Each week, sometimes a couple of times a week, my daughter makes homemade yogurt in the instant pot. We no longer buy yogurt at the grocery because her yogurt is so delicious and ever so much less expensive. She makes a batch of low fat Greek yogurt to use in recipes through the week and to eat in meals where there are a few carbs involved. For you Trim Healthy Mama Diet folks, you know that carbs and fat do not go together so low fat and some carbs in a meal are considered an E meal (Energizer). For the Greek Yogurt she uses a recipe from This Old Gal.com.
But this post is all about the penultimate of deliciousness….Homemade “Noosa” Yogurt!
Have you ever had Noosa yogurt? Go ahead, splurge. Put out between 2 and 3 dollars for an individual portion of deliciousness at the grocery store. You will enjoy the experience even with your smarting wallet. Now think about seven people in your household wanting that experience at least once a day every day. You will quickly see a hundred dollars a week going out the door for yogurt! (We never actually permitted such a splurge. We lived with the big sad eyes of yearning young’uns.)
Then my daughter found the copycat Noosa recipe on This Old Gal.com. With a few revisions, the recipe became THM diet friendly. She bought wide mouth half pint canning jars and plastic lids to pack her delicious yogurt with fruit on the bottom into scrumptious stacks in the refrigerator. The family eagerly gobbles down the yogurt for breakfast, for snack, even for dessert!
I keep a tub of the yumminess in my refrigerator to scoop out the thick custard-like yogurt and top it with whatever berry is in season (or in the freezer).
Now, to be fair. This is not your mama’s nonfat or low fat yogurt. This baby is made with whole milk and heavy cream. While This Old Gal’s recipe calls for sugar and yogurt, my daughter uses Gentle Sweet (a blend of sweeteners found in foods – xylitol, erythritol and stevia) to replace the sugar. Since we have eliminated sugar and many of the carbs in our diet, we have found that the fats in the foods are consumed and we are not gaining weight…in fact losing. Eating deliciousness!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 16 half pints | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 2 hours | 6 hours |
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This recipe makes a large batch of yogurt using the instant pot. The thick, sweet, rich, yogurt is delicious as breakfast, snack or dessert. Don't panic at the number of steps and the total time involved. It is a simple process, just takes a bit of monitoring and waiting.
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- 1 gallon whole milk
- 2 pints Heavy Cream
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt with active cultures this can be plain Fage yogurt or other store bought yogurt just make sure it says active cultures in the ingredients
- 3 Tbsp Gelatine
- 1 cup Gentle Sweet you can Google the recipe for Gentle Sweet or buy it online
- (Before beginning the yogurt process you must sterilize the Instant Pot. Put three cups of water in the pot. Close the lid and the pressure valve. Use the Steam button and set for 5 minutes. When the cook time is over, use Quick Release to release the pressure. Remove the lid. Cool and dry the cooking pot.
- Pour milk and cream into the room temperature Instant Pot cooking pot and cover. Since this process does not involve pressure, you can put on the glass lid or the regular IP lid.
- Use the Yogurt button. Adjust until the digital readout says "BOIL". Wait 10 minutes the open the pot and remove any skin that has developed (discard) then whisk the milk mixture.
- In a separate bowl mix together the Gelatine and the Gentle Sweet. Set aside.
- When the Instant Pot beeps, again skim any skin from the milk and whisk the milk mixture. Using a digital thermometer make sure the temperature of the milk is 180-183 degrees. (If it is not yet that temperature, again set the pot to BOIL, checking the temperature periodically until the correct temperature is reached)
- When the milk mixture is 180 degrees, add one cup of the warm milk to the bowl of sugar and gelatin. Whisk until completely incorporated. Pour this mixture into the milk in the Instant Pot and whisk to completely combine the ingredients
- Remove the cooking pot and put it in the kitchen sink with enough cool water to come approximately half way up the outside of the pot. Whisk often until the milk cools to 100 degrees. Remove any skin that develops. Cool down takes approximately 10 minutes.
- Put the yogurt starter in a small bowl and temper it by slowly whisking in an equal amount of the warm milk mixture. Pour the starter mixture into the cooking pot and whisk to combine.
- Place the cooking pot back into the Instant Pot and cover with the glass lid or IP lid. Press Yogurt button and adjust to 6:00 hours. Make sure the digital readout indicated NORMAL not LESS. Go live life until the Cycle ends in 6 hours.
- When the cycle ends, divide the yogurt into the mason jars. We put a layer of thawed frozen fruit in the bottom of the jar then fill the jar to the top with the yogurt. Screw on a lid and stack the jars in the refrigerator. Fight off family members for 10 hours to allow the yogurt to thicken to its wonderful consistency.
- Take a bow as your family oh's and ah's!
Wow! This looks worth a try although it makes a vast amount for two people. How long does the yogurt stay fresh in the refrigerator?
I am sure you can make a smaller batch by dividing the amounts accordingly. It goes so fast around here that “going bad” has never been an issue. However, we both think that it would last a similar length of time to store bought yogurt…at least two or three weeks.
This Old Gal uses half as much of the milk and cream, and of course the other ingredients are adjusted down as well. It still makes quite a bit. If you run 8 ounce canning jars through the dishwasher, so they are extra clean, I think it helps it keep a little longer, as there is no bacteria to speed up spoilage.
You are right about the amounts in the ingredients. We have a family of seven which includes two boys who are bottomless pits so we need a large batch at a time!
Thanks for sharing this, it sounds delicious! And, if she actually tries it, this will be the first use of the Instant Pot. (you know, the one you have never used and purchased how long ago now Carol?) I probably shouldn’t have said that, since she may not share any yogurt with me now! (But like Carol, I’m also brutally honest)
We have two Instant Pots (two different sizes). We mainly use them for staples like stock, yogurt and boiled eggs. Those things alone make it too handy to do without. Do try it for boiled eggs, so easy to do and they peel perfectly. We are planning to try doing more meals in it this summer to avoid heating up the kitchen. Hey, you should try it on Thursdays!
Grrr…
Yum! Momma, let’s try this! I’m all in!! Thank you, Jan!
This is so delicious!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Do you need to use the gentle sweet or can you skip it?
You can certainly skip it or use a different sweetener.
Hello! I’m so happy to have found this recipe.Thank you for sharing. What size instant pot do you recommend? I will most likely only be using it for yogurt, boiled eggs, and bone broth. 🙂
It greatly depends on the size of your family. We are a family of seven and have two instant pots, 3 qt and 6 qt. I generally use the 3 quart for yogurt but for bone broth I may use the 6 quart if I have accumulated a lot of bones. Probably the 3 quart is a good beginner size. You can always do two batches!