Soy Milk and Yogurt

By á-29897

If you wish, you can start with store-bought soy milk (or coconut milk or almond milk) As for making yogurt, you can send away for starters, but all you really need to do is buy a small container of live soy yogurt. If you don’t care about ingesting a little dairy, any yogurt will do, soy or not, but the important thing is to make sure the container states that it is a “live” culture. The beneficial bacteria involved in making yogurt are generally Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus although sometimes Bifidobacteria and other lactobacilli are added. During the fermentation period, the natural (and added) sugars are consumed, converting the taste and texture to the tart and creamy goodness many of us love.

Ingredients

• Ingredients:
• Preparation Time: 2 1/2 hours
• Fermentation time: 6-8 hours
• Yield: 5 cups
• 1 quart Soymilk (if not making your own soy milk)
• 1/4 cup soy yogurt purchased from store or gifted from fermenting friend (or pre-packaged yogurt starter). You can actually use any live yoghurt (dairy or non-dairy) as a culture if you wish.
• or, if making your own milk:
• 1 cup dry soybeans
• 3 Tbsp sugar (I used Coconut sugar) – use more for greater sweetness
• 1 quart water
• vanilla extract if desired to taste

Preparation

Step 1

Making the Soymilk
1.Prepare the soybeans: Simmer the dried soybeans in water over low heat for about 2 hours. While I’ve read of some people simply soaking the soybeans overnight and blending them, I think the cooking of the soybeans first helps with making a creamier milk base from which to make the yogurt.
2.Drain the soybeans and rinse and leave in cool water
3.Remove the soybean skins – while I don’t think this is critical, if you want a creamier yogurt it helps to remove the skins of the beans. With clean hands, reach into the cool water and roll the soybeans between your two hands. Do this for about a minute and you’ll see many soybean skins floating in the water. making soy yogurt-1While running a slow stream of more cool water into the pot/bowl, swish out the floating skins. Don’t worry about trying to get all of them out.
4.Drain
5.Place the soybeans in a blender and add the quart of water and the sugar. Blend until fully liquified.
6.Using a filtration medium such as a nutmilk
bag, (I use Rawsome Creations More than a Nut Milk Bag)
making soy yogurt-3strain the soy milk to remove any
solids. If you squeeze on it a little extra you can get some of the creamier part into your soy milk.

Making Yogurt from Soy Milk
1.Pour the soymilk into a pot and heat it on the stove until it reaches 110 – 115 degrees Farenheit (43 – 48C). To be extra safe regarding avoiding harmful bacteria, you can bring the soymil to a boil first and then allow it to cool to the proper temperature
2.Pour the warmed soy milk into a bowl
3.Mix in the 1/4 cup of Soy Yogurt (or pre-packaged yogurt starter)
4.Add in vanilla extract to taste as desired
5.Warm the oven by running it at 400 degrees for approximately two minutes and then turn it off
6.Place the bowl in the oven and let it sit for about 4 hours or overnight
7.Remove bowl from the oven and again warm the oven by running it at 400 degrees for two minutes
8.Return the bowl to the oven for another 4 hours or overnight.
9.making soy yogurt-5Taste it (as if you haven’t done so already!)
10.Like our mothering figures taught us, don’t “double dip” the spoon (to avoid introducing other bacteria)
11.If you want to make your yogurt more tart, re-warm the oven and place the bowl in for another 4 hours
12.If you want it more sweet, add more sugar of your choosing