Magnolia Hotel Home Made Yogurt

Our friend Maria Jordan owns a small boutique hotel in Buenos Aires.  The breakfast she serves is outstanding and one of our favorite things is her home made yogurt.  She serves them in small glass jars.  We found similar jars (see photo) at the local grocery store (in Buenos Aires) and hauled them home.

About ten 3/4 cup servings.
8 cups milk (2% is fine) (do NOT use ultra pasturized milk)
¼ C. sugar (optional; but we add it)
1 T. vanilla (optional)
Buy a small container of plain yogurt to use as starter .
Bring milk to a simmer, over low heat so it doesn’t scorch the bottom of the pan. Allow to cool, but still hot (about 15-20 min.).  i.e. not so hot that you can’t put your finger in. Remove the “skin” that had formed on the top of the milk with a spoon and discard.
In a small bowl, pour off about a cup of the hot milk into a small deep bowl and mix in the plain yogurt. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Pour this back into the plain warm milk and stir it all together. Pour into small clean, dry jars with lids (or a larger glass jar). Place into an unheated oven, or any place that would not have any drafts - it doesn’t need to be warm, just not cold. Leave for 6 to 8 house; but as much as 10-12 hours, if you want to leave over night. Then refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Note:  Our favorite way to eat our yogurt is to mix it with home made granola (see that recipe), ground flax seed and blueberries or other fruit.