Instant Pot Yogurt: Easy, Frugal & Delicious!

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Are you looking for something new to make in your instant pot? Here’s an idea! How about yogurt? Now, I know what you’re thinking. Yogurt? In my Instant Pot? Why, yes! ctually, it’s very similar to yogurt in the crock pot, only it’s faster. And easier. And better. Let me show you how to make it!

Actually, it’s very similar to yogurt in the crock pot, only it’s faster. And easier. And better. Let me show you how to make it!

Here is my recipe for Instant Pot Yogurt

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Still scared of your instant pot? Scared of getting one since you won’t know how to use it? Check out the course below. It will make your Instant Pot your best friend!

 

This is the Instant Pot I have. Just click on it for details.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1/2 cup yogurt with live and active cultures (just grab a small container from the store)
• milk, according to how much yogurt you want (we make a gallon)
• sugar *optional and according to taste
• vanilla *optional and according to taste

Directions:

The first thing that homemade yogurt of any kind requires is yogurt from the store that contains live and active cultures. It can’t be any old yogurt because not all kinds of yogurt contain live and active cultures in it. If it doesn’t have live and active cultures, you’ll end up with boiled milk with a little flavor to it. Not exactly yogurt.

So, when you’re in the store looking for yogurt to buy, look on the containers. It will say somewhere on there that it contains live and active cultures. If you can’t find it, the yogurt doesn’t have them. Keep looking until you find an option that does.

Ok.

The first step to making yogurt in your instant pot is sterilizing the pot just to be sure that there is no lingering bacteria, which happens fairly easily. If you’ve never done this before, it’s super easy.

All you have to do is set up your instant pot the way you normally would, put one or two cupfuls of water into the pot (normally I just take a large drinking glass and fill it with water and dump it in there), and then put the top on.

 

Make sure the valve on top is at the sealed position. Then, push the steam button and hit adjust until you see one minute displayed. The pot will heat up and then steam the water for one minute. Once it beeps, do a quick release, and then take the pot out and dump the water out. You’ll want hot mitts to do this!

Once your instant pot is all sterilized, it’s time to add the milk.

We use a whole gallon of milk, which makes a gallon of yogurt. How much milk you use depends on how much yogurt you want.

First, dump your milk in the pot and then put the top back on. Make sure the valve is back to the sealed position.

Then, find the yogurt button, push it, and adjust it until it says boil. The instant pot will then boil the milk. It normally takes about 45 minutes initially.

Once it’s done boiling the milk, it’ll beep again, and then the display will say yogt  (yogurt).

Now, at this point, you have to boil it five more times, but each time only takes about 15 minutes since you’ve done that initial boil.

To start these five boils, hit cancel, and then yogurt again, adjusting it to say boil if needed.

Boil it five more times, otherwise it’ll end up looking like cottage cheese. Literally.

Ok. So once your milk has been boiled a total of 6 times (the first plus the additional five), it’s time to cool it.  Do a quick release and take the pot out of the base for this part. I always let it sit for at least two hours on the counter. You want it to be about or very slightly above body temperature. This does take awhile.

Once it’s all cool, it’s time to add the cultures. You only need 1/2 cup of yogurt for this (for a gallon of milk). Add it in and stir it up really really well. This is important. You want the cultures to be thoroughly mixed into the milk.

After it’s all mixed, you’ve got the easy part left.

Pop the pot back into the base, and push yogurt again. This time, adjust your Instant Pot to say 8 hours. Put the top back on with the valve in the sealed position. The instant pot will maintain a constant temperature for 8 hours to allow the cultures to turn the milk into yogurt. Usually, I do this part before I go to bed and then finish it in the morning since you don’t have to anything at all for this part.

Once you have completed the 8 hour cook, you could be ready to eat. However, if you want to flavor your yogurt, you do that now.

To make vanilla flavored yogurt, we use 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla to flavor our entire gallon of yogurt. You could add fruit or other flavorings as well.

Just pop the yogurt into containers for storage.

You can use the homemade yogurt as a starter for your next batch, but you do have to make a fresh batch with yogurt from the store every 3-5 batches to ensure that you have the right amount of live cultures. It will be pretty obvious when you need to make a fresh batch because your finished product won’t be the proper consistency.

In an effort to avoid throwing away an entire gallon of milk when it doesn’t turn out, we just use the store-bought yogurt as a starter once every three batches.

That’s all there is to it!

Homemade yogurt is super easy, super tasty, and super frugal, too. I assure you that you will never go back to buying it from the store.