As a family we love yogurt and we go through a lot of it in a week so when I was given the opportunity to try out the Balanced Living Yogurt Maker by T-fal I jumped at the chance. I love being able to control what goes into our yogurt. The T-fal Yogurt Maker comes with seven glass jars and lids for easy storage and perfect serving size.

Unboxing of the T-fal Balanced Living Yogurt Maker

After unboxing the yogurt maker I loved the designed and how light weight it was. I love that is all stores nicely together making it easy to store in my cupboard. The glass jars are very durable and my favourite feature is on the lid where I can put the expiry date of the yogurt.

bringing milk up to temperature and adding the yogurt

I have been making yogurt for a number of week now using the yogurt maker and it is so easy. My first few batches I followed the recipe to the T and now I have started experimenting with my recipe to tweak it to my families tastes. This following is the recipe I have come up with that I make now all the time.

4 cups 2% milk

175g yogurt (or some from current batch)

1/4 cup Instant Nonfat Dry Milk

3 to 5 teaspoons honey or agave syrup (you could use granulated sugar)

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1. Over medium heat bring milk to a boiling point (165 to 180 degrees F). Remove from heat and let cool to 112 to 115 degrees F. *(I use an instant read digital thermometer to check the temperature)*

2. Gently whisk together the yogurt, vanilla, honey and cooled milk.  Avoid frothing

3. Fill the yogurt jars with an equal amount of milk mixture.

4. Place jars in the yogurt maker and cover with lid.

5. Set the yogurt maker for 8 hours. Press the start button.

6. Refrigerate the yogurt at the end of the 8 hours and don’t forget to set the expiry. (plain yogurt is good for 7 days while flavoured is best to only save for 5 days)

If we want to flavour the yogurt besides the vanilla already in it I do so as we take it out of the fridge to eat and add fresh berries, preserves and granola. I use this same yogurt to make my daughter her drinkable yogurts.

I used to make yogurt in my crockpot/slowcooker but I really do prefer the yogurt maker over my crock pot both come out the same as far as savings for my family. But the yogurt maker takes out some of the guess work for me and I find it makes a thicker yogurt. Now off to experiment making some Greek Yogurt!

Check out my DIY ~ Drinkable Yogurt Recipe

Have you ever tried to make yogurt?