Homemade Crock Pot Yogurt

I got this recipe from A Year of CrockPotting. You should really check out that site, lots of good stuff on there. If you would like to see the original recipe, go here.

I really think this recipe is the coolest one I have. I can't believe I can make yogurt, at home, in my crock pot. You know what else is unbelievable? It's edible. 

As most of you know, plain yogurt can be very sour. So, to fix that, use a sweetener of your choice to sweeten it up and take a lot of the sourness away. 

Some ways we use plain yogurt:

1. Sweeten to taste with honey and add some kind of fruit, ex. mandarin oranges (which is one of my favorites), banana, peaches, strawberries, etc.

2. Sweeten to taste, cinnamon, and vanilla (I wish I had exact measurements for you, but I don't. Just add a little at a time until it tastes just right.)

3. Use in place of sour cream when cooking or baking. Now, I really like the taste of sour cream. I would not use the yogurt as a garnish in place of sour cream. But, the other night I was making creamy chicken enchiladas and the recipe called for sour cream inside the  enchiladas. It was then going to be baked. I ran out of sour cream so I tried the yogurt. I couldn't even tell their was a difference and the yogurt had 1/3 of the calories that the sour cream had. I would do it again. (I will post the enchilada recipe soon.)

4. If any of you have any great uses for yogurt or any favorite ways to eat it, let me know. I love trying new things. 

One more thing. I make a gallon at a time because my family is so big (7 of us). If this seems like to much, cut the recipe in half. 

Homemade Crock Pot Yogurt

1 Gallon Milk (I use 2%)

1 Cup Starter Yogurt (Go buy some plain yogurt at the store and use this. Just make sure that it says LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES or something to that effect on the container. You can also go to a health food store and buy some dried starter. If you do this, you will need 20 grams of the dried stuff.)

(This is the milk before I turned it into yogurt)

1. In your crock pot, pour in your milk, cover, and turn on to low. 

2. Let cook for 2 1/2 hours.

3. Turn off crock pot and let sit for 3 hours. Don't touch it. Don't open the lid. 

4. Open the lid and take out 2 cups of the warm milk.

5. Stir in the Starter, either the yogurt starter or the powder stuff, into the 2 cups of milk.

6. Dump this back into the milk in the crock pot. 

7. Cover.

8. Take 2 or 3 big bath towels and rap them around the crock pot for insulation. 

9. Let sit for about 8 hours. (If you plan it right, you can go to bed while it sits for the 8 hours.)

10. Take out one cup of the yogurt and freeze. (This is the starter for the next batch)

11. Refrigerate and enjoy! 

(I had already started putting it in tupperware before I remembered to take a picture.)

If you want thicker yogurt, because it will be kind of runny: 

1. Line a colander with some cheese cloth. 

2. Let the colander dangle inside a pot and cover. 

3. Refrigerate for a few hours to a day, depending on how thick you like it. When I let it sit for a full day, it ends up thick like sour cream. 

Making yogurt saves me a ton of money. Last week, Costco had milk for $1.84/Gallon. Yogurt this week cost me $1.84/Gallon + the cost of electricity. So, maybe $2.00. It normally costs me almost $3.00 per Quart or $12.00/Gallon of yogurt if I buy it from the store. I save $10.00 every time I make it myself. 

P.S. The next time I make it, I will be adding some unflavored gelatin to it to see if the texture is a bit more store like. I will let you know how it turns out.