Product Road Test: Easiyo Yoghurt Maker

On a recent food shopping trip, Perfect Boyfriend stopped and pointed out a packet of 'yoghurt mix'. "How awesome would homemade yoghurt be?" Very awesome, as it turns out.

Of course, I wasn't going to just buy a yoghurt maker on a whim. I researched the maker I was most keen on (the Easiyo system), read online reviews, found recipes and compared prices.

In the end I paid about $18 for my Easiyo at the local Woolworths. It's available online for just under $15, but after working out shipping costs, ordering online wouldn't be worth it unless I was going to stock up on the yoghurt mix at the same time - and that would be a risky idea when I didn't have a chance to try the yoghurt beforehand.

I went for silver. Wouldn't you?

The easiyo system is basically a thermos. You shake up water and a yoghurt mix in the smaller container, fill up the big container with boiling water and let it do its thing for 8 - 12 hours. You don't even have to plug it in because all it needs is the boiling water. At the end of your 8 hour wait: there is yoghurt! Obviously at that point you want to refrigerate it, because who wants to eat lukewarm yoghurt?

I was attracted to the concept of homemade yoghurt not only because I love eating food I've made from scratch (or as close to as I can get), but also because it's a lower cost option than store bought yoghurt. The thermos makes one litre of yoghurt at a time, which would set you back $6-$10 at my local shop. In comparison, the yoghurt mix sachets are about $3.60 each if you buy in bulk online. My online research also suggested trying to make yoghurt from milk and a few tablespoons of a previous batch - that would be even cheaper!

The honey on this yoghurt was produced locally by my cousin's father-in-law's beehives. How cool is that?

Tonight I'll be mixing up a test batch of the strawberry flavour - fingers crossed it's just as great as the unsweetened greek style yoghurt, which has been my breakfast this week.

My verdict? I'm going to buy some online to give as presents (I love presents that help others save money), and I expect I'll use mine every week. It does, however, have the potential to become one of those single purpose kitchen tools that sits around getting dusty, so I really would only recommend it if you'll eat yoghurt regularly enough to make it worthwhile.

Note: this might be obvious, but this blog is not "monetised" and I am not a professional blogger. I bought this product at my local shops, and this review is my honest opinion.

Product Road Test: Donna Hay Macaron Mix

I've been meaning to try out a macaron recipe for a while now, but it can be daunting when you read so many baking blogs where experienced macaron makers (macaroners?) warn you that even with a lot of effort and a strict adherence to the recipe you're using, you can still fail so easily.

So I took the easy way out. I tried out the Donna Hay Almond and Chocolate packet mix:

It worked well for me. At first glance the instructions were complicated (by packet mix standards), but once I got stuck into it, they were easy to follow. Certainly a lot easier than the recipes I'd been reading for how to make macarons from scratch.

My one real issue was that the packet stated that one tablespoon of mix was appropriate for each cookie - and that really didn't come to 24 cookies / 12 sandwiches. It was more like 6 sandwiches in total, which doesn't feel like enough of a payout for an $8 packet mix and a half an hour of effort. Yes, I'm lazy. If I use this mix again I'll only use a teaspoon per cookie.

As you can see, the macarons turned out pretty well. Some of them came out a little ugly (like the poor one in the back in that photo), but some had the perfect dome, the ruffled "foot" and that amazing chewy macaron taste.

Would I make them again? I'm not sure. It feels like cheating to offer guests beautiful macarons when you made them from a packet mix. They did, however, give me a beautiful afternoon tea to enjoy on the balcony.