After a few rounds of making my own yogurt, I feel confident enough to share my easy How-To. I've tried to make it in the past using a stove top method with thermometers involved, but never found it that easy. The slow cooker method is easier, you just need to plan your time accordingly.
Ingredients
1/2 Gallon of Milk ~ cannot be Ultra-Pasteurized, which many Organic milk products are. I have found Organic Pasteurized milk at Trader Joe's that worked fine.
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt, called the "starter". Once you make up your first batch, you can save a 1/2 cup and use for a future batch.
Instructions
Pour all of the milk into a slow-cooker and turn to Low. Leave it on for 2 1/2 hours.
Unplug the cooker and let it sit for 3 hours.
At the end of 3 hours, mix in the 1/2 cup yogurt starter to the warm milk. I slowly whisk in the yogurt.
Cover the slow cooker with a thick bath towel to retain heat. Let the slow cooker sit overnight, or at least 8 hours. Refrigerate in the morning.
That's it! In the morning, you have yogurt. While I like it cool, I have eaten it right away in the morning, and so have the kids. I've tried my starter using both Plain and Vanilla and each worked fine, just choose according to your taste. I use my yogurt for baking and also to serve with my Homemade Granola. I usually mix fresh fruit in my yogurt and granola breakfast so I don't care for fruity yogurt. If that's how you roll, you can make a puree in the blender of fresh or frozen fruit and then blend it into the yogurt.
What do you think? Will this take some of the burden off your yogurt expense each week?
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This post was shared with Real Food 101, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Real Food Forager, and Traditional Tuesday.
