Success!! MY Yogurt is BETTER than Brown Cow!!!

I never thought it would be possible. For ME to make yogurt better than the most amazing phenomenal most wonderful yogurt on the planet and yet... I did. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

OK. I know I'm a little dramatic but I REALLY love Brown Cow Chocolate Yogurt and I eat a hideous amount of the stuff.

So how does one make imitation Brown Cow chocolate yogurt. I'm going to follow the keep it simple approach.

1. Buy 1 quart of Chocolate Milk (I used Clover Organic Full Fat Milk) - you can do this with any kind of milk nonfat or low fat (if you do use non-fat or low fat put more dry milk in the mix during step 4).

2. Using a double boiler - or a pan inside another pan that is full of water, bring your milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (helps to have a little thermometer to check the temp). This kills all the 'bad' bacteria that can grow in the milk. Oh, be sure to use a clean clean pan for the milk and use clean clean utensil when stirring the milk (try to sterilize them first if possible).

3. Once you get your milk to 180 degrees F get it to cool to 110 degrees F. I used the same pan I had filled with water to 'make' a double boiler and filled it with cold water and ice. This can go fast if you use an ice bath so be ready for step 4.

4. Once you get your milk to 110 degrees and BEFORE it gets to 90 degrees F add your 'starter'. I used 5 oz of yogurt starter that I bought but you can also use a plain yogurt from the store that has 'active cultures' (check the label). You will need to put in 2 Tablespoons of this yogurt. Also add 1/4-1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk, this helps your yogurt to be get thicker and it increases its nutritional content. I used 1/4 cup since I used whole milk. Stir Well, and then immediately transfer your receptacle to it's incubation location. This provides the right conditions for the 'good bacteria' (your yogurt cultures) to spread throughout the milk to make yogurt.

Now all the previous steps can go fast and don't really require that much 'hands on' time but the key part is next!!!

5. Incubation is the KEY!!! Figure out how to keep your yogurt as close to 100 degrees as possible for seven hours. --I KNOW-- but it is possible. I found that our toaster oven has a 100 degree option so that's what I did and it worked perfectly. Other ideas include, figuring out if your crock pot can do that...a heating pad...a burner on low.

Then once you've got your 7 hour mark. put a syran wrap on the top of your container and store in fridge to stop the cultures from working on your milk further. It will get more sour the longer you let them operate.

After the yogurt gets cold you have some SERIOUSLY GOOD yogurt to eat.

Only problem is I ate most of it already :(