Vanilla honey and Chai yoghurt recipe

great minds are thinkin alike but im bummed coz i was gonna post this yesterday but i had other things on my mind and Crunchy posted her chai yoghurt recipe that same day. I think i like mine better, if i do say so myself and competition is good, right? Im not a fan of the fully flavoured yoghurts of any description. i like my flavour resting at the bottom so i can dig up as much or as little of the tasty stuff as i like to suit my taste bud feelings for that moment. I make my own yoghurt twice weekly and have done so for about...umm, bloody hell, 17 years and i grew up in a house where we (well, the responsible adults) made everything, including homemade yoghut. Back then i was definitely the only person i knew of on the lower north shore of sydney who had a crunchy family! My brother and I were the weird freaky ones with the kaftan wearing, kingwsood driving, plaited haired mother. These kambrook yoghurt makers have been around a loong time; i have the pink lidded one, i think my mum still has the yellow based original! my dad/great uncle(long story, maybe a later post) was very into healthful living and used to buy me things like yoghurt makers and how-to books, so i think it was a birthday gift when i turned 21 (i know, progressive as an adult, a bit tragic then).

Anyways, heres my recipes.

Spiced Chai Syrup Makes about 1 1/2 cups syrup

2 cups light brown sugar
1 ¼ cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
8 teaspoons loose black tea or 4 black tea bags
12 cardamon pods
1 inch fresh ginger
tiny sliver of fresh vanilla pod
6 cloves
10 peppercorns
2 whole nutmeg pods
1 star anise

Make Chai Syrup:
i like to bruise all spices in a mortar and pestle and then wrap in muslin and use as infusion bag in the pan as its easy to remove all spices when complete. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until syrup has reduced to a thickish, well syrupy, consistency. Let cool completely, if you havent contained all spices in a cloth, then strain out the solids. Pour into bottle and keep this mix in the refridgerator, i find it lasts about a month or two if it doesnt get used up before then. If you wanted to keep it longer you could add a preserving ingredient of some sort to take it further than the sugar can, but thats out of my scope. But i havent noticed anything going on in the mix that looks scary yet. This syrup as well as being a flavouring for the yoghurt is also an 'instant' chai syrup; just add hot milk. I can never be bothered waiting for a pan of chai to steep and simmer on the stove. when i get a chai craving, i kinda want it straight away.

Vanilla honey
makes enough for about 700ml of yoghurt

3 tabs local honey or as much as you like really, depending on how much you want.
6 tabs water
scraped seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then reduce heat and cook 5 minutes until it hits a consistency you like.

Pour as much of the chai syrup/honey vanilla mix as you like into the bottom of your yoghurt making container and continue to make your plain yoghurt in the usual way. Alternatively you can add it to the top of your yoghurt mix before 'cooking'.

I use;
2 cups biodynamic milk
8 heaped tablespoons organic skim milk powder
1 tablespoon plain yoghurt (normally just the last remnants from my last batch so sometimes less, sometimes more)

sometimes i also reduce the amount of full fat milk to about 1 cup, add 1 cup of filtered water and add an extra 3 or so tablespoons of skim milk powder.

Heat milk in a seperate container (not too hot or you will destroy the yoghurt bacteria when the yoghurt is added, warm milk is what you are after) and then whisk in the skim milk powder. Add the tablespoon or so of the yoghurt. Stir. Pour milk mix carefully onto syrup which is in the container... As i have a yoghurt machine, i put this on for about 8 hours. If you do yours in the thermos/other method, adjust your 'cooking' times accordingly!

I usually make 1 flavoured and 1 plain pot each week. I use the plain yoghurt for so many things. Instead of sour cream for guacamole when we have burritos, as a side raita for an indian curry, a topping for flat breads, with muesli for breakfast or with fruits for desert, as a substitute for buttermilk or cream in cake/bread things. Its incredibly versatile and i find when i dont have any on hand, if i have been behind on making more, then im sometimes really quite bloody annoyed. i have found over the years that if i have it to hand, i use it more than if i had to buy it all the time.