Easy, Delicious Sous Vide Yogurt

Introducing: the ChefSteps approach to homemade yogurt. Topped with bright berries and crunchy granola or drizzled atop slow-cooked lamb chops, this creamy concoction will make your Pinterest followers go sage-green with envy. Little do they know, it's also incredibly easy to make. It all begins when you heat and stir some milk. You do this to alter the whey proteins, which help produce a finer, denser product. (Commercial producers often use a thickening agent, but we're going full-Brooklyn on this business, no additives whatsoever.) 

The milk then cools to a temperature at which, combined with bacteria, it will ferment into the tart treat we call yogurt. The bacteria, or "starter," we use here is simply a small amount of leftover live culture yogurt. Yup, yogurt begets more yogurt. Provided your conditions are on-point, the bacteria will ferment the milk sugar (lactose) and produce lactic acid. The milk proteins coagulate and set, creating the product we all know and love, in just five hours. Seasoned yogurt-makers will know you can make yogurt at room temp over several days; the beauty of the sous vide approach is that you can precisely control the temperature to optimize for culture growth, meaning you get homemade yogurt in your mouth a whole lot sooner. (But hey, if you want to let that yogurt hang out in the bath for a whole 24 hours, you can do that too. Nothing bad will happen.) 

Fresh and healthy, it will serve as a great snack base for the week ahead, or an amazing host or hostess gift to tote along to tonight's dinner party. If you forget to post humble-braggy photos on Instagram, fear not. You can always make more yogurt tomorrow using this stuff as your starter. The next day: more yogurt! And so it will go, day after yogurt-filled day. We've seen the future, and it's chock-a-block with one very tart and tangy treat.