Easy Sweet Yogurt

This is how yogurt is often made in Vietnam using sweetened condensed milk. I like how subtly sweet it is and my kids adore it. My kids grew up in Vietnam and often miss the yogurt from there so they actually jump for joy when they see me making it.

If I buy the Costco pack of Chobani my kids will eat it up in a jiffy but I hate all that plastic waste. I am trying to reduce the amount of plastic that I bring into my house. One way that I can do this is by not buying prepackaged yogurt. I really enjoy making yogurt in the instant pot, you just press the button and go. I make mine in small jars because my kids are more likely to eat it when it is in small grab and go containers.

This recipe is super easy and you can have it mixed up and ready to ferment in under 15 minutes. In the past, I made yogurt the classic way by heating up the milk to 180F then cooling to 110F then adding in the yogurt starter. What I have learned is that you don't need to heat the milk if you are using pasteurized milk. Heating it can increase the thickness of the yogurt a bit but is definitely not necessary.

I used organic sweetened condensed milk from Trader Joes and organic whole milk but this recipe could be made even cheaper if you chose to use non organic ingredients. As is, it worked out to be about .8 cents per ounce. If you wait for sale to stock up on some of these ingredients you could lower the cost. Also, I used a container of plain yogurt as my starter but you can also save about 3/4 cup of the yogurt you make to use as the starter in your next batch. You can even freeze it if you are worried it will go bad before you get around to your next batch.