Homemade Coconut Milk Yogurt

Making yogurt is a tradition in my family, but making dairy-free yogurt has been a trial and error process. My grandmother has dabbled in the kitchen making yogurt out of soymilk and occasionally mixing in a little almond milk (although I must warn you making homemade yogurt from commercial almond milk is quite literally impossible). For me, coconut milk yogurt is the holy grail of dairy-free yogurts. I love the store-bought stuff but I hate exposing my little one to all that added sugar (the typical store bought yogurt has about as much added sugar as 2 tablespoons of frosting). Years ago I found an excellent recipe for coconut milk yogurt on the blog Small Footprint Family. Her recipe has evolved over the years on the site and is not exactly the same as the first one she posted back in 2009. But I have the old recipe written down in my handy-dandy notebook and a variation of that recipe is what I prefer to use. Also, the comments section on the page of the original recipe (link here) is invaluable for answering questions and playing around with ingredients. I have only ever used a "yogurt maker" that is a warming plate with a lid that is specifically designed to keep yogurt at the correct temperature for fermentation ( I have the Euro Cuisine Digital Automatic Yogurt Maker YMX650 ). So if you have any questions regarding making yogurt using any other technique (crock pot, oven, dehydrator, etc.) please fer to the comments in on Small Footprint Family. 

Here is my very slightly tweaked version of the Small Footprint Family recipe. Oh! Before I forget, as far as add-in's to the yogurt go, after it's all fermented and chilled I like to mix in fresh fruit, mango chutney is amazing on this yogurt, homemade pineapple jam, apricot preserves, the list goes on! You're only limited to your imagination! 

3 cans organic coconut milk 
1/4 teaspoon non-dairy yogurt starter/probiotic (I use Custom Probiotics Formula 2  - the company can add in additional strains and customize the blend for you as well)
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon unflavored vegan gelatin 

Directions

• Sterilize your yogurt containers, mixing spoons and other utensils with boiling water. This will keep bad bacteria from competing with the good yogurt bacteria
• In a saucepan, bring coconut milk to 180 degrees F, then remove from heat. Do NOT boil the milk; watch it closely. (Do NOT microwave, which harmfully alters the chemical structure of the milk). You want to get the milk just hot enough to sterilize it. Your coconut milk must reach 180 degrees or you risk contamination with Burkholderia cocovenenans or other harmful bacteria.
• While the milk is still very hot, whisk in gelatin. 
• Add agave nectar and stir thoroughly. The sweetener provides food for the bacterial culture and will be mostly consumed by the time your yogurt is done.Without a natural form of sugar, coconut milk will not culture.
• Cover and cool to 95-100 degrees. If the milk is too hot, it will kill the bacterial culture you are going to introduce. It takes a fair amount time to cool to 100, so go do something else in the house for a while.
• Remove about 1/2 cup of cooled coconut milk, and mix in your starter culture. Stir well.
• Thoroughly mix the inoculated batch back in with the remainder of the cooled coconut milk.
• Pour cultured milk into your yogurt maker jars. Cover and ferment at 105-110 degrees for 7-9 hours. The longer you ferment the yogurt, the less sugar it will contain and the more sour it will taste.Check for taste at 7 hours, but note that if you want all the sugar to be fully consumed by the bacteria, you will need to ferment for at least 8 hours. 
• After 7–9 hours, remove from your yogurt maker, cover jars and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
• If your yogurt separates after chilling, either stir it briskly with a spoon.