How to Make Yoghurt

I'm going frugal and decided it was time to make my own yoghurt. Just a little bit of left-over yoghurt and some milk will produce loads of yoghurt.

Here are the instructions, I hope you'll give it a try as well:
Yogurt is a healthy food that can be made at home. One way to make it is to first buy some yogurt from a store or purchase dry yogurt culture. Add two small spoonfuls of the yogurt to two cups of milk. This will be the starter for your own yogurt. A cup is about 25 centilitres.

When making yogurt, it is very important to have clean equipment, clean hands and good temperature control.
Pour eight cups of milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk to eighty-five degrees Celsius. Then cool the milk quickly to forty-three degrees. To do this, you can put the cooking pot in cool water.
Keep the yogurt at forty-three degrees and add one-half cup of the starter. The remaining starter can be kept for later use. If you want a thicker yogurt, you can also add one-third of a cup of dry milk.
Cover the pot and keep it at a temperature of forty to forty-five degrees Celsius for four to six hours. After that, your homemade yogurt is ready. It can be left at room temperature for up to twelve hours if you like a stronger taste.

You can add fruit, nuts, honey or spices.
Source: "how to make yoghurt" leaflet from our local bioshop

January 3rd: Fake Cupcakes

My wife loves baking, but also sewing. So now she is combining both: making cupcakes from cloth. She also makes fake bananas, raspberries, turkey and carrots. Oh, and her fake omelets are a feast for the eyes (as long as you don't try to eat them).

If you came her to look for a real cupcake recipe, why not try the following:

Vegan Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

15 ml apple cider vinegar
355 ml almond milk
250 g all-purpose flour
200 g white sugar
9 g baking powder
2 g baking soda
3 g salt
120 ml coconut oil, warmed until liquid
6 ml vanilla extract

Instructions

- Preheat oven to 175 C)
- Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 18 paper baking cups.
- Measure the apple cider vinegar into a 2 cup measuring cup.
- Fill with almond milk to make 1 1/2 cups. Let stand until curdled, about 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. - - In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk mixture, coconut oil and vanilla.

- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 20 minutes.
- Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter. Frost with desired frosting.

Recette pour Boulettes Italiennes

Last week we had a nice party at our place, and everybody brought something to eat.

Here is the recipe for Italian Meatballs / Boulettes à l'italienne

Boulettes italiennes

Pour 4 personnes

350gr de boeuf haché
2 pommes de terre cuites en robe des champs
2 gousses d’ail
50gr de parmesan
2 tranches de pain rassis
2 œufs
2 cuillères à soupe de persil haché
0,5dl de lait
Chapelure
Sel, poivre

Tremper le pain (sans croutes) dans le lait
Eplucher et écraser les pommes de terre
Hâcher l’ail
Casser les œufs et les battre

Egoutter le pain, ajouter la viande, les pommes de terre, l’ail, le parmesan, le persil, sel, poivre et les œufs. Mélanger le tout

En faire des ‘hamburgers’ ovales et les passer dans la chapelure

Faire chauffer l’huile et les frire +/- 5’ en les retournant à mi-cuisson