Milk Kefir Grains
1 can full-fat Coconut Milk
Equipment:
A glass jar or two
Metal Sieve
One of the following: Cheesecloth
Alternately, you could use a Kefir Cheese Strainer
1. Place room temperature coconut milk into a glass jar. Add kefir grains. Cover with paper towel or cheesecloth secured with the ring of a mason jar lid or an elastic band.
2. Let the kefir grains do their thing for 24-48 hours (tasting periodically to see if the culture has reached your desired sourness).
3. Strain the kefir culture through a metal strainer. Place the strained kefir grains into fresh milk to start the next culture.
4. Line a metal sieve, colander or funnel with 12-14 layer thick cheesecloth (alternately you could use a yogurt cheese bag, a kefir strainer, a piece of muslin cloth or a clean linen tea towel). Place sieve over a medium-sized bowl to catch the whey.
5. Pour strained kefir culture into the cheesecloth-lined sieve and place the entire bowl and sieve into the refrigerator. After 1 hour, check the liquid in the bottom of the bowl and make sure that it is mostly clear (it will have a little opaque white swirling around in it, but it should look alot like the liquidy whey from the top of a yogurt container). If it isn’t clear, dump it back into the cheese cloth and add another few layers of cheese cloth or a second nut-milk bag or even a coffee filter to strain out the whey.
6. Check how thick your yogurt is after about 4 hours. It will take anywhere between 4-24 hours to strain enough whey to have thick, creamy yogurt consistency (you can actually continue straining to make a fresh kefir cheese, although if you are going to attempt this, it’s better to strain at room temperature). Once the desired consistency is reached, scrape the yogurt into a bowl or container for storage and discard the whey (or better yet, use for another purpose). The yield is approximately 1 cup of yogurt for 1 can of coconut milk.
7. Enjoy the yogurt plain (maybe with some berries or paleo granola) or flavor with honey, vanilla and/or pureed fruit. To make a lovely vanilla yogurt, add 1 Tbsp honey and 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract. For fruit yogurts, I typically add ¼ cup pureed fresh or frozen fruit to 1 cup of yogurt. Stir to incorporate and enjoy!
Note on straining kefir when using homemade coconut milk: The curd/fat layer of my kefir can be so solid when I use homemade coconut milk that the straining step can be avoided. Instead, I carefully spoon the thick top layer into my metal sieve, and push the curd through to separate out my Kefir Grains
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