Instant Pot Greek Yogurt (Easy Small Batch Recipe)

Pour the milk into your Instant Pot and place the lid on in the Venting (non-pressure cooking) position. Press the “Yogurt” button and then press a couple more times or until you see the “More” mode show on the display. After about ten seconds, you’ll hear a few beeps and the display will then show “boil” while your milk heats up to temperature. Once the boil mode is complete, the Instant Pot will beep again and display “Yogt” instead of boil. This process takes about 20 minutes or so.

Open up the Instant Pot and test the temperature of the milk with a food thermometer; it should be right around 180°F (82°C).

Take the inner pot out of your Instant Pot (careful, as it will be hot) and cool the milk temperature down to 110°F (43°C) using your thermometer to test as it cools. You can either let the inner pot sit on a wire rack until it cools down to that temperature, or place the inner pot into a larger pot (or kitchen sink) of ice water to achieve the temperature much more quickly.

Use a soup ladle to transfer about a cup of cooled milk out of your pot into a glass measuring cup and add 3 tablespoons of your store-bought yogurt (or homemade yogurt if you have some already made) and incorporate into the cup of milk. Add this mixture back into the rest of the pot and gently incorporate again using a silicone spatula.

Place the inner pot containing your incorporated milk and yogurt cultures back into the Instant Pot and close the lid, again in venting position. Press the yogurt button and then use the plus/minus buttons to set the fermentation time, using the default 6 hours if this is your first time making yogurt.

Once the Instant Pot is done fermenting, it’ll beep and display “Yogt” once again; your yogurt is now finished and you can transfer to the fridge as is or continue on to make Greek yogurt. If you find that you'd like it to be a little more tart after a quick taste test, just use the Yogurt program again and set it to 30 minutes or an hour to keep fermenting before storing in the fridge.

To make Greek yogurt from your fresh yogurt, you’ll need a colander, a bowl and some cheesecloth. Make a double layer of cheesecloth and then line the colander with it. Next, place the colander into a bowl which will collect the whey as it strains. And finally, slowly pour in your freshly made yogurt and let the yogurt strain overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, you’ll have Greek yogurt waiting for you.

Chop up about 2 cups of strawberries per quart of yogurt and place in a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of fresh honey and use a potato masher to gently crush the berries and incorporate with the honey. Then, simply fold the fruit mixture into your yogurt and serve or store in the fridge.