Great Edibles Recipes: Canna Yogurt

When you’re making yogurt, you need milk and some kind of “starter” that contains living bacterial cultures. It’s these cultures that turn plain old milk into yogurt. There are two main ways to procure these cultures. You can either use a yogurt-making powder or, as is my preference, use a few spoonfuls of already-made yogurt, so long as it has live cultures. To make this cannabis yogurt, we’re simply going to use pre-made cannamilk instead of regular milk.

Essentially, you’re going to heat up the milk, add it to the living yogurt cultures, then let the mixture incubate for a few hours to let the bacteria proliferate and convert the milk into yogurt.

I use whole or 2% milk, so I don’t generally need to worry about thickeners. However, if you’re opting for non-fat milk, you can add some powdered milk, pectin, or gelatin powder to thicken the yogurt. As far as flavorings and sweeteners, it’s always best to add these right at the end, once the yogurt has cooled. Focus on making a good, plain yogurt first, then you can customize it as you see fit, once it’s made.

Here’s What You Need:

• 2 quarts cannamilk (whole or 2% if possible; you’ll get a creamier yogurt)
• 6 tablespoons of active yogurt (or the appropriate amount of culture powder)
• A jar large enough to hold the batch

How to Make Canna Yogurt

Heat the cannamilk up to 180 degrees (test with a thermometer). Stir frequently, we don’t want a milk skin. Once it hits 180, set it aside and let it cool off until about 110-115 degrees.

Add the heated cannamilk to the jar with the active yogurt cultures. To do this, pour about 2 cups of the heated cannamilk into a bowl with the active cultures and mix it well, then add this smaller batch back into the larger —  it will just blend better.

Pour it into a heat-safe, sealable container to incubate.

For this part, you really just need to keep the yogurt between 100-110 degrees. You can do that in an oven on low heat, in a crock-pot, or even a microwave (you don’t nuke the mixture, you wrap your container in a towel and place it in the microwave because the microwave is good at containing heat; it’s basically just a locker for your yogurt that will hold heat).

Once your batch is incubating, just let it sit for at least 5 hours. However, you can let it go for longer, even overnight, without risking safety. Just leave it alone, don’t shake it or open it to see it. It’s an exercise in self control.

After the prescribed incubation time, plop your yogurt into the fridge and let it cool, generally at least 3 hours, depending on the size of your batch. Just let it chill until it’s chilled!

Flavor to your preference and enjoy! Remember, this is still medicated food, so don’t go too overboard with the serving sizes.

To increase the batch, just increase the recipe proportions accurately.

Pro tip: be sure to sterilize your utensils, pots, yogurt jar, etc. by pouring boiling water on them and letting them sit for a few minutes. We’re trying to grow a homogeneous bacterial environment free of any impurities or other microbes.