Instant Pot Greek Yogurt

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Frozen Greek Yogurt from your Instant Pot @serenalissy

The new year is here and it’s that month of resolutions and goal setting and deciding all the changes we are going to have in our lives in 2018 and how much better everything is going to be. For me it’s that month that I try to make some healthier eating choices that I know I can stick with all year long. No fad diets, no crazy food restrictions, none of that works for me. I just try to incorporate a few more healthy eating choices that I love and I know I will stick with. I plan a few half marathons that I want to run for the year and maybe a few distance bike rides but nothing extreme that I know I will give up in February.

I’ve been eating yogurt all my life. I’ve seen a few recipes out there for the Instant Pot so I figured I’d give it a try. At first I didn’t see the logic. By the time I buy my starter and my milk, why didn’t I just buy a container of Chobani? I probably go through one container every two weeks. I’m the only yogurt eater in the house. Not that expensive of a food habit for me. But then after reading quite a bit on it, I saw people were going through containers (yes more than one) in a week’s time. And if it’s a family of yogurt lovers then multiple containers per week. Ok, cha ching. I got it.

Then, I started looking at the recipes. They were almost all the same. A half gallon of whole milk, two tablespoons of yogurt starter. Not much change no matter where the recipe came from. I did five tests this week with different milk brands, and different yogurt brand starters. What I didn’t want to do was post a recipe that was impossible for people to find the ingredients. The extra fat milks, the hard to find Greek yogurts that make the best starters. What I wanted was a simple yogurt that anyone with an Instant Pot could make and love.

There are basically 5 steps to making Greek yogurt.

Heat milk
Cool milk
Add yogurt starter to milk
Incubate the yogurt and then wait for yogurt to set
Strain whey from plain yogurt to get Greek yogurt

Every yogurt recipe I made turned out. I’ve seen a few disasters on blog comments about the yogurt not turning out for whatever reason. Now some yogurts were thicker than others and some had a more tangy taste than others. I cooked all recipes for 10 hours. No change on that. I was surprised the tanginess of the flavors and how different each starter was.

For me I found the best milk to work with was the Horizon Organic Whole Milk brand, whole milk. I favored the tangy taste that I got from the Chobani whole milk Greek yogurt. We tried Fage, Dannon and Chobani starters. Whichever one you decide to use MUST HAVE active live cultures in the ingredient list. Those little cultures are your starter and without them, you will not be making yogurt.

Now when you finish making the recipe you will have yogurt. From all the reading, what makes it Greek Yogurt is the straining of the whey out of the yogurt. Both ways were good for me, but I preferred to strain to get a thicker yogurt. It just felt creamier, and in my mind at least, had a richer taste. Any yogurt experts out there? Anything else to add as to the difference between yogurt and Greek yogurt? Please share if so!

For the straining I used a cheesecloth. I folded it and lined a strainer and let the whey drip out. I did this for about 4 hours. You could also use a coffee filter. Cheaper than a cheesecloth and will do the same job. The Euro Cuisine GY50 Greek Yogurt Strainer is a bit fancy and will definitely do the job. But if you have a simple strainer basket it works fine. There are all kinds of special yogurt strainers out there, but I already had this and it worked fine.

Once I had the yogurt I loved, then what else could I do with it? I love fruit in my yogurt so I whipped up some fruit purees (whole fruit mixed in a food processor until liquid) and started adding. I’m now experimenting with some no bake cakes and a few other things. I decided to use some of my yogurt to make these yogurt pops. And here is the thing, remember, they are frozen. You don’t take an ice cube out of the freezer and bite it in half do you? Take these out of the freezer and let them soften a few minutes before trying to eat. The key is to keep them thin and not make huge pops. The image you see of the pops is a half filled baking cup. These are on the verge of too thick.

I also learned that the Wilton Silicone Baking Cups are so much better to work with than paper cupcake liners. The paper liners were hard to get off the frozen pop. Once they thawed enough to remove all the paper, then I could just put them in a bowl and eat with a spoon. I made granola for my yogurt pops, but any granola you love will work for this recipe.

For the timing of the cook, you saw the part were I cooked it for 10 hours, right? And there is some prep before that to heat and cool the milk, so add on another hour. Either plan to make this first thing in the morning when you get up, or last thing at night before you go to bed. Poor timing will have you awake in the middle of the night dealing with your yogurt.

I hope you give this a try. It’s simple and so good for you. Please share any yogurt creations you end up making.

Now if you find that you aren’t ready to go with yogurt we have a few other Instant Pot recipes that everyone seems to love. The Triple Chocolate Cheesecake is my favorite followed by the Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.