Coconut milk yogurt: so confused!

[mommyshoppinghabit]

I guess I'll start here first but maybe posting in the Healing the Gut Tribe or Health and Healing Allergies would be better?
Anyway, I tried once to make yogurt from raw milk and a starter I got from (I think) Fermented Treasures. As far as I could tell, it was a big failure.
But now I have one ds that is allergic to any kind of cows milk, and neither of my kids liked the goats milk yogurt they've tasted, so I am really thinking of trying coconut milk yogurt in order to get some good probiotics going in their guts. I'm not using canned coconut milk. I've been using coconut cream concentrate from Tropical Traditions mixed w/filtered water. I have a dehydrator and have been reading that that's the best equipment for keeping the milk at warm temp (100-110 degrees F). But then I saw this page and got really confused. It says that since they're starters were cultured in dairy medium, they will not perpetuate in a non-dairy medium. It says, "Therefore you would need to maintain a small amount of yogurt made with cow or goat milk to use as a starter culture to make soy or coconut milk (the ratio is 1 tablespoon starter culture yogurt to 1 cup soy or coconut milk)." But then you go to a dairy-free yogurt starter,say, the GIProStart info page, and it says that the strains in the starter were cultured with "exposure to some dairy peptones (broken down molecular structures) during their fermentation" but then filtered so that the yogurt it makes is considered "dairy-free yogurt based on the standards established in the nutritional industry". So while I'm not too concerned about the absolute dairy-freeness of the GIProStart Yogurt culture, I wonder if those three strains that it contains (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and L. CASEI) esp. the lactobacillus strains, will not really thrive in a non-dairy environment, and thus will need the method of propogation mentioned in the first link provided, or even worse, not really thrive at all in coconut milk. The coconut cream and the starter are just to expensive to do trial and error with. Also, that first page I linked to (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/Yog...er-FAQ-19.html) says that some of their starters are mesophilic (ie culture at room temp, so would be a mistake if I used my dehydrator) while others are thermophilic (so would need that dehydrator). Obviously, if the S. thermophilus is in the starter, it would need to be warm, but what if I chose another starter that didn't have the strain in it. And I've read where some people just throw in their probiotic pills, blend, let sit overnight and it comes out great!

[JacquelineR]

fwiw, kathy from the allergies forum makes coconut yogurt using gipro starter.
she has a recipe for it on her site, kathysrecipebox,com

[kjbrown92]

I use canned coconut milk (without gums) for mine. And it took about 11 batches to get it right (expensive no matter how you look at it, but I guess I'm stubborn). I use the giprohealth.com starter. My two dairy intolerant kids (and me too) don't react to it. I use a yogurt maker (EuroCuisine, I think it is). And Jacqueline already told you my website.

[mommyshoppinghabit]

Thanks Kathy.
I'm just curious though, on another website, they say you can just throw in any probiotic, but I thought the starter has to have S. thermophilus in it, right?

These blog posts that I found can't be right:http://www.rawglow.com/coconutyogurt.htm

http://www.pure2raw.com/2009/10/komb...oconut-yogurt/
(halfway down the page)

If all you have to do is throw the probiotic in and wait overnight, why can't you just stir in a probiotic into your drink and drink it right there?

[kjbrown92]

Well for yogurt, the good bacteria has to "grow" in the medium (coconut milk in this case). As far as I know, regular probiotics don't work (several women on MDC have tried it and it didn't work).

When I emailed giprohealth about their starter, they explained that the dairy is in "parts per million" and it's so miniscule that it barely registers, but there is a tiny bit there, but that it's always under the threshold that's listed by the FDA so that they can say it's non-dairy. They said if it's an anaphylactic dairy allergy, they don't recommend it. My two kids are intolerant, but highly sensitive, and they're fine with it. Different starters have different strains of probiotics in them.

I use canned coconut milk. And I use giprohealth starter. And the Euro Cuisine yogurt maker. I don't know the dehydrator method.

[JacquelineR]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

Well for yogurt, the good bacteria has to "grow" in the medium (coconut milk in this case). As far as I know, regular probiotics don't work (several women on MDC have tried it and it didn't work).

When I emailed giprohealth about their starter, they explained that the dairy is in "parts per million" and it's so miniscule that it barely registers, but there is a tiny bit there, but that it's always under the threshold that's listed by the FDA so that they can say it's non-dairy. They said if it's an anaphylactic dairy allergy, they don't recommend it. My two kids are intolerant, but highly sensitive, and they're fine with it. Different starters have different strains of probiotics in them.

I use canned coconut milk. And I use giprohealth starter. And the Euro Cuisine yogurt maker. I don't know the dehydrator method.

Have you ever tried making a batch of new yogourt using the old as starter?

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Have you ever tried making a batch of new yogourt using the old as starter?

Me? No. I don't know how much to use, or how to do it. And you know me. I stick to a recipe.