Guest Post: Make Your Own Viili (Yogurt)

Homemade Viili (Finnish yogurt)

This was simple to make and fantastic! I picked up the dry culture from Cultures for Health.

First step is to make a starter from the dry culture:
1 cup whole milk
.08oz of dry mix (various forms of Lactic Acid Bacteria)

1 - Put the ingredients in a mason jar.
2 - Stir it up with a wooden spoon (for some reason they said a stainless steel would hurt the starter) and place a towel over the top.
3 - Set it in a warm place (70°-80°) for 48 hours.
4 - After the 48 hours are up place it in the refrigerator for 6 hours to set.

That's it for a starter. Now its time to make the yogurt.

The formula is 1 tablespoon of starter per cup of yogurt. I wanted to make 1 quart so I needed 4 tablespoons of starter.

1 - Put a quart of milk in a mason jar with the 4 tablespoons of starter.
2 - Stir it up with a wooden spoon and place a towel over the top.
3 - Set it in a warm place (70°-80°) for 24 hours.
4 - After the 24 hours are up place it in the refrigerator for 6 hours to set.

At this point scoop out 4 tablespoons, and place it in another jar to keep as starter for the next batch (this can be done indefinitely to keep the process going).

I wanted my yogurt a little thicker than it was, so I strained it with a cheese cloth for a few hours in the refrigerator.

The final yogurt is slightly tart, so I mixed in 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract for the entire quart.

And there you go - homemade Viili yogurt without a yogurt maker.

Thank you so much, Josh!