After reading about making yogurt at home for a long time I became very intrigued because we go through a lot of yogurt around here! My cute son tries to wake up before me everyday to eat yogurt. I searched online and saw a bunch of different methods and recipes and I’ve decided to share with you what has worked the best for me. I get a delicious thick consistency and you can even make your own Greek style yogurt!
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What you need: 1/2 gallon of pasteurized milk (any fat content); 1-1/3 C powdered milk (not fake milk like Morning Moo – real powdered milk like this one); yogurt (make sure it says “live and active cultures” – you only need to purchase this the first time you buy your yogurt, after that you can use your own homemade yogurt!); a 4-5 Quart slow cooker.
Advice: Start this process when you first wake up or at about 4-6pm. This process is very, very easy and very, very time consuming.
Also – NEVER stir your yogurt, only scoop or fold, or it will break down and become thin.
Process:
- Combine the powdered milk into the milk, mixing well (I use my stick blender). The powdered milk adds milk solids to your yogurt giving it a thicker consistency than most homemade yogurt. I HIGHLY recommend it. Plus, it’s a great way to use your food storage!
- Pour the milk into a 4-5 quart crock-pot, cover and turn on low heat.
- Leave it alone for 2.5 hours.
- Unplug your crock-pot.
- Leave it alone for 3 hours.
- Uncover the milk and skim off any skin. Scoop 2 C of warm milk into a bowl and whisk with 1/2 C yogurt. For my starter I used Greek Gods traditional plain Greek style yogurt.
- Pour the milk/yogurt back into the other milk and cover your slow cooker.
- Wrap the entire slow cooker in a fluffy towel and let it sit on your counter for 8 hours.
- Unwrap. Scoop yogurt into clean containers and refrigerate.
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That’s it. If you follow the measurements exactly and use the proper size slow cooker this method should work for you. If you change amounts or use a smaller or larger crock-pot your heat will vary and it may not work. I cannot believe how easy and INEXPENSIVE this is. I will never buy store bought yogurt again. To flavor it – just stir in some fresh or frozen fruit. If you don’t lie plain yogurt you can use a little bit of your favorite sweetener. Delicious!!
Do you want Greek style yogurt?
I love Greek style yogurt. I use it in place of sour cream, mayo, mix it into homemade ranch… To turn your yogurt into Greek style yogurt, simply put a cotton dish towel (smooth, not terry cloth style) over a colander over a bowl. Scoop yogurt into the cloth, fold the sides of the cloth over the top and weight with a zip top bag of water. Let it sit over the bowl for 4 hours. Voila, Greek style yogurt! ! If you leave it sitting for 8 hours you get yogurt cheese – which is very similar to and can be used as a substitute for cream cheese.
Many of the methods I ended up using came from this blog post.
