Make Your Own Lactose-Free Yogurt

Yes, it is possible to make your own lactose-free yogurt. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this:

1) Make yogurt with any recipe and equipment; make sure to age the yogurt for 24 hours before chilling it to stop the fermentation process. The bacteria in the yogurt culture will have time to eat up all the lactose in the milk, rendering it lactose-free.

2) Make yogurt with lactose free milk; age the yogurt only as long as convenient, until set.

I purchased an inexpensive, 1-quart yogurt maker on Amazon.com (less than $20.00). Bought the yogurt starter in the dairy case at Whole Foods. Followed the directions on the yogurt starter package--easy. The milk I used was lactose-free. The results were absolutely delicious and FODMAPS-friendly.

P.S. If Green Valley Lactose-Free Yogurt is available in your area, you might not have to make your own after all.

Comments

[Nutrition to kitchen]

My mom and aunt used to make their own yogurt too - it was so much better-tasting than what we'd get in the stores. Homemade is definitely the way to go!

[Julie]

What a great idea! Thanks for the "how to". I agree with Nutrition to Kitchen, homemade yogurt is just better.

[Linda Simon]

My daughter makes her own yogurt because it has less packaging then store bought! She used purchased yogurt as the original starter.

[Patsy Catsos]

Good point, about using yogurt from the current batch as starter for the next. Does she keep that going indefinitely?

[Marsha @ Green Mountain at Fox Run]

I used to make yogurt years ago but lost my yogurt maker somehow. Went to a cheese-making workshop recently and picked up another one. So great to have homemade yogurt again. It is so simple to make. And I agree with everyone else, much tastier.

[Rita]

I took your advice about using Lactose-free milk to make yogurt, but since I had no yogurt maker, I found this method to use my crock pot at a web site called Nourishing Days. It was very easy. Next time I'll add gelatin since I do like it firmer.
http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=912
The second thing I did was make yogurt "cheese" which is something I used to do several years ago. Just place about 1 cup of yogurt on top of a cheese cloth covered bowl and drained the fluid until it became the consistency of cream cheese.(used a rubber band to keep the cheesecloth in place.) Also use a lid over the bowl to keep it from drying out. This can take several hours or even overnight. I used this plain but would be fine to add favorite seasonings.

[Patsy Catsos]

If you strain the yogurt for just a short time, it comes out with the consistency and richness of Greek yogurt, also delicious. Thanks for the tip about the yogurt cheese.