It can be an absolute revelation when you discover that there are easy ways to make certain food products at home. All of those things that you bought in packets, wondering o=how they were made – wonder no more! While people have obviously been home-brewing all sorts for a very long time, it is surely appliances like the bread maker that revolutionised home kitchens and opened the floodgates for more things like it.

Enter the yoghurt maker (fine, also know as yogurt). It might be fair to assert that yoghurt making has been a bit of a mystery to the everyday consumer, but there’s no denying that fresh, creamy yoghurt is an absolute delight. Now, there are a number of yoghurt makers out there for you to use at home, giving you the freedom to go wild with flavour and style combinations in a product that does the hard work for you. These, then, are the best yoghurt makers on sale today, so that you can add another culinary creation to your repertoire.

1. Aicok Yoghurt Maker

Aicok’s 8-jar yoghurt maker is housed in a stylish, modern and durable BPA-free brushed stainless-steel base. It benefits from several adjustable settings that make it very versatile – it has an adjustable temperature allowing you to set between 20 and 55oC so you can control the speed of the yoghurt-making process. A PTC (positive temperature coefficient) heating system ensures that temperatures remain constant throughout, with an automatic shut-off feature to ensure that your yoghurt won’t end up overdone.

The 8 jars, each of them with a volume of 6oz/170ml, are all dishwasher safe for great ease of cleaning, and come with lids for each individual jar as well as a large lid for the whole machine. An LED display is located on the unit’s front to allow you to keep track of temperature, and Aicok offer a 2-year warranty.

2. Lakeland Multi Yoghurt and Soft Cheese Maker

Lakeland’s multi-function yoghurt and soft cheese maker is an easy-to-use unit with great versatility. Compact at just 26cm high, it is still nonetheless large enough to make big batches in with two container options of 1.6 and 1.8 litres. A strainer is also included in the package in the event of any excess liquids and/or whey. Lakeland also include instructions and recipe instructions with the maker as well to give you a little boost of inspiration.

A digital LED display and a straightforward touch panel allow you to easily set time and temperature in order to get the best results every time. It will prepare yoghurt in around 8 hours, perfect if you want to set it off on a night and wake up the following morning to fresh yoghurt. The whole unit is made from a BPA-free white plastic, sturdy and strong but also easy to clean.

3. Severin JG3519 Yoghurt Maker

This 7-jar yoghurt maker by Severin is a very user-friendly option for budding yoghurt-making enthusiasts. Seven jars will fit into the unit at any one time, but 14 are supplied, meaning you’re free to make a second batch while the first is chilling (or being eaten!). The 150ml glass jars also come in a few different lid colours – red is pictured, but there are also ‘multi-coloured’ and ‘grey’ options.

A memory dial around the unit’s edge is numbered to help you to remember when the yoghurt is finished, as operating the machine is the simple process of flicking the on/off switch. The switch also features an indicator light to inform you when it’s up to temperature. Severin offer a 2-year warranty with the yoghurt maker.

4. Duronic YM2 Yoghurt Maker

Duronic’s YM2 Yoghurt Maker offers a simple and plentiful solution to homemade yoghurt. 8 ceramic pots are supplied, each with the capacity for 125ml of yoghurt and individual lids, mean you’ll have a portion for every day of the week and a spare for good measure. The pots are also all dishwasher safe for ease of cleaning. A timer on the front of the machine can be set for between 1 and 24 hours, although most yoghurt is ready in 8.

The yoghurt maker is powered by an efficient 20W motor, reducing the risk of overheating any yoghurt you have in production. It’s also designed conveniently, with compact dimensions of 26x24cm and a height of only 17cm even with the lid on. The power cable can also be detached for a smaller profile in the cupboard.

5. Euro Cuisine YMX750 Yoghurt Maker

The YMX750 Yoghurt Maker by Euro Cuisine is a simple to use, compact yoghurt making appliance. Supplied with seven 6oz/170ml jars, you’re set for a fresh, homemade yoghurt every day of the week. The jars all come with individual lids and are completely dishwasher safe, ensuring hygienic results every time.

Its ease of use comes courtesy of a straightforward on/off switch, which works in tandem with numbered timing marks on the side of the appliance. The on/off switch also comes with an indicator light to inform you when the temperature is right to start the yoghurt making process. The whole unit is BPA-free, and Euro Cuisine offer a substantial 3-year warranty with it.

6. EasiYo Yoghurt Making Kit

EasiYo’s Yoghurt Making kit comes ready with all the things you need to get started making yoghurt, meaning it’s a great way to get kids involved – the bright colour does also help. A single-jar type yoghurt maker, the EasiYo comes with an internal jar that can make around a kilo of yoghurt. The simplest feature of it is that it needs no power source, not even batteries – it instead relies on a tightly-sealed compartment that you fill with boiling water, before placing the jar in and leaving it for 8-10 hours. Unusually, the thermal insulation actually comes from a layer of sheep’s wool between the layers of the double-walled canister.

Two starter culture sachets are provided which only require water to be added, so right from the start you have the ability to make plain Greek-style or strawberry-flavoured yoghurts. The whole unit is compact for easy storage, and the inner jar is dishwasher safe.

7. Lakeland 7-Cup Electric Yoghurt Maker

This yoghurt maker from renowned British homewares brand Lakeland has space for 7 pots of yoghurt, perfect for a daily snack. Each jar, with its own individual lid, is 180ml, and Lakeland also sell extra jars if you really want to up your volume. Operated via a simple display on the front, it’s incredibly easy to use. You can use the buttons around the display to set warming time and adjust the temperature between 20 and 60oC.

Made from a tough BPA-free plastic, it’s easy to clean and takes up very little space. Only 15.8cm high with the lid on, and 28x25cm wide and deep respectively, it should comfortably fit in most kitchen cupboards. Lakeland also have a generous 3-year returns policy.

Which Yoghurt Maker to Go for?

Best quality & features – Aicok’s Yoghurt Maker stands out as the best mix of high quality and great features for it to come out on top. For one thing, coming with 8 jars gives it the potential to make a large volume of yoghurt quite easily, giving you one-a-day with a bonus yoghurt for dessert one day. The adjustable temperature function, with the PTC heating element to keep heat consistent as well as the automatic shut-off timer when your yoghurt’s done are great features, and it’s topped off with great looks and build quality.

On a budget – The YM2 Yoghurt Maker by Duronic is hands-down the best value yoghurt maker from our selection. Courtesy of a number of good features that some pricier models don’t have, it makes for an excellent choice for those looking to get into yoghurt making without investing too much first. A digital display, with adjustable timer and temperature, is a great addition at this price, and the capacity for 7 jars gives you a great amount of yoghurt at the end of it.

Get kids cooking – The EasiYo Yoghurt Making Kit has everything you need in one package, which makes it a great choice to encourage kids into the kitchen. Given its simplicity of use, which just requires boiling water (make sure to supervise at this point) and mixing cold water and the supplied sachets in the internal jar, it’s a great way to show kids how easy it is to make your own produce.

For making large batches – Lakeland’s Multi Yoghurt and Soft Cheese Maker is the best choice for making big batches of yoghurt, or soft cheese if you so choose. This comes courtesy of two interchangeable containers of 1.6 and 1.8 litres, giving you the option to make low-level industrial quantities of yoghurt. The only limit is the containers you can get to divide your finished product into.

Yoghurt Maker Buying Guide

Yoghurt is one of those things that’s been around for longer than you’d think. No-one truly knows when it was first created, but some suggest it goes as far back as 5000BC and the ancient Mesopotamians. Here’s hoping there isn’t actually any 7,000-year old yoghurt left anywhere in the world. Might be a bit funky.

Making your own yoghurt at home can be a really fun exercise, and of course yield delicious results. Plus, you’re joining in a tradition going back millennia, which is just a little bit awesome. But with so many different options for yoghurt makers out there, it can all get a bit confusing to know where to start. That’s what this buying guide is here for – to make a bit more sense of the key things you need to consider when you’re shopping for a yoghurt maker.

Number of cups/jars

The majority of home yoghurt makers today come supplied with space for 7 jars at a time, but there are some out there that offer a little more. It’s also worth noting that not all jars are equal, so bear that in mind when purchasing – if you have to spend a little more getting a maker with larger jars than the machine you were initially considering, then it may well be worth it. That way, you’ll get a lot more out of your yoghurt yields.

Ease of use

The majority of yoghurt makers are, nowadays, designed to be incredibly simple to use. Just like similar appliances, such as the slow cooker, it’s usually the case of ‘press a button, leave it to do its thing’. So be wary of any over-complicated looking machines, as it may well be a sign that the machine has a lot of complex features that you don’t need.

Heating unit

The process of making yoghurt is a fairly lengthy, quite slow one. With the way that yoghurt is made, a quality heating element is a must-have. The short version is that specific bacteria are added to pasteurised milk and slowly heated to encourage the bacteria to form lactic acid from the milk’s lactose, which gives yoghurt its characteristic texture and tang. With the importance that heat holds in the yoghurt-making process, you can see why an element is so important. Good heaters for one can make the process quicker, but it’s efficiency that’s the real key here. As long as heat is evenly dispersed across the machine, everything will be prepared in the same time at the same temperature, guaranteeing you more consistent results.

Cleaning

Yoghurt is messy. It’s a straightforward fact. Therefore, it’s vital for your time (and sanity) that the jars are easy to clean. Dishwasher-safe jars for the yoghurt maker is more or less the standard nowadays, but be aware nonetheless.

Multi-purpose?

In a few cases, yoghurt makers can do a little more than just the yoghurt. Owing to the similarity of the preparation process, some machines are also capable of making similar products such as soft cheeses, so if you’re a keen kitchen experimenter then don’t hesitate to invest in a multi-purpose machine!

One of the main reasons people buy yoghurt makers is to save money and get a little creative in making their own flavours of yoghurt. After all, once you realise the price difference between buying your own ingredients and the store-bought yoghurts, you’ll never go back. So do yourself a favour, and using all of this new knowledge on what to look for in a yoghurt maker, and get creative in the kitchen!