Homemade Soybean Milk & Milk Yoghurt

This is my first attempt on this milk and soybean milk yoghurt. According to the info I've collected, it is said yoghurt is an ancient food and has been around for over 4,500 years! Wow, believe it or not! And it is now recognised as a "superfood". My children love yoghurt a lot and I used to buy the commercial yoghurt but after today....NO MORE store bought yoghurt! Homemade taste much much better which is free from thickeners, sugar, artificial flavours and colouring. Well, just let me show you how easy it is.

Milk Yoghurt

1L full cream milk (I used Dutch Lady packet milk)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp live yoghurt culture (I used commercial yoghurt)

Step 1 : Heat the milk

- heat the milk over low heat, keep stirring untill bubbles begin to appear on the surface (82-85'C), remove from hear. Heating the milk kills any unwanted microorganisms that may compete with the yoghurt culture, and it makes the yoghurt thicker.

Step 2 : Cool the milk to lukewarm

- the milk is ready when your finger can comfortably dip in the milk for a few seconds. The ideal temperature is between 42-44'C. The yoghurt culture multiplies too slowly below 42'C. While temperature over 44'C kills the culture; both will not produce good yoghurt.

Step 3 : Add yoghurt culture

First, add about 1/4 cup of the lukewarm milk to your culture and mix well. Then pour this mixture back into the remaining milk and stir well. Pour the culture milk into a clean/sterilized glass jar or any other non-reactive container and put the lid on.


Step 4 : Fermentation

Set the jar into a cooler box (I used thermo pot) or wrap the jar with a piece of cloth and keep it into a bigger pot for about 5-6 hours. This is to maintain the temperature to let the fermentation works faster. At this time, the culture will convert the natural sugar(lactose) in milk to lactic acid which coagulates the milk into yoghurt.
* for those without the cooler box will need to double up the fermentation time.
* to test for readiness, slowly tilt the jar to one side. Homemade yogurt is not as thick as those store-bought yoghurt.

Step 5 : Store the yoghurt

Put the jar in the refrigerator immediately to slow down fermentation. Yoghurt will last for about 2 weeks, increasing in tanginess the longer you store it. Remember to use only a clean, dry spoon to scoop out the yoghurt from you jar to prevent premature spoilage.

I experienced that different milk gives different texture. Cow's milk yoghurt is thick and creamy. While soybean milk yoghurt is thick and solid like those Chinese style 'Dou Hu Hua' @ bean curd dessert.

Soybean Milk Yoghurt

1L fresh soybean milk
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp live yoghurt culture
2 pandan leaves

Method : Follow as the above ~ Step 1 to Step 5. But can just skip the step 5 and serve them warm with syrup.

I think this is a pretty good idea making our own soybean milk yoghurt and it is also a perfect food for those dairy allergies consumers. For soy milk yoghurt, I'm serving it with ginger flavour palm sugar syrup. And for milk yoghurt, you can add in fruits as desired.

Palm Sugar Syrup : 2 slices ginger, 125ml water, 150gm palm sugar and 2 tbsp brown sugar.

See, did I just told you that soybean milk yoghurt looks just like 'Dou Hu Hua'! Absolutely beautiful.... and delicious too. So, no more chemical in your 'Dou Hu Hua' ! By the way, some of them even tried making their own breast milk yoghurt. (Sorry, mine already expired!) Hahaha.... Or you may also try this with slow cooker method , very simple though. So, enjoy and have fun!