I saw a review of a Lakeland yogurt maker before Christmas and for a fleeting moment I considered buying one until I thought of my husbands reaction to another kitchen gadget.

The reason I even considered it for a milli-second was that until then, the one time I tried to make yogurt it wasn’t a success. At all. Far from the delicious greek style delicacy I had imagined, I got a yucky runny mixture which was far from pleasant. I binned the lot needless to say.

At Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Darina Allens Forgotten Skills of Cookery which amongst other things has a recipe for Yogurt. So at the weekend while we were snowed in, I gave it a try and the result was yummy, thick, creamy yogurt which is gorgeous with honey and granola. (You can tell I’m trying to break my Christmas sweet tooth, so have switched to yogurt for my evening treat!) I’ve tweaked the recipe slightly to make a smaller amount and I also use a thermos flask for ‘ripening’ the yogurt.

Ingredients

• 1 litre milk
• 150ml double cream (gives richness and thickness, but not totally necessary)
• 2 big tablespoons of the freshest ‘live’ natural yogurt you can find. (using not so fresh yogurt can result in slimy end result)

Method

• Heat milk to boiling point, then reduce heat and simmer until volume is reduced to around 650ml
• Take milk off heat and add double cream
• Let milk cool until temperature is (ideally) 40 – 42c. If you don’t have a thermometer you can test by sticking a clean finger into the milk. If you can hold for a count of 10 it’s about right. Too cold (under 40c) or too hot (over 60c) and it won’t work
• Add the yogurt, then immediately transfer to a pre-heated thermos flask
• Leave overnight and then you’ll have lovely thick creamy yogurt in the morning!

Please do try this, it’s fantastic and very satisfying to make. I’d love to hear what you think if you do try it?