I was recently offered the chance to review an Easiyo Yogurt Maker. It is basically an insulated tub in which you use powdered mix to create yogurt in a variety of flavours.
Yogurt, or yoghurt, I’m never sure, has great health benefits. It is rich in protein, a great source of calcium, helps with synthesis of vitamins, is wheat and gluten free, is pretty low in calorie, provides natural fats, and is full of nutrients. Easiyo allows you to make your own at home very easily, 1kg at a time, so is perfect if you have a big family or eat a lot of yogurt at home.
This is the Easiyo yogurt maker. It’s a rather large white plastic insulated cylinder and a jar. The process is very easy. You half fill the yogurt jar with cool drinking water, add the contents of the sachet and shake to mix it all in. Then fill the jar to the top with more cool water and re-shake.
You poor boiling water into the large insulated cylinder, place the jar inside and leave it on your kitchen worktop for 8-12 hours until set. Once set the yogurt jar goes in the fridge to cool before you eat it. It’s quite a long process, but you need time for the yogurt cultures to do their work. Once it is done, though, you end up with 1kg of yogurt that will last up to couple of days in your fridge.
I tried the Greek n Coconut flavour sachet, which is a creamy yogurt with bits of coconut in it. It’s really easy, certainly not rocket science! I found after 12 hours my yogurt had mostly set but there was a bit of clear liquid on the top – I checked and this is apparently whey which you can either stir in or drain off to use in soups or drinks. The yoghurt was not solid, it still poured like a thick double cream, and so was ideal for eating over fruit or weetabix or having with meringue and ice cream. The morning after I made the yogurt I noticed it was more tangy; this is also normal as the flavour develops over time – if you eat it after six hours of chilling it will provide a mild flavour, if you wait 10 hours it will be more tangy. 1kg of yogurt is quite a lot for a couple to get through really, but you can get smaller jars if you don’t want to make quite as much at a time.
Making your own yogurt is a great idea if you use a lot at the breakfast table, for example, or if you like to drink yogurt based smoothies. It’s also great for cooking with – there are some savoury sauce and dressing recipe suggestions in the instruction booklet that comes with the yogurt maker. Ideal for home use… it doesn’t travel as well as little pots of yogurt for packed lunches or picnics, unless you have some yogurt pot sized tupperware tubs.