You, Too, Can Make Your Own Everlasting Know-It-All

I discovered recently that Gosling quite likes yoghurt. Critter and hubby both like flavoured yoghurt, but since Gosling is only 9 months old, I decided that plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain was probably the way to go with her. So I bought a tub of Greek yoghurt, and fed it to her. Success. She preferred it with a little sugar, but would eat it without - with the addition of a startled "THATS SOUR!" face.

I remembered that my mother used to make yoghurt when I was growing up, in fact I'm not sure I remember her ever buying the stuff - she always just used milk to make some - so I asked her about it, and she told me that the yoghurt maker was actually still in the cupboards, and I should have a go. So I did.

Its surprisingly easy. Heat milk, cool it down, plop in some yoghurt to start it off, keep warm for 4 hours, whack it in the fridge. Really, the 'keep warm' part is the most difficult, which is where the yoghurt maker comes in handy. It also has a thermometer, making it easy to tell when to stop heating/cooling the milk.



MAKE SOME YOGHURT!!!

You need:

• a saucepan, big enough to hold all your milk, with a reasonable amount of space at the top - ie don't fill it too full.
• a stovetop
• preferably a thermometer - probably a candy thermometer
  
• 1L milk (or however much you want to make) - fullcream please. I dont know if light will work, use at your own risk.
• 1Tbsp natural yoghurt (aussie Tbsp - thats 4tsp. If you are making a different quantity, use 1tsp per cup of milk.)
• a jar - big enough to fit 1L milk - with a lid (or several smaller ones, or one smaller one, depending on how much you've made, but you need lids.)
• probably a funnel
• somewhere to keep your milk warm
• a fridge

Stick your saucepan on your stove, med-medhigh heat, and pour in a litre of milk (thats about 4 cups, or 2 pints for those not familiar with litres).

Milk on the stove

Heat your milk - 85-90 celcius (185-195 farenheit). If you have a thermometer handy, that will make things a lot easier. If you don't, DO NOT LET THE MILK BOIL. It should take about 20-30 minutes, or more, to heat up, depending on how hot your stove is. A skin will form on the top of the milk. There will be bubbles - on the top of the milk, a bit like froth. Not rolling bubbles like boiling. I REPEAT, DO NOT LET IT BOIL.

Once your milk is well heated, take it off the stove, and turn your stove off. I always forget that part. Let the milk cool down, to about 40ish celcius (105 farenheit). Again, easier if you have a thermometer. If you don't, it took my milk about 30 minutes to cool down. 40 is a little higher than bodyheat, so it will feel warm, but it shouldn't be HOT. DO NOT LET IT GET COLD. You need some heat for the yoghurt to work.

Now comes the yoghurt bit. Add about 1Tbsp NATURAL yoghurt (no flavours, colours, gelatin, fruit, sugar, what-have-you) to your milk, and give it a good stir. It might not dissolve completely, thats ok. As long as its not just sitting there in one big blob.

NATURAL yoghurt. No other stuff!

Dont worry too much about the Tbsp being level, or a measuring spoon. Or you can, if you want.

Pour your yoghurted milk into your jar(s). This is easier with a funnel (unless your saucepan has a pouring point, in which case you should send it to me for examination, but don't expect to get it back, because, uh, things get lost in the post. Yes.. thats it... lost in the post). Then put the lid on the jar(s) LOOSELY. What exactly does loosely mean? I'm not sure. There wasn't a definition. What's worked for me is to have it tight enough that the jar doesnt fall off if I pick it up by the lid, but loose enough that it still rattles around if I jiggle it up and down, and it still turns easily.

Now you have to keep your soon-to-be-yoghurt warm for quite a while. I have a flask made exactly the right size to fit the jar, so thats easy. You probably don't, or you wouldn't need these instructions. Things you can try:

• Maybe you have an eski (insulated box, generally used for keeping food/drinks cold), or styrofoam box (with a lid). Put your soon-to-be-yoghurt in the middle of the box, fill some more jars/bottles/whatever with hot water, and place them around the s-t-b-y, near but not touching. You could even wrap a teatowl around the s-t-b-y to make sure it doesn't come in contact. Lid the box. Put it somewhere it won't be disturbed. Check it every now and then to make sure everything is still warm, and refill the hot water jars as they cool
  
• Some poeple have had success with a VERY LOW HEAT oven. You want to keep it warm, not cook it
  
• You could try making your own insulation with batting and.. I don't know.
• Search Google to see what's worked for other people.

Insulating flask! Yay!

Leave the s-t-b-y alone for at least 4 hours (unless you have to refill hot jars to keep it warm, of course) and then check it, to see if it's yoghurt yet. If it isn't, put it back how it was and leave it alone for a bit longer. (My first batch took a good 5 hours, and was still very runny - apparently the first batch, started with BOUGHT yoghurt, usually takes longer to work. I believe it, my second batch - started from MADE yoghurt - was almost as thick as bought stuff in 4 hours.)

Looks set...

..but its a bit runny still.

Once it is set you can put it in the fridge, but remember: the longer you leave it, the tarter/sourer it will get. If you like it mild, fridge it as soon as it's set. If you like it tart, leave it in the heat for longer.

Your yoghurt can be easily modified with flavours (my son likes it with strawberry milk powder stirred through, or a little bit of sugar. Mum uses honey), and will be good for about a week. Just make sure you keep some to start the next batch.

i dont get it

my mother makes the most delicious brownies. the recipe is from supercook (which i cant find decent links to online, but as far as i can tell, it was put out as magazines, wth binders to hold it all. 8 volumes, each about 300pages. this is HUGE people) and my mother is the only person i know who can make them.

you think im joking.

mum's best friend has the recipe. she doesnt make them, because she can't. they fail. mum makes a batch every time we go over to their house and we leave most of them, because otherwise they never get to eat brownies.

my sister occasionally makes them. they dont taste anywhere near the same.

ive made them twice. yesterday, they failed. they taste great, but really, you should not have to scoop them out of the pan with a spoon, and still eat them one crumb at a time. i think they might have been overcookes... im not sure. the other time, i dont even remember what happened, but they didnt work.

various other people ahve tried and failed.

my mother is the only person i know who can make them. its ridiculous.

I WANT TO MAKE DECENT BROWNIES!!!!!!!!!

homemade musli bars

my wrists have been playing havoc today, probably because i slept in a truly odd position last night, and as a result, i havent got the courage to brave breadmaking. i am however in a very cooking mood, so i made musli bars.

and i even took pictures. well.. the kid took most of them. which is why there are so many.

also, please ignore the belly. its getting in the way of everything.


the measurements listed are what i use. the only really important ones are 4cups oats, and 1tin sweetened condensed milk. everything else is up to your own personal tastes. dont like apricots? leave them out. or use something else instead. want to go healthier? use more fruit instead of choc chips. want real indulgence? buy different types of choc chips and leave out the fruit. and of course you can add more or less as you want. sometimes i use more sunflower seeds, sometimes i use more sesame seeds. it all comes out just as well.

i have no idea how much these cost to make. not much. the choc chips are probably the main cost involved. ETA: ok so i was curious, and whipped out my handy spreadsheet.. this tray cost me $8.26 to make, but if i'd used coles choc-chips it would have been about $6.43 and the way i cut them, theres about 14-20 in the tray, making each musli bar 41-59c this time, or 32-46c if i use coles choc chips. not bad at all. and if i can get sweetened condensed milk on special, theyd be even a little bit cheaper.



so here we go. home-made musli-bars. YUM YUM YUM!!

oh look.. almost everything is actually in a packet for once!

put in a VERY LARGE BOWL:

4 cups quick oats - no-name brand are fine, just make sure theyre QUICK oats. (instant oats? the instructions should only list about a minute of cooking time.)


1 packet choc chips - about 250g (ish) or if you keep them in a canister or something, a little over a cup

i usually dont use brand name. i like the taste of coles-brand, and i prefer the size.. cadburry's are too large. but we went to woolworths, not coles, and woolies choc-chips leave a horrid aftertaste. so cadbury's it was. and oh look! you can see my living room.

1 cup sultanas (raisins)


1/4 cup sesame seeds


1/4 cup sunflower seeds


1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots

i like to chop mine up about the same size as the sultanas, and i usually make sure the 1/2 cup is over-full, instead of flat. i like apricots.

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

this has got to be the only thing he DIDNT take a picture of. i have pictures of the clock, his sandal, the floor, the counter, the cat, my belly, but no tin of milk.

mix everything except the sweetened condensed milk together. you may find you need to stop occasionaly to break up clumps of apricot.. they tend to stick together until coated in oat powder.


add enough s.c.m for everything to stick together - probaly the whole tin, might be a little less. mix well.


it might look like there isnt enough s.c.m for a while, there will be a lot of dry oats in the bottom of the bowl. just keep mixing. it will all come together. sometimes helps if you turn the bowl around a bit as you go.


line a.. um.. large tin with a lid? with baking paper (the cheap stuff that doesnt work for baking is fine for this).

dont you just love my terribly attractive kitchen floor? 70s lino baby, oh yeah.

pour/scrape everything into the tin, trying not to break your wrist, or drop the 30yr old+ bowl you're currently holding, which isnt actually yours.


press down and smooth out. you may have to use your hands here.

yay. my belly.

cover with clingfilm, and put the lid on. (if your tray doesnt have a lid, the film WILL NOT STICK to the tray, so you'll have to wrap it ALL around, instead of just over the top.


stick it in the fridge to set. it doesnt matter where, just wherever theres room. which for us is usually the bottom shelf.

oh look.. my fridge is FULL!! YAY!!

when the musli bars have set, which will take a couple hours at least, you can cut them up, and theyre ready to eat. i usually cut the whole thing lengthways down the middle, and then across to make the individual bars, as i want them.

chocolate pudding

so a couple of my lurkers, who refuse to comment, but send me emails instead (seriously guys, comment already), asked how we make chocolate pudding.

unfortunately i didnt get the emails till after i made it, so no pictures for you today, but ill take pictures next time i do it, 'k?

its not very hard to make, either. other than the bit involving bubbling lava, critter helped me all the way through. and hes only 4.


this is my mums recipe - exactly as she emailed it to me - and it only loosely corresponds to instructions on the custard powder packet (ingredients are the same other than the cocoa, but her method is rather different). i dont know where she got it from. i modify it a little.

2 well rounded tablespoons (those big silver serving spoons) of custard powder
2 slightly rounded tablespoons (serving spoons again) of sugar
1 heaped tablespoon (once again the serving spoons) of cocoa
1 pint (about 600 ml I think) milk. The Pyrex jug has a pint measure on it, I think

Put custard powder and cocoa in a pudding basin. Mix to a paste with a little of the milk - about 1/2 a cup or so. It feels really strange at this stage. Looks liquid but feels rather stiff.

Put the rest of the milk and the sugar in a saucepan and heat slightly (to about blood temperature) until the sugar is melted. Stir to make sure the sugar is disolved

Pour a bit of the warm milk into the custard powder and stir so that it is well mixed.

Pour the mixture back into the milk in the saucepan and heat gradually until it boils (it will look like lava bubbling up). Make sure to do this gently so that it doesn't burn on the bottom and stir continually so that it doesn't go lumpy. It needs to bubble so that it is thoroughly cooked as this is what thickens it.

then I pour it into individual dishes (or on top of the trifle!!) to cool.

the serving spoons she's talking about.. i really have no idea what they correspond to. possibly about a tablespoon?

ok i just went and measured it.. theyre 20ml. so thats 1tablespoon if you use australian measures, or 4teaspoons (1Tbsp, + 1tsp) if you use US measures. (why are they different? messes up my recipes something awful why is an american Tbsp=3tsp but australian Tbsp=4tsp.. grrrrrrrrr.)

ok.. so thats my mums recipe. i made it like that ast week, and while it was nice, it wasnt quite what i wanted. so today i made it just a teensy bit differently, and it was exactly right. very slightly sweeter, and a little less dense.

here we go!


INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp (VERY heaped) custard powder
1 Tbsp (heaped) cocoa powder
2 Tbsp (slightly heaped) + 1tsp sugar
1 pint + 1/2 cup milk

METHOD

mix custard powder and cocoa together in a large bowl, and add the 1/2 cup milk. stir until well combined - try for no lumps. it might still feel stiff, this is fine, as long as it looks like a liquid.

put the sugar and 1pint milk in a saucepan, and heat till warm, NOT HOT, and the sugar is disolved.

add about 1/4 - 1/3 cup milk/sugar mixture to the custard mixture, and stir until well mixed and smooth.

poor contents of bowl back into saucepan, and bring to boil, slowly, stirring continually, all the way to the bottom of the pan.

once mix is thick and smooth, pour into individual dishes.


NOTE:

1. warm milk - blood temperature. got kids? drop some on your wrist the same way you would with a bath or a bottle. thats about right. you dont want it hot yet, but the warm helps it mix with the custard mixture.
   
2. my mum mentioned about it getting lumpy. no matter how much i stir, IT GOES LUMPY. this is fine. it smooths out if you keep mixing. i near panicked the first time, trying to figure out what id done wrong. then it stopped being lumpy, very suddenly.
3. it really does look like lava when it boils. it doesnt boil rapidly the way milk or water does, it swells slowly then bursts, and only 3-4 at a time.
4. pouring it out of the saucepan can be tricky. i find it much easier to use some sort of scoop. ive been separating my pudding into 6 slightly-larger-than-a-ramikin sized dishes, which is about 2-3 scoops in each one, using my trusty silver serving spoon. a ladle or measuring cup would probably work just as well.. just be careful not to urn your fingers if you use a measuring cup.
5. the extra teaspoon of sugar makes a WORLD of difference, as does the extra little bit of milk. maybe you like it less sweet, dont add the extra sugar. mum thinks its too sweet with more sugar, but maybe she heaps her spoons to a different degree than i do.
6. there will probably be a very dark bubbly-looking layer on the bottom of the pan once youve got all the pudding out. this is what teaspoons are for. probably youve shared the dregs with the chiildren, but now, tell the kids its no good because its burnt, make them play in another room and SCRAPE OFF AND EAT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN BEFORE THEY REALISE YOU'RE LYING. it looks burnt, but tastes like heaven.
   

hmm. should i eat one hot, or wait till they cool down and have it after dinner?

kids in bed.. im going for hot.


you cant have any. go make your own.

blueberry muffins

when we went shopping yesterday, i noticed that there were punnets of blueberries in aldi. havent noticed them in there before.



"do you like blueberries love?"



"i like blueberry muffins, yes."



"well shall we get some blueberries and i can make you some muffins?"



i spent some time yesterday looking for recipes for lemonade, lemon sorbet, and blueberry muffins. fannie farmer has a recipe for lemon jelly, so that might come in handy.. found a lot of the same lemonade recipe online, and a lemon sorbet recipe thats basically frozen lemonade, so that should be good. blueberry muffins were a little harder. half the recipes looked odd, containing things like sour cream or unsweetened yoghurt, and the other half called for more blueberries than i had. i found a couple that looked ok, then i thought to look in fannie farmer. why didnt i look there to begin with? silly sarah.



the hardest thing to do was flouring the muffin tray. (i know from experience that greasing is not enough, and we dont have any patty-pans.) they cooked a little longer than the recipe suggested, because they just werent quite cooked. but they came out of the tray easily, and they smell fantastic. took one to hubby, who is painting the trim in the room now (hes so fantastic), and he said theyre delicious.



odd as it may sound, i have never eaten a blueberry before. im a very picky eater, and its not all to do with taste. some things i cant eat because of they way they feel. doesnt matter how good it tastes, if it feels weird in my mouth, i just cant eat it. (i love orange juice. cant eat oranges.) and blueberries look like they would feel very strange indeed. i was also suspicious of the taste. i cant stand strawberries, mangoes, raspberries, pears, pineapple, a lot of 'sweet' fruit actually. but hubby asked me to try it, so i cut a muffin in half, gave the remainder to the boy, and cautiously took a bite.



man, those things are JUICY! and not very evenly distributed in the batter. one half of the muffin was plain, the other half was 80%blueberry, with a little muffin around the edges. but they do in fact taste quite nice.



im slowly getting better about trying new foods. especially since i dont want my boy to be picky like me. he has enough trouble with things he CAN'T eat due to allergies, he doesnt need any more things he WON'T eat, just because. theres still a lot of stuff i wont eat, but im trying so hard to be good.