Drinking yogurt: how to flavour your home-made preparations?

You want to make your own yogurt drinks at home and don't know how to do it? Follow our guide to make delicious flavored milk drinks!

Children love them... parents too... We are talking about flavored yogurt drinks! Easily found in stores, it is very easy to prepare them at home, since you only need a few ingredients. In fact, the recipe is very similar to that of traditional yogurts, you just need to reduce the amount of lactic ferments and the fermentation time. Ideal for a breakfast of champions, or for a milky touch in dessert or at snack time!

A very simple recipe

As with classic yogurts, drinking yogurts are prepared from fermented milk. The latter is obtained by mixing milk and lactic ferments from two thermophilic lactic bacteria, called Lacto-bacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Once these two ingredients are mixed, the preparation - flavored or not - is put in fermentation at very low temperature for several hours. This process can be done with a yogurt maker, or in the oven if you don't have the right machine.

Finding the right milk-ferment mixture

To make a good yogurt, you need good milk and a good lactic ferment. Most of the time, cow's milk is used, but sheep's milk, goat's milk, or even vegetable milks such as soy and coconut milk also offer a delicious result! Concerning cow's milk, you can choose between whole milk, skimmed milk and semi-skimmed milk, with different textures at the end depending on your choice. For the ferments, two schools exist. The first is to reuse a plain yogurt pot from a previous batch or a commercial pot (as fresh as possible). You can also opt for powdered ferments, which can be found in stores, on the Internet or in pharmacies.

An ideal dosage

In terms of quantities, it is generally recommended to use one pot of yogurt for one liter of milk to obtain traditional firm yogurts. To prepare drinkable yogurts, which are liquid and creamier, divide this quantity by two - half a pot of yogurt for a liter of milk. You will then just have to mix the yogurt and the milk, or activate your ferment in warm milk, at 45°C (be careful not to exceed this temperature, using a thermometer if possible, or checking with your finger - the milk must be hot without burning you).

Flavors, a vast playground

The most fun part of making drinking yogurt is the "flavoring" part! Indeed, there are a thousand and one possibilities to give taste and pep to your home-made preparations. The important thing is to use natural products, without preservatives or colorants, and organic if possible. It would indeed be a shame to use chemical ingredients in a home-made preparation. There are several options for flavoring your yogurt drinks. First, you can use syrups - strawberry, mint... - that you mix with the milk before fermentation. Another solution is to infuse a vanilla bean, fresh herbs, citrus peel or spices (like cinnamon) into the milk. You can also buy food flavourings in stores or on the Internet. The website of the company Nerolian, based in Grasse, in the south of France, offers natural and vegan flavors in various sizes - from 50 ml to 1 liter. On the menu? Fruit flavors - apricot, tangerine or cherry - but also more original flavors like poppy, jasmine or fresh hazelnut. It is also possible to sweeten your yoghurt drink - white sugar, liquid cane sugar, agave syrup or even vergeoise for a stronger taste.

Last step: fermentation

Once flavored, your drinking yogurts are ready for the last step: fermentation, also called incubation. This is the process during which the yogurts will rest by heating at low temperature. To do this, get suitable containers and fill them, leaving a margin to be able to shake them afterwards. The best for drinking yoghurt is in bottles, so you can either get bottles adapted to your yoghurt maker, or opt for glass bottles, which you can sterilize. The advantage is that the latter are oven safe, which you will heat to 45°C. In the oven, the cooking will take between 5 and 6 hours, while in the yogurt maker the duration varies between 5 and 7 hours depending on the model. After several hours in the fridge, shake your yogurt and enjoy!