More soap and some yogurt

I managed to get hold of some coconut oil from an Asian grocery shop (99p a bottle!) so I made some more soap, just with coconut oil and olive oil. It didn't set (I guessed the amount of caustic soda again...), but I left it overnight, remelted it, and it's worked. It's a beautiful golden colour, although you can't see that in this picture. I'm very pleased with it, and having trouble waiting for it to be ready! 

I also had a go at making yogurt yesterday. We've got through ten, yes, TEN pints of milk in the last 3 days, so I thought perhaps if we could use yogurt for museli/porridge instead of milk, it might work out cheaper. 

I got a few recipe ideas from this money saving expert discussion. I tried it with UHT milk, thinking it would be cheaper than normal milk, but I think it actually turned out pretty much the same. I didn't use dried milk powder since I didn't have any. And I don't have a yogurt maker either...

So, I heated a litre of UHT milk to about 100 degrees, mixed it with a couple of teaspoons of natural yogurt, and put it in this lovely wide mouthed flask that was just sitting on a kitchen shelf looking pretty. People say to leave it overnight, but I was being impatient and made it at 10am, so I opened it mid afternoon. 

It was quite runny, but I think that's because I didn't use any dried milk powder. It tasted fine though. I left half of it for another couple of hours - other than being a little bit more of a tart taste, it's not that much different. 

I think next time I'll try non UHT milk though. If it's going to work out pretty much the same cost, I think I'd prefer the taste over the UHT. I'm pleased though, it was easy to make, too about 10 minutes overall, and I think with normal milk it'll taste the same as bought yogurt, but cost a fair bit less. Another success!