Vietnamese Yogurt
Lucky for us, nearly every grocer, banh mi shop, and patisserie in Little Saigon make or sell Vietnamese yogurt just for us so we can get our regular fix. We normally find it in clear plastic cups and the prices are very affordable. OK, maybe they don’t stock it just for us, but we definitely help keep their supplies fresh by buying super habitually. Then something happened…. We made a batch at home. This Vietnamese yogurt recipe was one of our first recipe posts back in 2008. An oldie but goodie. It’s fun to see how our photography and garden has changed over the years! 
Popularity of Yogurt
We love the current food fad of the Red Mango-Pinkberry-Yogurtland-a million other knock off names. We especially love the newer style of shops that have a plethora of flavors and are 100% self-serve. Mix ’em as you like them, top it as you want and have as much or little as you like. No paying too much for a penny pinching owner to ration out a few meager berries to top your yogurt. These are our favorite places for a quick afternoon sweet.
It is no surprise to see these yogurt shops popping up all over the place in Little Saigon. The Vietnamese have been making their non-frozen, Vietnamese yogurt version of this yogurt craze for quite some time. The first introduction of yogurt to Viet-Nam came from the influence of French colonization. Now, Vietnamese yogurt is not only a tradition in the mother country, but has gained popularity in America as well. That slight sweetness combined with the bit of tang makes an incredible combination. It’s a hard toss up to say whether we love this yogurt or a great Greek yogurt topped with Tupelo honey better.
What is Vietnamese Yogurt?
Vietnamese yogurt (da ua or sua chua) is smooth and touched with the sweetness of sweetened condensed milk. That slight touch of tartness is delicate, but still silky with a creamy texture. Often eaten more as a dessert and snack in VietNam, this yogurt is embraced by many others as the perfect breakfast yogurt. Topped with some fresh fruit, and even some crunchy granola, Vietnamese yogurt is a nice variety to add to your morning yogurt regime.
Mixed amongst all of Diane’s collective childhood slave kitchen days, was a recollection of Mom making enormous batches of Vietnamese yogurt. Diane’s mom would save a big box of baby food jars and use those as the containers to store the Vietnamese yogurt. If you are making your own yogurt, those clear plastic cups or even small mason jars will also work just fine. In an effort to prevent withdrawal fits when we are too lazy to go out and buy yogurt (you know, the days when we just stay home & make our own damn coffee), we figured it would be a good idea to have some Vietnamese yogurt always in stock in the fridge.
So, you may wonder, is it hard to make? Hell no. Vietnamese yogurt is extremely easy to make! If it were any easier, it would fall into the boiling water category of difficulty. We have to send out our apologies to all of our favorite banh mi shops, because there is one less fix that we have to get from you. Fortunately there is plenty else that keeps us coming through your doors. And for the rest of you, here you go, yogurt brethren, a super simple recipe for some damn good yogurt. – Todd
Vietnamese Yogurt Recipe
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup (200 g) Sweetened Condensed Milk (Longevity or Black & White are our favorite brands)
- 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) Water (near boiling)
- 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) Milk (we prefer whole milk)
- 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) Plain Yogurt (or Vietnamese yogurt if you can get it)
Instructions
- Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a bowl and add the hot water. Whisk until homogeneous. Pour milk into bowl and mix, then add yogurt and gently whisk until everything is smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the containers you will store it in. (Small plastic containers, recycled baby food jars, small canning jars, etc...)
- In a wide bottomed pot that is taller than your yogurt containers, make a bath for the containers: Heat up enough water to a near boil that it will come most of the way up the sides of your yogurt containers when they are immersed in the bath. In another pot or tea kettle, heat up additional water.
- After water is hot, turn off heat and place filled yogurt containers into bath. Pour in additional water until water level reaches nearly the top of yogurt containers. (Hint: Use a funnel to pour the water into the pot so no water splashes into the yogurt containers.)
- Place a towel over pot, being careful not to let it droop into yogurt containers and let yogurt set in the water bath. After the water has cooled completely (@ 4-5 hrs total bathing time) the yogurt should be fairly set (it will thicken a bit more when refrigerated, but not much.) Remove from bath, put lids on jars and store in fridge until ready to serve.
Todd, have you ever used sweetened condensed coconut milk in Vietnamese yogurt?
We haven’t yet. Just regular sweetened condensed milk. Sounds good though.
P.S. I made the yogurt in my yogurt machine, it took about 7 hours.
If you do it in the yogurt maker, do you need to heat it up before (since you are skipping the water bath?)
Sorry I took so long to reply, I haven’t been on this site in a long time. Follow the recipe as written but instead of the water bath put it in the yogurt maker, My first couple of batches took about 7 hours with the whole milk, after that I made some using half and half and it takes around 3 hours, a lot more fat but so good. I have a batch going right now.
I am fairly new to yogurt making, I have tried several recipes in the last couple months, yours is by far the best one I have found on the internet or in my yogurt maker cookbook. I was almost ready to give up on making yogurt until I found your recipe. Thank you sooooo much. I’m off to the kitchen to make sweetened condensed milk from scratch and then on to another batch of Vietnamese Yogurt.
this sounds SO yummy! I might make it this week! I found you guys on thekitchn.com today and fell in love because you’re 1 part white and 1 part Vietnamese, like my boyfriend of 5 years and I, except i’m the white one 😉 …and we live on the east coast, not the west. we love to cook too, so I can’t wait to read more on your blog!!
cheers.
Thanks for the recipe. Loving the new look of your site – haven’t been here in a while. I can’t wait to try it out. I’m using Rajtan jars from Ikea – I think they will be the perfect size. Your photographs rocks.
I love Vietnamese because it’s kind of vanilla-ee but most of all TART.
I used to live in Portland, OR where the was an abundance Vietnamese stores where I can purchased yummy Vietnamese yogurt but after moving to the Bay Area, the only place where I can find decent Vietnamese yogurt was in San Jose (an hour from where I live). Perhaps the people in the bay have a taste for less thick and sweeter yogurt. I like mine thick and creamy and tart…almost like the thickness of the Yoplait Thick and Creamy yogurt but less gelatinous.
I was happy to find this recipe (THANK YOU!!!). I tried making it yesterday and the result was not what I expected sadly. I did adjusted the recipe and ran into a small problem in the process. I substituted half a can of condensed milk with half a can more of whole milk (hoping to achieve a less sweet result) — well, the yogurt did turn out less sweet (but also less vanilla-ee). Then here’s the small problem I ran into: I didn’t have a big pot so I plugged up the sink and did the water bath in the sink, covered it with seran wrap, then use my supersized cutting board as a weight. After 7 hours, I checked the yogurt and noticed all the water was gone *shocked*. The yogurt thickened a little bit…like a sauce. I read somewhere else that the longer you let yogurt incubate, the thicker they become (also more sour). I didn’t want liquidy yogurt and I guess I wouldn’t mind a very tart yogurt so I did another water bath for an additional 3 hours. This time I made sure the water didn’t drain. I checked the yogurt later and it seemed thick enough…the surface wiggled a little bit when I tilt it lightly side to side. I put the cap on them and put them in the fridge. After a day in the fridge, I took one out to try. There were little white dots here and there even after I strained the milk mixture but I was okay with it. I used less condensed milk so it was less sweet and less vanilla-ee, which I was also okay with. Here’s the problem: the yogurt was not tart at all and not very thick. It wasn’t smooth but the consistency was like normal, store yogurt. Does that sound like the right consistency to you? How can I make it more sour/tart and thicker (and maybe creamier)?
Note: I think compared to normal people or at least the people around me I have a higher threshold for sour…so maybe the yogurt was tart but I couldn’t taste it.
My mom used to make this yogurt for me all the time! After I’ve found your recipe and made it, it tasted exactly like how my mom used to make it. I LOVE your recipe !
Hi,
I tried the recipe over the weekend, it turn out great. I have a question though, people said that after a couple times of re-using the yogurt as a starter, it will loose its potency. Is this true? I’ve also heard that I need to set the yogurt aside for at least a week before I can use it as starter yogurt, otherwise the yogurt will not form in 8-10 hours. do you have any experience on this?
Thanks.
Hi, firstly love your site. Thank you for sharing your recipes. I would like to ask, once I’ve made my first batch using normal yoghurt, can I then use the yoghurt I’ve made to make a 2nd batch in place of “1 cup plain yoghurt”?
Thank you
Hi LDC. Thanks for the compliments. Not only can you substitute the Vietnamese yogurt for the plain yogurt, but it is by far the best way to make the next batch. Hope you love it. Enjoy.
This recipe looks so simple. I have made homemade yogurt before without a yogurt maker, but I usually end up with something that is half set and pretty runny. How thick does this yogurt get with your method?
I am totally in love with Vietnamese yogurt & since it is so hard for me to get some at the store, this recipe is really helpful for me! I’ve even added pomegranate on top 🙂
I’ve tried following a Youtube user’s recipe and did the exact same steps as her but it wouldn’t come out right! Your recipe is BEST!!!
Thank you so much!
Thanks! Tried it and it worked perfectly. It’s getting colder out in the mid-west around now, so I had trouble with my water bath cooling down too quickly. I ended up putting it in my warm oven after I had finished some baking, which did the trick very nicely.
Hmm so what size can is that of the condensed milk (ie how many ounces). I LOVE vietnamese yoghurt and have been dying to try to make it.
Sorry about that. I can’t believe we forgot to put the can size. It is a 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk. We’ve updated the recipe as well.
This is great! My son opened a can of sweetened condensed milk, thinking it was evaporated milk (I’ve been buying a few cans to store away for when we want the luxury of adding it to our coffee – instead of drinking it black, or w/nonfat milk, like the good little children we are trying to be. 😉
I used a couple of tablespoons and tried Vietnamese coffee – mmm. Now I have everything ready and I’ll use the rest of it for this yogurt recipe. Can’t wait to try it!
Your site is fantastic, btw. I love, love, LOVE Vietnamese food – and have a tough time tearing myself away from here. Just fantastic…