Our boys L-O-V-E ranch dressing!  They use it as a dip for veggies & pizza, as a salad dressing, & as a condiment.  (Must be in their “blood”, lol – my brother used to make ALL KINDS of crazy concoctions using this same dressing…remember, Mark??)  🙂

Now that I read ingredient labels, though, I’m not such a fan of this dressing – no matter how good it tastes.  😦  So, I’ve had a (secret) goal of trying to make a homemade version.  I have actually found many ideas online, but never got past printing out the recipe, lol.  We had some friends out for dinner last fall, and with their salad, they brought a, you-guessed-it, HOMEMADE RANCH DRESSING!!!  Now… if I TASTE something, and already know it’s good, I’m much more motivated to make it…

So glad our first batch of sour cream was ready today – we’ve all been waiting for more of this dressing!

MANY THANKS TO THE WHITMORE FAMILY! 🙂

1-1/3c plain yogurt (or mayo 286g)

1c sour cream (227g)

1c milk (227g)

1/4c raw apple cider vinegar (65g)

2t each of dried parsley(2g), garlic powder(7g), sea salt(14g), & onion powder(7g)

1t dried dill weed(1g)

Whisk everything together, and place in fridge.

Yield is one quart.

We stumbled on this one  a couple years ago.  We accidentally left our freshly separated cream outside (in an airtight container).  Didn’t find it until the next day when we went back to milk.  We decided to put it in the fridge & check it out later.  Then we forgot about it!  Fast forward a couple weeks – remembered, & checked it.  A beautiful, thick, sour cream!  From that point forward, that’s how we make our sour cream:

Let fresh cream sit at room temp in airtight container for a day.

Place in fridge where it won’t get moved around – allow it to just sit in there for several weeks.

Scrape off thin, top layer & enjoy! 🙂

(We use it from the top first.  It seems the deeper you go, the thinner it is, which is why we don’t mix it all up, either.)

Made 3.25 gallons of yogurt this batch. 2.5 gallons were plain & 3 quarts were vanilla. Thought I’d share what we do… 🙂

Our PREFERRED method of making yogurt is the “direct set” method. 1/2t of Natren yogurt starter per quart & whisk in 1 quart fresh milk.

From there it goes directly into our dehydrator where it incubates at 101 degrees for 24 hours.  (If we want a flavored yogurt, we whisk it in right before we incubate it.)

HOWEVER, since Natren is kinda pricey, we cannot afford to make such large amounts of yogurt with this powder.  We’ve tried using plain yogurt from a previous batch as the starter for the new batch, but it wasn’t resulting in a consistent end product.  (It’s also not fun finding out after 24 hours that it didn’t work & we need to re-do…)

So, that all being said, here is how we normally make our yogurt:

Heat milk to 180 degrees, whisking pretty steadily. Remove from heat.

If making plain yogurt, we cool milk to 110° either by allowing it to sit or by placing the pot in a sink of cold water.

Once it’s reached 110°, we whisk in 2T (overflowing, rounded T’s) of plain yogurt per quart.

Incubate at 110° for 8 hours.  We have an Excalibur Dehydrator, and WE LOVE IT!! (future post, I’m sure…)

If making vanilla yogurt, we add 1T (homemade) vanilla & 1/4c sorghum or honey or maple syrup when the pot comes off the burner. (It mixes in best when it’s warmer.)

Cool & complete same as with plain.

**My normal routine for plain yogurt as a “starter” is:  one week I will make a quart of plain yogurt using 1/2t Natren powder.  The next week, I’ll use that quart of plain as my “starter” for what I’m making.  (Always being sure to make at least 1 quart of plain for my “starter” for the following week.)  For 4 weeks, I use the plain yogurt from the week before as my “starter”.  The 5th week, I make a new plain yogurt using the Natren powder.  This way, my “starter” has not lost its “oomph”, and I haven’t had any problems with my yogurt not setting.  (And this helps our Natren powder to stretch a lot longer, lol!)

If we find we have a build-up of plain yogurt in the fridge, we just drain it & make some cream cheese…