If it didn’t get worked on until evening, the shopping would be done on Tuesday.

So it was decided to use my brother’s van for another trip to The City, today. The only thing we picked up on the way home was a couple of bags of deer feed, which only cost $12 each. I considered picking up more bird feed, too – we’ve still got half a bag – but decided to check out what Costco had.

We’ve been working on an extensive list for the past while, knowing that we won’t actually be able to get all of it. It all depended on what was left of the food budget. So after double checking the numbers, both girls joined me for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Costco. We didn’t go to the closest one, because it sucks – very tiny, terribly designed parking lot, and very hard to get in and out of. There’s a third one we will check out one of these days, but not on this trip.

So to give an idea of what we get when stocking up for a month, here is a list of what we actually got, as opposed to what was on the list.

Dry cat food – three large bags (for the outside cats)
Wet cat food – 1 large case (for the inside cats, to supplement their dry cat food)
Bird seed – their bag of songbird mix was only about $11; cheaper than the local, single variety seed, bags, but also smaller.
Cat litter
large package of yeast
Milk – 4L homo milk (none of this low fat/no fat stuff! *L*)
Whipping cream – 1L
Butter – 6 pounds
Old Cheddar cheese – one of the giant blocks
Hummus – 2 pack
Peanut butter
Eggs – 5 dozen package
Frozen berries
Frozen vegetable mix
Rye bread – 2 loaf pack (for a baking break! Plus, I haven’t found a place to buy rye flour, yet)
Tortilla wraps – the big pack of plain wraps
Tortilla chips
Potatoes – 20lb bag of Russets
Carrots – 10 lb bag
Sweet Potatoes – 3 lb bag
Yellow onions – large sack (can’t remember the weight)
Meats. For this, it’s based on whatever is cheap or on sale. This time, we got pork breakfast sausages, honey and garlic fresh sausages, a pork loin (aka a meat slug), beef stew, lean ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey, pork roasts (package of 2), pork chops (pork tends to be cheap, so we get a lot of that). For the bigger package/cuts, they get broken down into smaller pieces to last at least a couple of days.
Laundry detergent
Shampoo/Conditioner
Toilet paper
Tax software
Package of 6 giant, super colorful, gorgeous mugs. Like we need more mugs! But they were only $20, and my daughter said she’d pay me back. Not that I intend to let her!

The grand total was just over $530, but I also had my rebate coupon, which finally came to the right address, so that took off just over $90, leaving me with a grand total of just under $440.

What we DIDN’T get, that was on the list.

Cold drinks; I was hoping to get at least a case of V8. We also sometimes get a case of Coke Zero. No room in the flat cart, and for this month, not really room in the budget for it, either. At some point, I want to stock up on canned drinks, just so I have something to offer visitors besides tea.
Coffee; my older daughter is the only coffee drinker, and she said she still had enough.
Flour; again, we ran out of room on the flat cart. I’ve also found it at a better (sale) price at the regular grocery store we go to, so we’ll get more from there again, instead.
Crackers; need to have something for the hummus, right? No room. We do try to have some sort of snacks or treats, as much for the psychological benefits of having a “treat” as for the actual snack.
Olives; my husband had asked me to get nacho fixings – I got the chips, but didn’t see their big containers of green olives. Not that we had room for it, anymore. I’ll pick up a smaller jar from the regular grocery store, instead.
Black olives; for more bread baking. Will be purchased at the regular grocery store.
Oil; I had intended to get a Costco sized container of vegetable oil, because of all the baking we’re doing, but not only did we run out of room, I never found the size I was interested in.
Popcorn; dang. Completely forgot that one. Not that we had room for it.
Canned tomato soup; we like to have canned soups for those days when we need to make something quick, or want something light for a late night snack. It also works well as an ingredient. No room. Mushroom soup and New England Clam Chowder are also canned soups we like to pick up every now and then.
Apples; for things like fresh fruit and vegetables, we tend to get them at the regular grocery store, rather than Costco. Their quantities are usually too large for our needs, and we’d rather get smaller amounts with more variety than giant bags of things. Now that we have a root cellar, though, I was able to get the large bags of potatoes, carrots and onions. They will be okay for the month.
Rice; we still have some, so it can wait this time around, but when we do get more, we like to get Basmati rice.

For the list of things we didn’t get, we likely won’t be able to get much of it this month, anyhow, for budgetary reasons. As long as we have the basics and ingredients, we manage without. We also already had a good stock of things like soup, toothpaste, dish detergent, etc. Other personal grooming/hygiene products will have to wait for either a Walmart trip, the next time we go to The City, or the regular grocery store. We might be able to get better prices in The City, but not enough to warrant the cost of gas to make the drive.

Next month, I hope to have enough room in the budget to hit a Bulk Barn for things we are starting to run low on. I prefer to go there for dried goods, as they tend to have a greater variety of choices. It’s always handy to have things like split peas, lentils, barley, etc. Especially for slow cooker meals.

So with the big monthly trip, plus supplemental shopping later in the month (we’ll for sure need to pick up more eggs and milk by mid month, for example), we’ll be spending about $700 total, for the 4 of us. Normally, my budget would be higher, but those “tide us over” trips kyboshed that pretty good. :-(

That’s food, household goods, personal hygiene products, pet supplies, and extras, like the software and those mugs we got, for 4 people, for 1 month.

What I find interesting about that is going back to what I read at Dining with Donald and his Joe Average Buys Groceries challenge. This is based on the statistic that the average Manitoba spends $241 per month for food. Times that by 4 and, for our household, that would be $964 average for just food, per month.

I honestly can’t remember the last time we even had a budget for that much food for the 4 of us for one month. At our highest, we were spending about $1200 a month for everything we got at the grocery store/Costco. Taking off for non-food items, it was probably more like $800 a month, average.

I’m not sure if that’s “good” or “bad”. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Home Made Yogurt and Yogurt “cheese” – Day Two; finished

January 29, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Here are the final results of the yogurt and yogurt cheese making process.

You can visit the first part here, with the recipe, and the second part here, with the step-by-step to make the yogurt cheese.

First up, let’s compare the finished yogurts.

20180129-yogurt6

This was after the home made yogurt was in the fridge for several hours. It did thicken somewhat from when I first put it in the containers, but as you can see, it’s still quite a bit thinner than the commercial yogurt I’d used as a starter. That yogurt, by the way, was just a house brand of plain “Balkan” style yogurt. I normally buy Greek yogurt, but it was more than twice the price!

As far as texture went, the only difference was that one was thinner than the other.

I couldn’t really taste any difference in flavour.

After taking the photo, I mixed both together with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. It was quite nice!

One of my daughters promptly claimed the container that wasn’t quite full for herself, and ate it straight. :-D

Now, on to the yogurt cheese…

After hanging for about 3 hours, there was quite a lot of liquid in the container. Enough that I poured it off into the container I’d already started in the fridge, almost filling it, so that the bag wouldn’t be sitting in so much liquid.

When very little more drained out of it after another hour or two, I decided to take it out and finish the process.

20180129.yogurt.cheese9

Look how much liquid there is! I can hardly wait until our next bread baking day. :-D

Once the bag was on the plate, I could really feel how the middle was thinner than the outside. If I had a cheese press, I would have been able to get more liquid out, more evenly. Maybe some day. For now, I’m happy with doing it this way.

20180129.yogurt.cheese.10

And here is my yogurt cheese baby. With the outside being drier, it allowed me to gently roll the cheese out of the cloth. If that part had broken up more, the softer middle would have got on the cloth and made it much more difficult to get out of the bag.

Guess how I know that? :-D

20180129.yogurt.cheese.11

Once out of the cloth, I mixed it thoroughly to make it an even texture. This is a bit on the thin side to be a “cream cheese.” More like a really thick sour cream.

I had a couple of smaller containers waiting for it…

20180129.yogurt.cheese.12

I filled one with the plain yogurt cheese, then added some garlic powder, onion salt and parsley to what was left in the bowl.

I admit, I licked the spatula after doing this, and the onion and garlic one was sooo good!

Like the plain yogurt, it thickens a bit in the fridge, but not by much more.

If I had wanted to, I could have left the bag to hang longer to drain more liquid out and have more of a cream cheese texture, rather than a sour cream texture.

We are looking forward to trying some of this on pierogi soon!

If you try making this yourself, please to pop by and let me know in the comments, how yours turned out, and what you think of it!

The Re-Farmer

Home Made Yogurt and Yogurt “cheese” – Day Two

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Okay, this is going to be a photo heavy post! ;-)

After leaving the yogurt to incubate last night, here is what it looked like this morning. Continue reading →

Home Made Yogurt – Day One

January 28, 2018January 28, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

I hadn’t intended to make this again so soon, but my daughter and I were able to make a quick trip into town and she made a passing comment about how we should make yogurt again. I’ve been thinking of it since I posted about using the liquid from making yogurt cheese in bread baking, so that was all it took to convince me to get what we needed to make some now.

Making yogurt is really pretty easy. The main thing is to have a warm place for the bacteria to do its thing for the hours it needs. I’ve found leaving it in a warm oven with the light left on overnight to be adequate, but there are other methods.

Since that is my preferred method, it’s a two day process. I use a full gallon of milk, and plan to use half of it to make yogurt cheese tomorrow.

Along with the ingredients, a candy thermometer is needed, and containers you can sterilize to store the yogurt in, later. Any container that can handle being scalded, with an air tight lid, of the appropriate size for your amounts will do.

The recipe I use is from Whole Foods for the Whole Family, from La Leche League International. I have a 1991 printing of it. It’s a very handy cookbook, if you like to make things from scratch. I modified the recipe for larger quantities, so I’ll include both the original quantities, and my own variation (in brackets).

This recipe uses plain commercial yogurt as a starter. Make sure you check the label to see that it says something like “active bacterial culture” or “live bacteria” on it.

Do not use the optional gelatin if you’re planning to make yogurt cheese. The gelatin serves only to make a firmer yogurt.

4L milk, scalded

Yogurt

4 cups milk (4 litres/1 gallon)
1 cup powdered milk (4 cups)
2-4 Tbsp plain yogurt (1/2 – 1 cup)
2 tsp (8 tsp) unflavored gelatin, softened in 1/4 cup (1 cup) cold water – optional

Scald milk.
Cool to 95 – 155 degrees. (The recipe does not specify, but looking at my candy thermometer, it must refer to Celsius, not Fahrenheit) Check with candy thermometer to be sure.
Yogurt starter and powdered milk stirred in.
Stir in powdered milk and yogurt. Add optional softened gelatin.
Pour into sterilized jars, a baking dish with a cover, or a thermos rinsed with very hot water. (Because I use an entire gallon of milk, I leave it in the same container I heated it in and cover it with a lid.)
Place into or on a yogurt maker or use other heat source. A thermos just needs to be wrapped in a towel.
Put in a warm place and allow to incubate at 95-155 degrees until yogurt sets. It can take from 3-9 hours, depending on your heat source. Check after 3 hours to see if it is set by tilting the container or tapping it with the heel of your hand. When set, refrigerate immediately.

Maintaining the temperature is vital; too cold, and the milk can go sour. Too hot, and it will kill the bacteria. The recipe lists several options for maintaining the right temperature, but a few of them a fire hazards, so I won’t bother including them. :-D

Yogurt cheese isn’t really cheese at all, but is has a texture similar to cream cheese and makes a wonderful spread. To make it, you’ll need cheese cloth, and somewhere to hang it.

Which I don’t have. So I have to figure something out for tomorrow.

Anyhow… to make yogurt “cream cheese”…

Line a colander with 2-4 layers of cheesecloth. Place the colander over a bowl, then dump home made yogurt onto the cheesecloth. Pull up the corners of the cheese cloth and tie them together so it can be hung. Suspend the resulting bag of yogurt over the bowl and leave overnight. (Or just a few hours, depending on how thick you want it)
Reserve liquid in bowl for bread baking.
Remove yogurt cheese from bag and refrigerate.

Fair warning: getting the yogurt cheese off the cheese cloth can be a messy job! Also, the outside will often be drier than the middle, so you’ll probably want to mix it together. If you wish, you can mix in some dried herbs or garlic or otherwise experiment with it.

More, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer

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