easiyo yogurt maker any good? or make your own? (merged)

verynewmoneysaver

I bought one of these, then didn't use it for ages. Now have some packets that went out of date in Sept 08. Do think I dare use them?

OldBlond

retiredlady wrote: »

I bought the Easiyo maker last week and I have found it the easiest thing ever! :beer:
I use a litre of value semi skimmed UHT milk from Tesco, pour it into the container, add 2 tablespoons of silver spoon sweetener powder, 1 tablespoon value skim milk powder & a couple of tablespoons of yogurt from the last pot I made. No need to heat the milk up! Just put the lid on, give it a shake and then put this container into the Easiyo thingie with the boiling water. It takes me about 5 minutes including the time it takes for the water to boil!Hey Presto - 6 hours later I have lovely thick yogurt that tastes like the muller corner stuff.:j :j If you like a thicker yogurt just give it a stir at this point then put it in the fridge to chill down. It thickens even more as it gets colder.

For breakfast I have 28 grams of wheataflakes, chopped strawberries and whatever other fruit I fancy and about a cup of yogurt all mixed in. Heaven in a bowl! Low Fat and Sugar Free too!

All the best
Marion

Thanks for this recipe, I have recently bought the easiyo myself and love it but the sachets are expensive and I have spent over £100 on them already, I will def be giving this a go before I buy again.

katycocoa

I just made my own yoghurt for the first time without using a ready mix and I'm really pleased with the results. I used the method above but didn't add sweetener and used full fat UHT. It is really thick and creamy, much better than the mixes in my opinion.

thriftlady_2

I recently bought a book of yogurt recipes from France. I tried the 'yaourt a la creme'. My goodness it was good!

Easy peasy too.

1 litre of whole milk -I used UHT becuase I want to use it up (if you use fresh milk heat it to boiling point first and allow to cool to room temperature)
1 150g pot of whole milk natural yogurt -I used Yeo Valley
2 tbsp of creme fraiche

Mix carefully the creme fraiche and the yogurt then whisk in the milk.
Put in the yogurt maker for 8 hours.
Result -thick, creamy, delicious yogurt.

Something I didn't know was that you can flavour and sweeten yogurt before making it. I always thought you could only make yogurt plain, but apparently not.

The recipes in my new book are made in the sort of yogurt maker that has little glass pots -very attractive they are too. I think I might get myself one. (Btw they are cheaper on Amazon.fr than Amazon.co.uk even with postage). I have a 'bulk' yogurt maker that makes a litre at a time so I haven't tried the flavoured ones yet although there is no reason why you can't make them in a bulk yogurt maker.

The recipes also use one pot (150g) of yogurt starter for each 1 litre batch which is more than usually recommended. I have set aside 1 pot's worth for my next batch.

Another thing my new book says is that the milk must be at room temperature. So after heating it to boiling point you don't need to use it as soon as it has dropped to the correct temperature. Leave it to cool completely but without refrigerating.

This makes sense to me as I use the UHT milk at room temperature and always have more success with UHT than with fresh milk which I have heated and allowed tocool to the correct temperature. It has been too warm for the yogurt maker.

If you read French and are interested in the book it is Mes Petits Pots de Yaourt available here. If you have an Amazon account it is alarmingly easy to order stuff from Amazon.fr as your password will work there too and all your details will be there -the ordering format is identical to amazon.co.uk. The postage is more of course, but it is very fast (not Royal Mail). I ordered some books on Monday and they arrived Wednesday morning.

Apologies to purists about the lack of accents on the French words -I can't get the accent codes to show up-I'm getting exclamation marks instead.

Gigervamp

thriftlady wrote: »

Something I didn't know was that you can flavour and sweeten yogurt before making it. I always thought you could only make yogurt plain, but apparently not.

Yes. I always put the sugar in at the start.

That recipe sounds lovely.

thriftlady_2

You can, of course make yogurt entirely from cream. Go on I dare you:D

Gigervamp

Lol, very tempting! I love creamy yoghurt.

veronarona

I'm not sure if I've already asked this earlier in this long thread - if I have, I've forgotten the answer :rolleyes:

For tea, coffee, breakfast cereal etc, I use "Slimmer" sterilised skimmed milk because (1) it doesn't have to be kept refrigerated prior to opening, (2) it's fat free, and (3) it almost tastes and has the consistency of fresh, pasteurised semi-skimmed milk. It doesn't have the horrible flavour of UHT milk, although it's not exactly like fresh.

Has anyone tried making yogurt with this milk, or does anyone know of any objections to trying it? It keeps for several months, I've just bought some with a use-by of 31st July, it can't be more "germy" than UHT, can it?

veronarona

thriftlady_2

veronarona wrote: »

I'm not sure if I've already asked this earlier in this long thread - if I have, I've forgotten the answer :rolleyes:

For tea, coffee, breakfast cereal etc, I use "Slimmer" sterilised skimmed milk because (1) it doesn't have to be kept refrigerated prior to opening, (2) it's fat free, and (3) it almost tastes and has the consistency of fresh, pasteurised semi-skimmed milk. It doesn't have the horrible flavour of UHT milk, although it's not exactly like fresh.

Has anyone tried making yogurt with this milk, or does anyone know of any objections to trying it? It keeps for several months, I've just bought some with a use-by of 31st July, it can't be more "germy" than UHT, can it?

veronarona

I don't see why tou can't use it Veronarona- you have to sterilise fresh milk before yogging anyway.

UHT milk does taste horrible to drink or in drinks (I would never drink it) but it is absolutely fine in yogurt. You don't need to refrigerate it prior to opening either.

veronarona

thriftlady wrote: »

UHT ....... You don't need to refrigerate it prior to opening either.

Yes, but the only one I could ever stand the taste or smell of is the skimmed, but that's like water so I couldn't bear to use it in coffee - whereas the sterilised skimmed, as I said, has the taste and consistency of semi-skimmed pasteurised, almost.

Sorry to go on about it, but that milk is a bit of a passion of mine because it's "no fat", can be stored for months, and doesn't taste revolting - but most places won't stock it, though they gives miles of shelf space to the dreaded UHT, yuk.

Any road up thanks for the opinion, Thrifty, I am reassured

veronarona