Creamy Homemade Greek Yogurt (Instant Pot)

So, I’m kinda sorta EXTREMELY in love with the Instant Pot. Right when we purchased it, so many different recipes came to mind. But the one that I was surprised by was making yogurt. I’m a bit of a hippy in the sense that I try to make all my basic foods at home (breads, bagels, granola.. really anything baked!) so of course I would try making my own yogurt. It’s SUPER easy to do and so hard to go back to the commercial stuff – the taste is much yummier! Best part: it only requires two ingredients! One thing that you will need though is an accurate thermometer and an Instant Pot – believe me, it’s worth the investment!

Ingredients:

8 cups (2 litres) 2% milk
2.5 tbsp (35 mL) commercial yogurt (with active bacterial cultures) OR 8 probiotic capsules

What to do:

Pour milk into your clean Instant Pot metal insert.
Close the lid of the Instant Pot (venting the pot will not matter). Press the “Yogurt” button then “Adjust” until it’s on the “More” option and says “boil” like below. Allow the milk to boil. It will say “Yogt” when it is complete. It will take about 30-40 minutes.
Once the milk is boiled, remove the lid and remove the metal insert from the Instant Pot. Skim off the layer of milk “skin” that forms on the top of the boiled milk. Allow the milk to cool to about 45 degree C. You can stick your metal insert into you sink filled with cold water to speed up the process.
In the meantime, remove 1/2 cup (125mL) of boiled milk. Allow to cool separately. Mix together your commercial yogurt OR empty out the contents of the probiotic capsules into this milk until well incorporated. This will be your yogurt starter.
Once the milk in the metal insert has cooled to about 45 degrees C, put back into the Instant Pot. Add the yogurt starter to the milk and mix well.
Put the lid back on (venting the pot will not matter). Press the “Yogurt” button again and “Adjust” so that it’s on the “normal” option. The default should say 8 hours but you can adjust the time by pressing the “-” or “+” options. If using commercial yogurt, adjust to between 6-10 hours. If using probiotics, set for at least 10 hours. The longer you set the time, the more tart it will taste. This is the incubation process to allow the bacteria to make some delicious yogurt!
Once the time for incubation is complete, your yogurt is technically done and will look like this: Kind of custardy in consistency. To make Greek-style yogurt, transfer this yogurt to a colander lined with cheese cloth, put the colander in a large bowl, cover and stick into the fridge overnight. The liquid whey will be strained out leaving you with some thick yogurt for your morning breakfast!! Store in an air tight container for up to a week.
NOM!

Tips & Tricks

If you skip the step of removing the milk “skin,” it will leave your yogurt lumpy in consistency. Try not to skip this step!
The longer you store the yogurt in the fridge, the more tart it will get.
I find using commercial yogurt as the starter much easier and has a more consistent flavour and texture. Once you make one batch of yogurt, you can use your homemade yogurt as the starter for 4-5 batches of homemade yogurt. Note that it will make your yogurt more tart quicker the more times you use the homemade yogurt as your starter.
If you don’t like your yogurt very thick, strain the yogurt for 1-2 hours instead OR just eat it once the incubation is complete.