Barb Hodgens
Barb Hodgens

Barb Hodgens loves to cook with alternative, healthy whole food ingredients, with a focus on gut health. Barb has overcome her own gut health issues through healthy eating. Share your ideas, comments and photos at the end of this post :)

probiotic yogurt

Boost your microbiome naturally!

One of the simplest ways to get more probiotics into your diet is to eat homemade yogurt. It’s one of the tastiest ways too. Making yogurt at home gives you full control over the probiotic potential and has no added sugars, artificial flavours, or unwanted mystery ingredients that you would find in many store-bought varieties.

Adding extra bacteria strains to yogurt starter culture is a convenient way to amp up the probiotic health benefits of yogurt. Our friends at Cutting Edge Cultures have done this and developed a starter culture that delivers more probiotics than traditional yogurt. This premium-quality Yogurt Plus starter culture contains live probiotics, and is made with a unique blend of 5 beneficial species (S. thermophilus, L. delbrueckii, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, and B. longum). 

Probiotic yogurt

When you eat homemade yogurt that has had the bacterial count amplified the combination of probiotics are more powerful than anything you can buy. Yogurt Plus probiotic yogurt is a delicious way to give your gut microbiome a boost and improve overall health.

Probiotic yogurt

WHAT TO EXPECT

The flavour and texture will depend on the kind of milk you use. Refer to this brief overview to help you choose the most nutritious milk for your homemade yogurt. If you are making probiotic yogurt with goat or raw cow’s milk, be sure to read how to thicken homemade yogurt before you begin here.

Yogurt plus probiotic starter culture is vegan so it’s suitable for dairy-free milk as well. Browse the Luvele Yogurt recipes for both dairy and dairy recipes. Many of our yogurt recipes recommend a 12-24 hour incubation, however you can make a batch of probiotic yogurt in as little as 7 hours. The final product has a lovely consistency and a mild and refreshing flavour.

When you buy a pouch of Yogurt Plus starter, you get 4 sachets of starter culture. Each sachet makes 2 litres (1.75 quarts). Every time you make yogurt, you can keep some of it to culture your next batch - a process that can be repeated several times over. In total, you can make up to 45 litres (40 quarts) of yogurt with this one pouch alone, just by re-culturing.

Probiotic Yogurt starter culture

PREPARATION 

Before you begin it is important to sterilise the Luvele yogurt making glass jar, lid and any utensils you use, in boiling hot water. The danger of not sterilising is that other bacteria may overpower your culture and affect the quality of your yogurt.

INGREDIENTS

1 - 1.75 quarts / 1 - 2 litres of milk
1 sachetYogurt Plus Starter – or 2 tablespoons of a previously made probiotic yogurt

METHOD

1.   Place the milk in a saucepan and gently heat to 180°F/82°C
2.   Once the temperature is reached, remove from heat and let it cool to 100°F/38°C

Probiotic yogurt step

3. 
 Pour the milk into the Luvele yogurt making glass jar.

4.   Once the temperature has cooled to below 100°F (38°C) degrees whisk in 1 package of Yogurt Plus starter. This spreads the good bacteria throughout the milk.

Homemade Probiotic yogurt

5. 
 Put the lid on the yogurt jar then place the jar into your yogurt maker. Pour water into the base. (The water must not be filled over the ‘tall line’ indicated on the inside wall of the maker.) Place the cover lid on. The milk is now ready to begin fermentation.

6.   Use the digital control panel to set the temperature to 38° C (100° F), the time to 7 hours and then press ‘confirm’ to begin incubation.
7.   When complete, place the jar in the fridge to cool and set. As the yogurt cools it will get thicker!

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Probiotic Yogurt starter culture