Today’s post is from Jenna at Yogurt-Everyday.com. Be sure to check out here site for even more yogurt-making tips.
How to Make Coconut Milk Yogurt with Canned Coconut Milk
The only kind of coconut milk I can recommend buying is Native Forest Organic because it is BPA-free. This is really important because the coconut milk is high in fat and can leach a lot of BPA from aluminum cans (as much as tomtoes do).
Another option I’ve heard of people using is Aroy-D Tetra Packs, although I think this is harder to find.
You’ll need the following supplies:
- A stainless steel or glass pot
- a yogurt making thermometer
- a yogurt maker or other way to incubate yogurt
Ingredients:
- 2 cans of Native Forest unsweetened coconut milk (not lite)
- 1/4 teaspoon of vegetal starter
Directions:
Open the cans and pour the coconut milk into a glass or stainless steel pot. Heat the coconut milk on medium high heat while stirring. Warm the milk to 110 degrees. Check the temperature before adding the starter because if it is hotter than 110 the heat can damage the culture. .
Gently stir in the starter. Pour the milk into mason jars or yogurt maker and let is set to incubate.
It will take 6-8 hours and needs to be kept at a temperature of about 100-110 degress (just like regular dairy yogurt).
After 6-8 hours, check to on your coconut yogurt. You can tell if it has set up by gently tippin the jar. The yogurt should be a solid mass that stays together when tipped.
The Vegetal yogurt starter from Cultures for Health is dairy-free. Not only is it suitable for vegetarians, vegans and people with dairy sensitivities, but it actually works better then a dairy starter for coconut milk.
The bacteria in this starter are different then the strains in a dairy starter that feed on lactose. These bacteria don’t need lactose they are happen with plant-based milks like coconut, almond, rice or seed milks.
Ways to Use Coconut Milk Yogurt
Coconut milk yogurt is very sweet and rich. It is perfect for smoothies and desserts. It is a bit much to eat by itself.
Coconut milk is incredibly high in saturated fat. I am okay with this. It’s fat from a great food source, but I don’t need a lot of it.
We like to mix ours up with frozen pineapple and bananas to make a pina colada smoothie.
If you make your own coconut milk yogurt and want to share a picture, your are welcome to post it on my facebook page .
This is so cool! We will try it out!
My kiddos love yogurt, and we’ve not had it in a year or two, since we went dairy-free.
thanks!!
Teri, I bet your kids will love it!
My two year old son is mostly dairy-free and he likes coconut yogurt smoothies and Popsicles (made from freezing the left-overs). It’s just frozen fruit and coconut yogurt so it’s a great snack for kids.
Wish me luck, Jenna! I’m new to the yogurt making process and I failed with my first attempt. I found your blog and planning to incorporate all you yogurt wisdom next weekend. Although I’m won’t be using cans, but Tetrapak coconut milk found at Whole foods.
Dairy free yogurt Is so hard to find. I will have to try this.
Thank you. I was just looking for a recipeof this when you popped up in my mailbox…
Is it possible to make coconut yogurt using a Greek dairy yogurt as a starter and coconut milk? Im not avoiding dairy, I just like the taste of coconut 😀
You know, I have no idea! 🙂 I would try it, though, and follow those instructions with 2 tbsp of regular yogurt.