Buttercream Simplicity

Okay, I am no pin up girl for Cake Decorating Australia, but I do like to express my creativity atop the odd cupcake. I need an instantly stiff icing with no weird ingredients. Actually, I sometimes need it to cater for multiple food allergies also. Is that too much to ask?

So when I discover a recipe that not only makes buttercream quickly and easily, but can cater for gluten free, dairy free, low salicylate, egg free, nut free - I am one happy gal! So Rona from Domestic Diva Unleashed - here's to your genius!

Below are a couple of recipes I have recently tried with two variations on the buttercream icing. I won't write out the whole recipe - please read it on Rona's site.

Caramel Cupcakes

Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nut and Soy Free, Low Salicylate FAILSAFE
I would love to credit this recipe, but cannot find where I took the original inspiration (it was originally a chocolate cake)and it has taken some twists and turns since!

First:
Grease and flour (sweet rice flour recommended or fine brown rice flour)12 muffin patties.
Set your oven to 190 degrees celsius or 180 degrees for fan-forced.

Ingredients:
210g all purpose gluten free flour mix (Or I used 130g Sorghum, and 80g of a combination of tapioca and potato starch plus 1 tsp xantham gum - next time I would use 3/4 tsp)

1/2 tsp psyllium husk
220g white sugar
90g brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
60g vegetable oil
1 tsp citric juice for FAILSAFERS or vinegar if you can
1 tsp vanilla
220g cold water

Instructions:
Weigh in both types of sugar and mill for 3 seconds speed 9.
Add flour, psyllium, baking powder, and salt and combine for 12 seconds speed 5-6 (halfway between the two).

Add the oil, citric juice, water and vanilla and mix for 30 seconds speed 5. Scrape down the sides and repeat for 12 seconds speed 5.

Pour the thick mix into the muffin papers (3/4 full) and when all are poured out you can smooth the tops.

Place gently into the oven halfway up. Check them at 25 minutes, they should be golden brown and spring back to touch. Give them five more minutes if needed. When cooked. Leave them in the oven with the door open for 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

For the icing I used Rona's recipe here
My tips:
I mill the sugar for 1 minute speed 10 and then put the entire bowl in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Make sure you wipe the pins on the underside before relocating it to your thermomix.

For the vanilla icing pictured, I didn't use any milk, just 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla.

The brilliance of this recipe is keeping everything cold enough by cooling the sugar, and by only whipping at speed 4 for such a brief time.

For real butter - I would put it on the bench for the 20 minutes that the sugar is cooling and then put the whipped buttercream back into the refrigerator after mixing.

Spelt Banana and Oat Muffins SUPER FAST

Dairy Free, moderate amine FAILSAFE
This is a variation of my carrot muffins

First:
Line a 12 hole muffin tin and lightly grease. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius.


Ingredients:
80g oats
100g white sugar
100g brown sugar
130g spelt flour
2 rounded tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 bananas - sliced quite small
1 tablespoon of citric juice (or lemon juice if you can have it)
2 eggs
110g vegetable oil

Method
Weigh oats and sugars into TM bowl and mill for 20 seconds speed 9.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix for 5 seconds speed 5.
Make a slight well in the centre of your TM bowl and add the 2 eggs. Mix for 4 seconds reverse speed 3.

Pull the mix away from the edge of the bowl and add the banana, the citric juice and the oil. Mix for a further 12 seconds, reverse speed 3. DONE! How fast was that?

3/4 Fill muffin pans and cook for 20-25 minutes. They should rise up slightly in the middle, go golden brown and spring back to touch.

Remove from pan to cooling rack as soon as cooked.

ICING: Again - Rona's buttercream is my go to. Here is how to make it a 'lemony' icing for all you FAILSAFERs missing out!
When you mill the 250g icing sugar for 1 minute, add 1 tsp of citric acid. Cool in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Instead of milk, just add 1 tsp of water.


Enjoy!

Cute little Coffee Biscuits

Just a little drop of yum with your afternoon cup of tea. That's all I ask. My son however, wants to grab and run with a bowl of these biscuits before sitting on the stairs to watch the showdown between Mumma Magpie and Mrs Butcher bird. Their babies are getting old enough to come and ask for tid bits now. Afternoons are glorious here. But I digress. Back to little snacks for those who have alot of dietary restrictions and just want a bit of simple yumminess.

GF EF EF FAILSAFE
Enjoy

INGREDIENTS:
50g buckwheat
10g puffed rice or millet
130g sorghum or GF plain flour mix
100g glutinous rice flour *you can mill this first if you just have sticky rice - 2 minutes speed 9
1/2 tsp salt
130g brown sugar
1 tsp of instant decaf coffee *or see note below
1 tsp vanilla extract
170g nuttelex (or butter if dairy is tolerated)
20g milk substitute (rice/soy) or *20g decaf espresso shot
30g golden syrup

METHOD:

Weigh Buckwheat and puffed rice into the TM bowl. Then mill for 30 seconds, speed 9. If using instant decaf coffee, add it and the brown sugar to the TM bowl now, and mill for a further 15 seconds speed 9.

Add in the flours and salt and 'sift' by mixing for 6 seconds speed 6.

Add the nuttelex and mix on speed 6 until you hear a change in sound of the mix starting to become more like bread crumbs. (usually around 8 seconds).

In a separate heat proof bowl or jug, weigh the rice milk/coffee shot and the golden syrup and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds on high heat. OR, if you don't like using a microwave, tip the ingredients out onto the baking paper you will use in a moment, and heat the rice milk/coffee and golden syrup in the TM bowl for 1 minute, 50 degrees speed 2. Return the dry ingredients to the TM bowl.

Add vanilla and coffee/golden syrup to TM bowl (or just vanilla if the golden syrup mix was heated in the TM bowl)

Mix for 8 seconds speed 6 to combine the dough.

Turn onto interval speed and watch through the hole in the lid when it starts to clump together nicely (should be around 15 seconds).

Tip into cling film, wrap and rest for 20 minutes (though, GF is more forgiving - I just cut mine straight away). Preheat oven to 190degrees Celcius.

Cut into small pieces (around 1.5cm cubed), roll into a ball and flatten. I have tiny cookie cutters that I impress slightly into the surface.

Cook for 12 minutes for a slightly soft centre, 14 minutes for very crunchy

Allow to cool. Enjoy

Note, any flavour can cause a change in symptoms, so for those on FAILSAFE, be mindful of the decaf coffee, brown sugar or the vanilla.

**YUMMY VARIATION for Non-FAILSAFERS** If you can have ginger, but are gluten free and want to be free of that very fine sandy texture you can get in gluten free cooking, then add 2 tablespoons of crystallised ginger with the sugar when you mill the second time. Then add 2 teaspoonsful of spices (cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger) when you add the flours.

Chocolate muffins with hidden goodness

This recipe is just a variation on my 'lightening fast' carrot muffins. Let's face it...when you are on a tuckshop bake roster you want something that is healthy and yummy but super quick to make.

And...as a bonus there is the icing recipe. Real strawberry icing. And because this was a byproduct of making strawberry jelly you have a bonus jelly recipe! Yummy!

The story begins with the usual steps - Oven to 190degrees Celcius, cupcake papers in place. Then it's time to pull out a few ingredients:

IN:
40g buckwheat or oats if no one likes the earthiness of buckwheat
40g cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
130g SR Flour (wholemeal spelt is great!)
1 tsp spices like mixed spice or ginger if desired
210g raw sugar or brown sugar or rapadura
2 large zucchini's cut into 5 pieces
2 eggs
110g oil you like to cook with

STEPS:
Mill your buckwheat or oats with the cocoa on speed 9 for 30 seconds.
Add the baking powder, self raising flour, optional spices and sugar. Mix for 6 seconds speed 6 to aerate and combine.
Add the zucchini into the flour and chop for 2 seconds speed 5. Check the mix, if there are any big chunks you can give it one more second.
Pull the mix away from the sides, and add the eggs on the edge, then weigh in the oil around the edge.
Mix for 15 seconds speed 3 (or on reverse if you want to keep some zucchini texture like a muffin).
Check that all ingredients are incorporated and mix a further 8 seconds on speed 3 if they are not.

3/4 fill your muffin or cupcake papers with the mix and bake for approximately 18 minutes - but check to see that they lightly spring back when you touch them with your finger.

Meanwhile...as they bake you can get the icing started.

This is just a variation on the Thermomix Wilton's Buttercream just click the link for the recipe.

My variation:
After creaming the copha or crisco and the butter, add 200g strawberry puree along with the vanilla and first 100g of icing sugar and follow the remaining directions - adding strawberry liquid instead of milk.

BONUS JELLY RECIPE
What I love, is that the strawberry puree is actually the waste from making real strawberry jelly.

Combine 250g hulled strawberries and 350g water in your TM bowl. (I like to add a teeny wedge of beetroot for extra colour). Cook for 5 minutes, 90 degrees speed 2.

Strain out the liquid. Now that wonderful red liquid is for jelly or cordial.

For Strawberry Jelly:
Weigh the 300g of liquid back into the TM bowl and add 200g sugar. Add 1/2 tsp of citric acid or a tablespoon of lemon juice. Set to 3 minutes, 90 degrees speed 2 - but turn it up to speed 3 for the first 10 seconds to incorporate any sugar granules that have snuck up the side of the bowl.

Meanwhile, combine 15g of gelatine with 80-100ml water, until well combined.

Add this to the liquid mix and cook a further 1.5 minutes, 90 degrees speed 1 (again, start on speed 3 for 10 seconds to help incorporation).

Pour into a pyrex or heatproof dish and leave to set at room temperature for 6 hours or more.

About 10g more gelatine and I could have cut this into really firm shapes. As it is, this is the perfect balance of flavour for eating on it's own, or in a jelly slice, or served with fresh berries and cream. Imagine a trifle with REAL jelly. *yum*

Yummy Scrummy Banana, Coconut Spelt Loaf

Hello I am Sophia and I haven't blogged for a while but here is one of my latest cooking adventures

Are you tired of having complaining children wanting yummy food?

Well here's the answer and it's very simple.

Picture this; one morning by the surf on a family holiday, four children complain they were hungry. So, they went for a swim and then when they came back they cooked a pavlova and a scrumptious banana and coconut bread. They cooked the pavlova first, then the little sister made the loaf; it was easy and quick. She put it in the oven then they all watched a movie while it was cooking.....When the movie was finished, the girls went to the gym while the boys gobbled up the bread!!! When the girls came back they had a few pieces as well and they all declared it was delicious. The next morning, they had it toasted for breakfast.

That was the end of the bread! But they all wanted to make it again.

If you want to make this loaf, then you can find the recipe at Alyce Alexandra (mum says you have to subscribe to get the free recipes)

Goodbye until I tell you about the Pavlova!!

LIGHTENING FAST ZUCCHINI AND CARROT MUFFINS *school friendly

Do you love love love those recipes that are so fast you check your neck for whiplash? I need speed so it's no wonder I ended up with a Thermomix, but this one is crazy fast. Even better that it's great for lunch boxes. I have put in a few tips about how to place ingredients in your thermomix for the best mixing results and saving time.

Notice all the *'s beside ingredients? That's not code for naughty words, it's because I have a moderate salicylate version down the bottom for those progressing on their FAILSAFE diet. And of course, if you can eat nuts and are not taking them to school, you can replace the seeds with almonds, walnuts, pecans or my favourite - brazil nuts.  ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS:
Contains Gluten and Eggs:
80g Wholegrains (Buckwheat, millet, oats)
130g SR Flour (I use spelt flour )
1 tsp extra baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg and ginger*
150-200g raw sugar* OR 90g sugar, plus add a tin of drained pineapple pieces with the zucchini

2 carrots cut into 4-5 pieces
1 roughly chopped zucchini
2 eggs
110g canola oil
optional cup of seeds; pepitas, sunflower seeds plus shaved coconut

optional topping; 1 heaped tablespoon each of brown sugar, shaved coconut and seeds*

*FAILSAFE moderate version: use white sugar and thickly peel the carrot and zucchini. Leave out spices and only add a tablespoon of poppy seeds.
Topping - 1 heaped tablespoon of brown sugar, nuttelex and oats and a pinch of poppy seeds.

DIRECTIONS:
Oven to 180-190 degrees Celsius (frustrating I know, but we all have different ovens, so use the cooler temperature if it is a fan forced, effective oven)
Paper and spray/grease 16 small or 12 medium muffin tins

Grind the whole grains for 1 minute speed 9.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and *spices and aerate by mixing for 4 seconds on speed 6.

Add carrots into the flour mix (this will stop over chopping and too much liquid ooze, plus it's faster); chop for 1 second speed 5. Don't preset the time, turn the speed quickly to speed 5 and as soon as the time hits 1 second, turn it down to open lid position.

Check the mix and push any larger chunks to the bottom, then add the zucchini and optional pineapple if using. Grate 2 more seconds speed 5. 

I like to take the TM bowl off the unit and have it right near me on the bench. Push the ingredients away from the centre of the blades (making a well), and crack in the 2 eggs. Return the bowl to the unit and mix for 4 seconds, REVERSE speed 3.

Now pull the ingredients away from the edge of the bowl and weigh in the oil, plus the *seeds/nuts if using. Mix 12 seconds, REVERSE, speed 3. Adding the wet ingredients at the side is what helps it to incorporate more quickly, less time mixing your eggs makes for a much lighter texture.

That's it!! Now you 3/4 fill your muffin papers and bake for 20-25 minutes. If you want to mix your topping in the TM bowl, it's as simple as tipping it in, mixing for 9 seconds speed 3 REVERSE, then sprinkling on top for the last 5 minutes of baking.

FAILSAFE tiny teddies - DF and EF - low Gluten

My son's tolerance to gluten opens up a world of lovely things to incorporate in his diet - malt syrup for vitamin B, Oats for low GI. But I will be experimenting with a gluten free version, so let me know if you are keen for that one.

I love this mix. Easy to clean the TM bowl afterwards, fast, lots of wholegrains and you can make fun shapes. Just make sure you rest the mix for 20 minutes in the fridge if you want to roll it out for cutting.

Ingredients:

• 60g buckwheat (less if your children aren't used to it, and increase the spelt flour)
• 60g oats,
• 130g (ish) g of brown and white sugar - can reduce over time.
• 190g spelt flour - normal flour is of course fine
• 40g carob plus 3/4 tsp deaf coffee powder if needed to alter carob taste - or, if you have the amine freedom of cocoa or cacao - use that!! (jealous sigh)
• 170g nuttelex or butter if tolerated
• 20g milk substitute plus 15grams malt syrup pre-heated for 20 seconds in the microwave or for 30 seconds 60° speed 2. Or, if you can have dairy - just use normal milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius

Mill buckwheat for 20 seconds speed 9
add oats, and brown and white sugar
Mill for another 10 seconds, speed 9

add spelt and carob and mix for a few seconds speed 5.

If not preheating malt and milk, tip dry contents out and heat the liquid now.

Add nuttelex plus pre-heated malt and milk substitute, or return dry ingredients to bowl.

Combine all ingredients for 8 seconds speed 6, then poke it down with your spatula and put on interval speed for 15 seconds or less.

Rest 20 minutes before rolling or roll it between two sheets of baking paper.

and then....bake for 15 minutes for super crunchy tiny teddies on about 170 degrees (yes, turn the oven down as you put it in), or for 10 minutes at 190 degrees for the softer biscuits.

The top biscuits I rolled small balls that I gently squished with my palm and then lightly imprinted a heart shape cutter.

When LOVE is SPELT "b-r-e-a-d"

If I entered lotteries then maybe I would know that 'jackpot' feeling - but I just had one yesterday! I went to do some 'trouble-shooting' cooking for my sister who needs spelt bread, and has been getting very inconsistent results: too dense and big holes in the middle. 

I prepared spelt bread for a friend on holidays last december and had the loaves down pat by the end of the week - but couldn't exactly remember what perfected the texture. I expected to have a few problems with my first loaf and go from there. With some key technique ideas in mind and the flavour suggestions from the baby sister (very nice), I began. Imagine my surprise when up popped a divine crusty loaf, brown from the honey and spelt and oooooh so delicious. It was like unwrapping a present when my husband sliced through - perfect all the way.

*Happy sigh*

Now I want all spelt folks to be able to enjoy the same - and please share your tips and techniques. I only used Spelt flour in this loaf, so my next frontier is adding whole grains back in.

INGREDIENTS
50g yoghurt whey (could just add lemon juice to extra milk)
150g milk
100g water
70g honey
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp bread improver or 1 tsp ascorbic acid
520g spelt flour
1/2 MC of mixed seeds; sesame, pepita, sunflower, poppy
25g light flavoured oil
3/4 tsp of good salt

FAILSAFE INGREDIENTS (Gluten):
200g milk substitute (or milk if tolerated)with 1/4 tsp citric acid added
100g water
70g rice malt syrup
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp ascorbic acid
520g spelt flour
1/4 MC of poppy seeds and oats
25g canola or sunflower or ricebran oil
3/4 tsp good salt

TECHNIQUE:
Excuse my 'cook on the fly' method
Just get your yoghurt/milk/water/honey ingredients out first.
Weigh them into the TM bowl. 
Mix for 2 minutes 50 degrees, speed 1-2.
While mixing, collect your other ingredients. 
In the last 20 seconds of liquid heating, add in the yeast and bread improver/ascorbic acid. 
Let it sit and brew for a minute while you measure out your grains and put your yeast away.
Weigh in your spelt flour, oil and salt.
Combine ingredients for 7 seconds speed 6. (Or until you can see the dry ingredients are incorporated).
Set for 3.5 minutes interval speed
I put my ingredients away while it's mixing but never walk far away from the TM while it's kneading.
In the last 30 seconds, tip your grains in.
Put your bowl in a warmish draught-free spot. (I used our microwave) and let it rise for 20 minutes in the TM bowl. My mix had definitely doubled in that time.
Place back on TM motor and knead for 7-10 seconds.
Tip ingredients straight into prepared bread tin.
Wet your hand and pat into shape.
Now, this is a stickier mix than normal loaves and will leave more dough in the bowl. So if you can't handle waste, like moi, you can put some more spelt in the TM bowl and whizz for a bit on speed 7. I tipped this over the top of the loaf in an effort to make a lumpy rustic finish. Definitely a bit dodgy. Will work on that.
A put a few diagonal cuts in the top then placed in a COLD OVEN and turned it onto fan forced 190 degrees and baked for 45 minutes.
Don't watch it. It only rose when I walked away ;)
Let it cool for 5 minutes in a tin then turn onto a rack.

Tell me how you go. 

Izzy's Super Duper Nutella !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Dairy free, low salicylate *Amines           

Hi I'm Izzy, this is my first time on the blog! 

This is a really COOL Nutella that is dairy free. Our family started the elimination diet for my brother and discovered that I need to be dairy free, and have moderate salicylates and no added flavours. There's been a lot of foods I have missed... so when I tasted this I was a "bit" excited.

Here is the recipe. We used a recipe from "Paradise to Plate" as a template. I hope you have lots of fun, and remember it doesn't matter if you don't get things right the first time when you learn to cook.

INGREDIENTS:

110g roasted cashews.

90g white sugar

100g block of Aldi's organic fair trade chocolate (dairy free)

15g good cocoa

70g nuttelex

100g soy milk 

(mum here - I think you should be successful with coconut oil and coconut milk, plus the usual hazelnuts if you can tolerate the higher salicylates but not the dairy)

 METHOD:

Lightly toast the cashews. Add to TM bowl.

Mill on speed 9 for 20 seconds. Scrape down.

Mix on speed 6 for at least 20 seconds and it becomes a smooth paste. Keep stopping and scraping if you need to.

Add the sugar and mix on speed 8 for about 10 seconds, scrape around the blades and sides of the bowl and repeat until well combined.

Add chocolate - broken into pieces and mill on speed 8 for 10 seconds

Add cocoa, nuttelex and milk and heat6 minutes, 50 degrees, speed 3

Once finished, puree for 20 seconds, gradually rising the speed from 1 to 9. Scrape into sterilised jars and keep refrigerated. Keeps for 14-21 days, (but it may disappear all of a sudden Hahaha).

Packing the Lunch Box:

1. Anzac (ish) Slice.

You know how we all need those "make in your sleep" recipes? Well this is one of those for me. I'm willing to bet there's a different version of this sort of slice on most blogs, but this is our simple one that adapts well to Failsafe* diets.

Will use:
170g plain flour
110g oats
80g coconut (shredded) or *40g rice bubbles
optional 80g mixed seeds (sunflower/pumpkin etc)
140-160g sugar 
115g butter or nuttelex
80g golden syrup.
1/2 teaspoon of bicarb
1/4 MC of boiling water
Lamington tin lined and sprayed.
Moderate oven - set to 180 degrees C

Steps:

Weigh into the TM bowl the dry ingredients but only half (80g) of the sugar.

Mix on Reverse for 4-5 seconds speed 3.
Tip into a bowl
Weigh into TM bowl the golden syrup, butter or nuttelex and remaining sugar.
Cook for 6 minutes, varoma, speed 2. Have the MC upside down so you can put the 1/2 tsp of bicarb in it.
Boil the kettle while the wet mix is cooking.
In the last 30 seconds of cooking time, add the boiled water to the bicarb in the MC, swish around and add to the syrupy mix. Transfer the rising foam into the dry mix bowl. 
Tip the remainder of your boiled water in the TM bowl to make for easy cleaning.
Use a wooden spoon to combine the dry ingredients. 

(Or you could just tip the dry ingredients into the wet mix and mix on reverse speed 2 for 10 seconds - you will still need to use your spatula to incorporate a few stragglers)The mixture should seem fairly wet and just combined.
Tip it into the baking tray

Wet your hands and moosh it down (technical trade term), so it is all fairly even and to the edge of the tray.
Bake for 20 minutes. Make sure you turn it around at half time if your oven is dodgy like mine.

Clean your TM bowl by adding the tiniest drop of detergent to the hot water and slowly increasing the speed to 7 for 10 seconds.

2. Slice and Bake Oat Biscuits

I love having 'logs' of biscuit dough in the freezer, and this comes out of the TM bowl so cleanly. This is one of those 'make on the run' recipes and you can see that from the ingredients and steps all running into each other!

80g oats - grind with

100g sugar for 6 seconds speed 8-9

add

140g plain flour

80g gluten free flour/arrowroot/cornstarch

and good few grinds of salt

Combine for 3 seconds speed 6

add 180g margarine/nuttlex (or butter and a scoop of yoghurt).

Combine 5 seconds speed 6

Knead 8-15 seconds on interval speed.

Tip onto cling/silicone mat, twisting the base of the blades

bowl should basically be clean.

Pat into a log and wrap in cling film.

Refrigerate 20 mins, slice and bake 180 degrees for 15-20 mins.

HANDY HINTS for YOGHURT

So folks, all the handy hints out there on facebook pages are too good to forget.  I thought I might start blogs for each one. I'll facebook them, you can add your comments and I will update my blog with them. That way it's easier to retrieve all our handy hints we have helped each other with.

Yoghurt is something I love, and is the main item that made our thermomix pay for itself. It's so rewarding to fill my fridge with such low cost, high quality yoghurt and encourage the children to enjoy it as a healthy snack option. Pictured is our sour cream-like yoghurt.

There are lots of different yoghurt recipes out there, to do with creating the particular texture you want, and minimising any added ingredients. Less is more. What I want to do is provide some technique tips.

1. Pasteurising can be achieved fairly quickly, you may get a difference in texture with the length of time, so let me know what you have experienced. I set my 1.3L of milk to cook for 20 minutes, 90 degrees, and that gets the texture I like. (Very firm)

2. The cooling down to the right temperature is absolutely key! Make sure you have allowed at least an hour. Put the bowl back on the thermomix base and mix for 2 seconds speed 3 to get the temperature even before checking it. If the green 37 degree light is on - do a 'baby bottle wrist check', by using a very clean spoon end and dobbing the milk on your wrist. The ideal is close to 40 degrees - so just slightly warmer than blood temperature. This is accurate enough as there is a 5 degree flexibility. If it is too cool, (no lights are showing) give it 4 minutes on 50 degrees, speed 2. You want the mix to reach higher than 37 degrees, but not 50 degrees.

3. Adding your culture. You need to use what you want to reproduce. Whether it is Jalna or Vaalia, a good quality yoghurt is important. You can re-use your own yoghurt at least 5 times, but then you may notice a sharpness developing that indicates it is time for a fresh batch. I now buy my culture from cheeselinks: as it works out very cost effectively. When I remember to keep some yoghurt, I use that for my culture, and then can start a fresh batch with the frozen granules at any time. The usual 10 minutes on 30 degrees speed soft is perfect, just allow a couple of seconds at speed 3 to start with to get your culture mixed through the milk.


4. Incubating. This is where I have a handy hint: I like to place a 1.6L round pyrex in my thermoserver and incubate my milk in that. It adds an extra layer of insulation, and means that you can just pull out the pyrex at the end (with a tea towel that you have already put underneath - see picture), so your thermoserver is free for another job and the mixture can cool more quickly in your fridge.
To help get everything to incubate well I do the following:

• make sure everything is very clean (dishwasher is enough)
• make sure everything is WARM (not hot). When you set your culture to mix, pop your oven onto 50 degrees (warm setting) and place your upside-down pyrex and thermoserver inside. Set the oven to switch off after 2-3 minutes.
• Put your clean teatowel or muslin in your thermoserver and your pyrex in that. Pour in your yoghurt, and place the lot in the turned off but warm oven - PUT A REMINDER ON YOUR OVEN! Just saying that someone silly (no names here) may forget and turn the oven on and melt your thermoserver base...whoops
• Incubation time is important. Fresh culture may mean it is done within 6 hours, it is apparently safe to leave for 18 hours, but I will confirm that with food safety australia before recommending. The longer you leave, the more the bacteria develops and the creamier the texture. You may need to turn your oven on for a couple of minutes on very low if it is still not to the texture you want after 8 hours. Leave it for another 4-6 hours. I saw a fabulous picture of someone rising their bread on the top of their hot water system - that may be an option for your yoghurt!

5. Recipes. Well, I would love to hear your ideas. 

for an incredibly creamy and beautiful organic yoghurt (for $2.50/litre) you can use Thermoculture's recipe:

Thermoculture I have been meaning to upload this onto the community for a while, thanks for the reminder! Here it is for now (and I forgot to add the cost of the cream so it's in the $5 range) PS this is my husband's recipe to make a 'cream top' yoghurt, similar to Barambah's one : ) 

Place 2 litres milk in TM bowl and cook for 1hour at 90 deg speed 3 with TM cap off.
Add 200 ml cream and cook for a further hour at 90 deg speed 3 with TM cap off.


Stir on speed 3 till temp reduces to 70 deg then take lid off and allow to cool to 37 deg.


Add 2 Tablespoons of yoghurt (kept from previous batch) and mix 5 seconds speed 5 and then cook 10 mins 37 deg speed 1.


Mean while sterilize thermoserver bowl and lid with boiling water, and empty.


Pour youghurt mixture into thermoserver with lid on and leave on the bench for at least 8 hours. Enjoy!

Our Lush family basic recipe is this:

1.3L of milk

100g skim milk powder 

(yes I know the high heat treatment of the milk proteins may produce free radicals - but at this stage the research suggests that the interaction of these free radicals in our body may affect cholesterol, and my cholesterol is tops after a life-time of skim milk powder so I'm keeping the extra firmness in the yoghurt that these milk solids provide)

1 tablespoon of raw sugar

Now, if you want to be BAD you can add a dollop of cream. Yum. And if you want to be good you can just use the milk only. Pasteurise for a bit longer.

I would love to hear your ideas.

Here's a video about making yoghurt and yoghurt cheese by the canadian foodie: