Easiyo - not even greek yogurt setting

[twomachines]

Can someone please put me out of my misery - I decded to buy an Easiyo kit from QVC because I like to make my own yogurt and thought their method looked quick and easy plus you could do varying flavours. However, I've never had such a failure with yogurt. The first one (the standard Natural Yogurt sachet) was lumpy and runny. The second one I've tried, the Greek Yogurt, has had 8 hours and hasn't set at all and is the consistency of milk.. The yogurt flask must have been shut propoerly because, the water is still warm. I used room temperature water in both cases (i.e. not straight from the cold water tap), so what thing am I doing glaringly wrong? The instructions are ubersimple, but with two failures, QVC will be having the rest back smartish, if I can't get a third one to set smoothly.

All advice gratefully received - before I hurl the thing through a window - methinks I should have invested in a wide necked flask instead.

 

[argeybargey]

Twomachines - this doesn't sound right at all. Before we go into all sorts check the use by dates and make sure you haven't been sent old stock. This happens when the mix is a bit dated.

Argey

 

[plint]

I hope this helps

Can someone please put me out of my misery - I decded to buy an Easiyo kit from QVC because I like to make my own yogurt and thought their method looked quick and easy plus you could do varying flavours. However, I've never had such a failure with yogurt. The first one (the standard Natural Yogurt sachet) was lumpy and runny. The second one I've tried, the Greek Yogurt, has had 8 hours and hasn't set at all and is the consistency of milk.. The yogurt flask must have been shut propoerly because, the water is still warm. I used room temperature water in both cases (i.e. not straight from the cold water tap), so what thing am I doing glaringly wrong? The instructions are ubersimple, but with two failures, QVC will be having the rest back smartish, if I can't get a third one to set smoothly.

All advice gratefully received - before I hurl the thing through a window - methinks I should have invested in a wide necked flask instead.

Hi Twomachines,
Do you mean room temp water in with the yoghurt powder? The powder and water need to be shaken vigorously and you need to put boiling water in the outer flask up to the red baffle. I have made loads and never had a problem, so I wonder if the powder is a dodgy batch. Is it in date?
I always make mine in the evening and leave it overnight, then I fridge it in the morning.
I am sorry you are having such bad luck. I hope the third batch works out better for you. Fingers crossed!

:51::51::51:

 

[helbels]

Hi there

I can only advise the process I follow and hope it helps. The fact that you are using room temparature water is a good start (that's where I went wrong at first.

1) Add room temperature water to Yoghurt Pot. Add half sachet of yoghurt mix - WHISK!!! (I didn't do this at first and kept getting lumpy yoghurt - ewww!).

2) Add more water but DON't fill right to top. Stop at the point where the top of the black arrow on the side is (if you follow my drift). Filling to top makes yoghurt too thin IMO.

3) WHISK again! (No lumps are getting past me!)

4) Add boiling water to top of red bit in Yoghurt Maker. All of the red bit must be covered, including the bits that go up the sides.

5) Add yoghurt pot, put lid on. Make sure that sucker is on tightly.

6) Put Yoghurt Maker somewhere fairly warm overnight - mine sits on the fridge which kicks out a bit of heat. I make mine around teatime ish and don't open it at all until about 9am the next day.

Hey presto, nice yoghurt.

Hope that helps!

 

[louise66]

Can someone please put me out of my misery - I decded to buy an Easiyo kit from QVC because I like to make my own yogurt and thought their method looked quick and easy plus you could do varying flavours. However, I've never had such a failure with yogurt. The first one (the standard Natural Yogurt sachet) was lumpy and runny. The second one I've tried, the Greek Yogurt, has had 8 hours and hasn't set at all and is the consistency of milk.. The yogurt flask must have been shut propoerly because, the water is still warm. I used room temperature water in both cases (i.e. not straight from the cold water tap), so what thing am I doing glaringly wrong? The instructions are ubersimple, but with two failures, QVC will be having the rest back smartish, if I can't get a third one to set smoothly.

All advice gratefully received - before I hurl the thing through a window - methinks I should have invested in a wide necked flask instead.

Must emphasise, this is just my personal opinion, but you could try it. Firstly, use water straight from the cold tap. Instead of just shaking the jar, use a balloon whisk to mix it. Also, I have never had a fully set yoghurt in eight hours - at least twice as long!

 

[barbedwire]

Hiya - I had similar problems with Easiyo when I first bought it. I emailed their customer services who gave me the following advice:

1. Draw the water off from the cold tap a good few hours before you need it (I tend to do it 5-7 hours before I need it and leave it in the living room where there is usually a gas fire on and ths warmth from it), or use boiling water from the kettle that has cooled down.
2. If the weather is very cold, add an extra cm or so of boiling water above the baffle in the maker before you put the yoghurt in.
3. Leave the yoghurt in the maker for 12-14 hours minimum before you look at it - 8 hours apparently isn't enough.
4. If the yoghurt still hasn't set, put back and leave for another few hours - don't top up with more boiling water as this kills the lactic cultures.

If you are still having problems - Easiyo will send you replacement sachets free of charge...least they did with me anyhow.

Hope that helps a bit

 

[rosey]

You could always use my method - pick carton of yoghurt off supermarket shelf and put in shopping trolley - very easy, less stressful but a little more expensive:lol:

 

[calico]

I always leave mine in for longer than eight hours and have even been known to stick a tea-cosy over the flask when it's particularly cold. That sounds a bit weird to me though as you're having these problems over and over. I wonder if you got a dickey batch?

 

[overtherainbow]

ive had this problem a few times, and i wasnt putting the lid on prperly even if its not shut properly it will still stay warm, make sure its really screwed on, and make sure theres no lumps in the mixture

 

[Mam]

I've had a similar problem with the bio life Easiyo. I ordered it from IW when they first stocked it. The batch was just about within its sell by date but was completely useless.

 

[Themroc]

I have also had this problem of the yogurt not setting. Tried all the advice, but still get a drinking yogurt and not a thick one as shown on the shows.

Found that buying from Lakeland and not QVC gave better results.

Very disappointed with Easiyo.

 

[twomachines]

Thanks everyone for all your replies. I left the Greek yogurt in longer, overnight in fact and just looked at it and it's set. I will use the whisk method to even out any lumps before 'cooking', I hadn't thought of that, but from what you say it must be very effective. Warm place, yes, I did that, even wrapped a towel around it. Yes, boiling water at right height. I can only think that despite the information on the pack that you can have the yogurt 8 hours after incubation, this is not really true. Will keep persevering.

The only thing I would really query on my kit is the Insulated flask. The top on it doesn't seem to really seal, i.e. it doesn't have a natural closing point when you twist to close, it just goes round and around.

The dates on my packs have the full year to run. It's blinking annoying to find that something is trumpeted as being so simple and a throw it all together, convenience product, is just not working.

Oh and I was doing the carton off the shelves in the supermarket thing, but my electric maker (very ancient and resurrected in the past yeaer) went wrong, so I thought I'd have a go at the Easiyo method, thinking that in fact I could use it to make yogurt from scratch as well.

You might be interested to know that in googling the problem, I found one site, where people were using some of the made Easiyo plain yogurt as a starter for another batch of homemade yogurt, made with milk. These people were also using half a pack of the mix with UHT milk to make a richer yogurt.

Thank again for all your answers, they were really helpful.

 

[Tia]

I always use semi skimmed milk instead of water to make my greek yogurt, and it is yummie!

 

[rosey]

There was another thread on here only a week or so ago in which someone said that you could use the old fashioned yoghurt recipe (starter yoghurt and milk) in the easi-yo maker. They had even put a link in for the recipe. Try doing a search - I am sure that would be easier and cheaper than buying the sachets.

 

[Lioness]

The only thing I would really query on my kit is the Insulated flask. The top on it doesn't seem to really seal, i.e. it doesn't have a natural closing point when you twist to close, it just goes round and around. QUOTE]

I wonder if this is part of the problem. Whilst the lid on my 'flask' is not super tight, it certainly does not go round and round.

 

[LuckyLady]

The one thing i've found that seems to work is to make sure that I mix the powder with a small amount of water first, making sure that all of the powder has dissolved into the water. Then I add the rest of the water in small amounts and made sure it is properly mixed. I don't use a whisk, just a fork.
Usually it sets but occasionally I have resorted to replacing the water in the maker with more boiling water and leaving it to set for a second time in which case it always sets. I know that this may affect the biotic cultures but now and again it's worth doing it rather than wasting the whole packet. It doesn't affect the taste.
Hope this helps a bit, nothing worse than wasting a litre of yoghurt!