Homemade Instant Pot Yogurt
I recently started making yogurt in my Instant Pot and I just love the process. It's easy and fun, and I enjoy how you can so easily customize it to suit your family's preferences.
There are only two ingredients you need to make yogurt in the instant pot.
Milk, I use organic fat free milk
About 1/2 cup of a plain greek yogurt with live cultures
Make sure your instant pot is clean and sanitized. Also, you will want to remove the rubber seal on your lid, or set your lid aside and use a different lid, you will not be pressure cooking so the seal isn't necessary, and that rubber seal will release and infuse flavors from previous meals into your yogurt so you definitely want to remove or use a different lid altogether.
Most instant pots have a yogurt function. Press the yogurt button until you reach the boil feature, this doesn't boil the milk but it does bring it up to the necessary 180 degrees. .
Add the milk.
Leave until the instant pot beeps, indicating it has come to temperature.
Now you will need to cool the milk, by removing your pot from your instant pot and placing it on the counter. You can also place the pot in a cool bath in the sink for quicker cooling. You need to reduce the temperature of the milk from 180 to 105-113, ideally 108.
Once the temperature is reduce you need to add the yogurt culture and whisk it in until blended.
Return to your instant pot and press the yogurt button again to sift through the time settings. The longer you let the yogurt sit in this setting the more tart the yogurt will be. The minimum time for Incubating the yogurt is 8 hours. I like to keep mine incubating for 12-16 hours.
Once you remove your yogurt you will need to strain the yogurt. You can line your strainer with cheese cloth, or line the strainer with coffee filters. I also purchased a yogurt strainer. Here is the link if you would like to check it out.
https://www.amazon.com/Euro-Cuisine-GY50-Greek-Yogurt/dp/B0091XNL0I/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=yogurt+strainer&qid=1552096620&s=gateway&sr=8-4
The difference between greek yogurt and regular yogurt is the amount of whey that is strained from the yogurt. The longer you strain it the thicker more concentrated it is, having a denser texture and higher amounts of protein.
Straining for 2-4 hours will give you a nice rich greek yogurt.
Straining for 1 to 1.5 hours will give you a creamy, thinner yogurt.
You can sweeten your yogurt with honey, maple syrup, sugar, brown sugar. We prefer to sweeten with honey and I'll add about 1/2 cup for the 1/2 gallon of milk. I also add 1tsp of vanilla extract.
Once strained transfer to glass containers.
The yogurt will last in the fridge for up to a week.
