Homemade Strawberry Yogurt II (or any fresh fruit)

http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/how-to-make-fresh-fruit-flavored-yogurt/
http://eurocuisine.net/recipes.php?recipe_id=5&fc_id=1
http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/reader-question-how-much-starter-do-you-really-need-to-make-yogurt

I used the recipe linked first as the base idea, but that recipe is similar to the second link. The third link is just a great troubleshooting site so I link it for future reference.

This recipe worked.  I measured an overflowing 1 cup of frozen strawberries and 2.5 T sugar, and cooked it down in ~1 cup water until it was thick and not much liquid. I did use a stick blender to blend the strawberry leftovers, but I'm wondering now if it would work better without the fibrous part. There is a recipe online that strains strawberries so I may try that trick sometime. I don't like to waste any fruit though so I will tinker with other stuff first.

I mixed it into the 1 quart scalded (normally to 180, but this batch I accidentally heated to 205) and cooled milk just after I added 3 T of plain yogurt starter. I also sprinkled some gelatin on the top and whipped it in. I didn't measure it, next time I will. I would do 1 tsp per pint since that worked when I made plain yogurt before.  Then pour it into glass jars and incubate. I did it for 10 hours, but David says it wasn't as tart as the TJ kind. Maybe I will try it for 12 hours next time.

This will make about 2.5 pints.

It turned out pretty well, except it is definitely grainy and has extra liquid separating from it. I think I didn't use nearly enough gelatin. The grainy part looks like the first pic in the 3rd picture set from the 3rd link at the top. Based on that picture, I may have used too much starter too. So I will experiment more and see.

But Ila liked it and ate it, and David says it is less sweet than the trader joes kind so that was my goal. It was not runny but not as thick as I wanted so more gelatin is needed.

Update: I made this again with 2 teaspoons of gelatin soaked over 1 quart milk, prior to heating to 180. The texture of the final yogurt was perfect. I think it needs more strawberry flavor though, so next time will add 2 heaping cups instead of 1 heaping cup of frozen strawberries. ALso, I cooked it 13 hours and it a little too tart. I think I will do 10 hours next time. Also, this time I used only 1 tsp of starter --plain lowfat anderson erickson yogurt, stirred into milk mixture after it cooled. I think that was a good change too. So for next time, do this:

1 tsp starter yogurt

2 heaping cups strawberries

2.5 T sugar

1 qt whole milk

2 tsp gelatin

let go for 10 hours

9/30/15: I made the changes I recommended, but the texture turned out even more grainy. More fruit only made it more grainy. Next time I will strain out the fruit while following the same steps otherwise, and see if that works better. The fruit syrup left behind should be boiled down as small as possible.