For many of us who love dairy foods but have a problem digesting lactose, having lactose-free milk available was a gift from heaven. Goat’s milk cheeses, which are becoming more easily available, help fill the cheese-need.  I also like sour cream and yogurt but finding those in lactose-free forms is a challenge.  One local grocery has introduced lactose-free sour cream, but it’s not always available when I need it, and it tends to be expensive.  I know that it’s pretty easy to make home-made yogurt, so I started there.  Then I applied the same technique to sour cream and guess what – it worked!  I now have lactose-safe yogurt and sour cream to use in cooking, dressings, desserts, condiments and sides.  The only difference I noticed is with the sour cream – it has a consistency more like clotted cream or creme fraiche but the taste is still sour cream. I have not experimented yet with adding tapioca or other stabilizers to make a ‘thicker’ texture more like the commercial products.  If I do, I’ll update this recipe to share that as well.

Here’s what you’ll need for equipment:

1 pint/500 ml canning jar (2 jars if you’re doing both at once) with lids/caps
thermometer to measure temperature of liquids
thermometer to measure temperature of oven
pan with sides to hold jar(s) and water
1 T. measuring spoon

Ingredients:

Starter for yogurt or sour cream: I used regular, plain store yogurt and the lactose-free sour cream, but you can also use regular (with lactose) products or buy starter in some health food or specialty grocery stores.
Lactose-free milk

Method:

1. Turn on oven at lowest setting to get it to no more than 110F.
2. Heat milk in pan to 110F and pour into jar to 3/4 fill OR
3. Fill clean jar 3/4 full with lactose-free milk and microwave using beverage setting. Remove from microwave, stir and check temperature – should be between 105F-110F.
4. Stir in 2-3 T. of  room temperature starter (yogurt or sour cream).
   NOTE: do not add more than this or it will not set.
5. Set jar in pan and add warm water (approx. 110F) to approx. 1-2 inches, depending on depth of pan.
6. Loosely cover jar with parchment or cloth (optional to keep dust out only – do not seal or cover tightly)
7. Set pan in warm (105-110F) oven and do not disturb. Check oven temperature periodically in first 2-3 hours.
   NOTE: Keep oven temperature between 105-110F – sometimes just leaving the light on will be enough!
8. Check consistency after 4-5 hours, but if you’re using commercial products for starter, this could take up to 8-10 hours.
   NOTE: I did this in the evening, started with a warm oven and left it overnight – perfectly done in the morning.
9. Use a clean spoon to test for consistency and to taste but do not stir – it will break down the yogurt or sour cream.
10. Wipe jars carefully, add jar caps for storage and label each jar with LF yogurt or sour cream (don’t mix them up!) and the date.
11. REFRIGERATE JARS. Do not leave at room temperature.

You now have lactose-free yogurt and/or sour cream that you can use just as you would regular products.  Both will be a softer consistency than the store products because these do not have thickeners or stabilizers added to them.  If you start out with regular (with lactose) starters, then these will be lactose-reduced but not lactose-free. As you use these products to make more batches, you will continue to reduce the lactose in the end product until it is essentially lactose-free.

Always reserve 2-3 T. of the most current batch to use to make the next batch. Discard when the flavour or consistency has changed and make a fresh set with the reserved starter. Note that these won’t keep as long as commercial products because they don’t have extra preservatives in them, but when you can make it so easily that shouldn’t be a problem!

Please try this out and let me know how it goes and how you like the ‘homemade’ results!