Coconut Milk Yogurt

 This morning I started a new batch of coconut milk yogurt, using L-ruteri and L-rhamnosus for the culture. 

Yogurt culture

The L-ruteri strain was common 75 years ago, but is rare now.  It was originally cultured by a German physician (Reuter) from a Peruvian woman's breast milk, and is important for the health of the small intestine. Use of this strain increases the production of oxytocin and collagen, and has several additional health benefits. 

In the 70s and 80s, I used full fat raw milk from a local dairy to culture my own yogurt, which our family enjoyed. When making yogurt using plant based milk, it's helpful to add prebiotics and sugar, as coconut milk tastes sweet, but the probiotics need more sugar to culture properly.

• 13.5 oz tin full fat coconut milk
• 2 tsp green banana powder (prebiotic)
• 2 tsp organic beet sugar + 1 tsp maple syrup 
• 2 Tbsp starter from previous batch, or 2 capsules pro-flora prebiotic (mine came from Integrative Therapeutics)

Heat the coconut milk (or while milk+ half and half) and pour into a wide mouthed glass jar.  Culture in a warm oven (~106°) for 36 hours (take the yogurt out, and turn the oven on for a minute several times a day. I use the top warming oven, and remove the yogurt when the bottom oven's in use!)

This process increases the beneficial lactobacillus, and makes great tasting yogurt! 

You can use full fat milk and a bit of half and half, if you use dairy, I often add a scoop of collagen from grass fed beef.

I've been making coconut using this recipe from Dr William Davis for several years and love it! He began culturing this strain to increase the CFU over that found in capsules, and finds out a great addition to a health regime- and it tastes great!