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

Do you want to make your own yoghurt drinks at home and don't know how to go about it? Follow our guide to make delicious flavoured milk drinks!

Children love them... and so do parents... We're talking about flavoured yoghurt drinks! Easily found in the shops, it is very easy to prepare them at home, as you only need a few ingredients. In fact, the recipe is very similar to that of traditional yoghurts, you just need to reduce the quantity 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 simple recipe

As with classic yoghurts, drinking yoghurts are prepared from fermented milk. This 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 - flavoured or not - is fermented 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 yoghurt, 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 give a delicious result! As for cow's milk, you can choose between whole milk, skimmed milk and semi-skimmed milk, with different textures on arrival depending on your choice. For ferments, two schools exist. The first is to reuse a plain yoghurt 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 shops, on the Internet or in pharmacies.

Ideal dosage

In terms of quantities, it is generally recommended to use one pot of yoghurt for one litre of milk to obtain traditional firm yoghurts. To make drinking yoghurt, which is liquid and smoother, divide this quantity by two - half a pot of yoghurt for a litre of milk. All you have to do is mix the yoghurt with 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).

Flavours, a vast playground

The most fun part of making drinking yoghurt is the flavouring! There are a thousand and one possibilities for adding flavour and zest to your homemade preparations. The important thing is to use natural products, without preservatives or colouring agents, and organic if possible. It would be a pity to use chemical ingredients in a home preparation. There are several options for flavouring your yoghurt drinks. Firstly, you can use syrups - strawberry, mint, etc. - which you mix with the milk before fermentation. Another solution is to infuse a vanilla pod, fresh herbs, citrus peel or spices (such as cinnamon) into the milk. You can also buy food flavourings in shops or on the Internet. The website of the company Néroliane, based in Grasse, in the south of France, offers natural and vegan flavourings in various sizes - from 50 ml to 1 litre. On the menu? Fruit flavours - apricot, mandarin or cherry - but also more original flavours such as poppy, jasmine or fresh hazelnut. It is also possible to sweeten your yoghurt drinks - white sugar, liquid cane sugar, agave syrup or even vergeoise for a stronger taste.

Last step: fermentation

Once flavoured, your drinking yoghurts are ready for the final stage: fermentation, also called incubation. This is the process during which the yoghurts will rest by heating at low temperature. To do this, get suitable containers and fill them, leaving a margin for shaking afterwards. The best way to make yoghurt for drinking is in bottles, so you can either get bottles that fit your yoghurt maker or you can sterilise them in glass bottles. The advantage of the latter is that you can heat them up to 45°C in the oven. In the oven, 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, all you have to do is shake your yoghurt and enjoy!