Homemade Yogurt and Quark Cheese

Another useful food to make at home is your own yogurt and by draining it you can make a beautiful cream cheese known as quark.

I make mine in our vacuum flask overnight and start by heating up whole milk, about 750mls will fill the flask. Heat it until it begins to bubble lightly around the edges. I checked it with the thermometer so that I could tell you the temperature today and it was 70C. Allow it to cool to body temp or around 30C and then mix in 1/4 cup of good plain yogurt.

Heating the milk, can you see the bubbles forming around the edge?

Pour it into the flask and seal it tightly, I wrapped it in a thick towel to help keep it warm overnight, I left it about 18 hours in the end. Next day you should have creamy yogurt which you can use as is or make quark cheese spread by draining the whey off through a piece of muslin or cheesecloth, I use an old cheesecloth top of mine cut into squares.

Once it's stopped dripping fold over the edges of your fabric and place a saucer on top and weight it down with a tin of tomatoes or something to press the last of the whey out. The whey will be used in place of milk next time I bake so there's no wastage at all.

You will now have a cream cheese that you can use on bread or crackers, add honey or jam to it for a sweet treat or mix in chopped herbs and garlic. I love the slightly sharp tart taste and leave it plain.