A recent read of The Untold Story of Milk explained completely why cow milk–a food I associate with growing up among my grandfather’s pastured family cows–causes my back to immediately go into spasms, causes so much phlegm that I lose my singing voice, and has caused many of my friends and patients serious health problems.
Meanwhile, there are other options and especially coconut. In fact, I waited months to try this thinking it was too simple, there had to be a catch. Well, there isn’t. Aside from the amazingly nutritious qualities of coconut milk, I like this yogurt even better that store bought. None of the tang aftertaste and all of the flavor and texture and more.
Read more about nutrition from the lovely coconut here.
Makes about 4 quarts
Ingredients
14 cups Coconut Milk (approx 96 oz, 8×14 oz. cans, recommend organic)
3 x 5 gm packets of yogurt probiotics (I used Yogourmet brand – check the label, one of theirs includes sucrose what were they thinking!!)
4 x .25 oz envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
Preparation
1. Pour all but 1 cup of the coconut milk into a Crockpot. Whisk the yogurt probiotics and unflavored gelatin into the reserved 1 cup of coconut milk until there are no lumps.
2. Turn the crockpot on low for roughly 2 1/2 hours and let the probiotic / gelatin mixture sit on the counter.
3. Go do something…
4. Turn the crockpot off and let it cool enough so it is warm but not hot (go do something else…)
5. Pour the (now thickened) probiotic / gelatin mixture into the crockpot and stir to combine—there should be no lumps. This may be easier if you add some of the now-warm coconut milk to your bowl of probiotic mix and whisk together before adding it to the larger volume in crock pot.
6. Wrap up the crockpot in a couple large towels to maintain the correct temperature. Let sit overnight or at least 8 hours.
7. Go to bed.
8. The next morning you have yogurt! But wait, it’s still thin–not thick, creamy yogurt.
9. Pour into clean storage containers and place it into the fridge so the gelatin can work its magic. An hour later and you will have rich, creamy, coconut milk yogurt.
Enjoy!
Copyright © 2012 Marie Sternquist Cecchini. All Rights Reserved
Have you ever tried adding real vanilla to it for flavor? Or a little maple syrup or honey for sweetness? If so, what amounts did you use? Thanks!
Yes I have. Both. In my family we’ve weaned ourselves so far off sugar that we don’t like the maple syrup or honey in the yogurt, seems more “right” just plain. But for the whole batch I think I used to add 1/4 cup of either. And vanilla, a little goes a long way. A teaspoon is what I recall using. Anymore though, when I make my yogurt now I use straight coconut milk from Native Forest and follow my coconut milk kefir steps. It becomes naturally thick after culturing and when you put it in the fridge.
Could you use a dehydrator instead of the towel wrapped step for fermentation?
Hi Julia – I have never tried this but would think that it would work well. In fact, it might just be a quite brilliant way of simplifying the whole thing. The purpose of pre-warming the coconut milk is really just to make sure all the coconut fats and etc. are thoroughly melted in and the mixture is pretty warm when you add the culture–as they love warm. On a dehydrator though, where the temperature never gets that hot anyway, perhaps just mix everything together and then put it in the final storage containers, set those on top of the dehydrator so they are being warmed and let them go overnight. Then next AM into the fridge to cool and thicken. One less dirty crock pot. It’s an idea anyway, is something like this what you were thinking? –Marie
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