Homemade yoghurt and simple bread
If your hoard of UHT milk tastes awful in tea, here’s the answer: homemade yoghurt plus the vital ingredient for a simple bread. Two for the price of one.
Ingredients:
For the yoghurt:
Half a litre of UHT milk
Tablespoon of natural yoghurt
For the bread:
250g of plain flour
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
A good pinch of salt.
Method:
The yoghurt is blissfully simple: just heat half a litre of UHT milk to 43.5 degrees Celsius and pour into a container with a lid. Stir a tablespoon or so of plain natural yoghurt (ideally without any additives into the milk. Put on the lid and keep at the same temperature for 8-10 hours.
I’m lucky enough to have a sous-vide water bath that will maintain the pre-set temperature but you could experiment: (perhaps a vacuum flask wrapped up in a freezer bag or insulated cooler)?
Pour the yoghurt through a sieve lined with muslin and leave to drain to reach the consistency you want: the longer it drains, the less you make but the thicker it becomes.
Don’t waste the milky liquid that drains off. Mix 250g of plain flour with 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and a good pinch of salt. Pour in just under 200ml of the drained liquid and form the mix into a soft dough. Quickly knead into a rough ball and place on to a floured baking sheet. Slash a cross into the top and cook in a pre-heated oven at Gas 6, 200C for about 30 minutes. Knock the bottom to check if it sounds hollow – if not, return it to the oven upside down for a couple of minutes. Eat the same day with homemade soup or it will toast well for breakfast.
My Tips:
You can experiment with the yoghurt: try adding orange zest at the start , add milk powder for thicker results.