So if your kids are like my kids they would eat yogurt all day long every day. I don't know about you but as a single income family of 5 soon to be 6 I can't afford that. So what else was I to do. I went looking online for ideas on home made yogurt and found it to be super easy. You don't need a fancy yogurt maker or anything like that. I used my crock pot. Now I have made it on the stove top before, but I found the crock pot to be a 1000 times easier.
So here is what you need for your home made yogurt:
Milk- I use whole milk, but have used 1% as well and it came out just fine. I have heard that you should not use skim milk. If you want to do a dairy free yogurt then you might want to do some more looking online for other sites that would have better info. I do plan on making a dairy free one someday but just have not done it yet. But when I do I will do a post about it.
Starter Yogurt- This is a yogurt from the store that has LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES in it. That is a very important part or your yogurt will not turn out right.
Crock pot- any size will do, but the bigger the bigger the batch of yogurt.
Take your milk and pour it into your crock pot to the top. Turn it on high and let it sit. You want to have little bubbles around the top, but not boiling. It should be around 200 degrees at the highest temps. What your doing is killing off any bacteria in the milk.
Next turn your crock pot off and let it cool down to about 115-120, this is important that it's below 120 degrees.
Once it's cooled off scoop out some of the warm milk into another container, you don't need much maybe 1/2 to 1 cup of milk. Take your starter yogurt, about a 1/2-1cup depending on how much milk you are using. (you can't use to much) and mix that with the milk you scooped out. Mix this well. This will warm the yogurt up before adding it to the main mix. Once that's done then pour it into your crock pot and mix well. You don't need to make bubbles while mixing, you can be gentle about it.
Once it's all mixed up take your crock pot and place it in your oven, make sure your oven is turned off. Wrap a towel around it and let it sit over night.
The longer it sits the thicker it will get. I have let mine sit for up to 14 hours before.
The next day take the crock pot out of the oven, remove your lid and check out your yogurt. Now there will be a watery part on top, you can either just mix that in (which will make your yogurt a little thinner) or scrape it off the top, that's what I do.
Your home made yogurt will not be as thick as store bought yogurt, because most store bought yogurt contains pectin in it to help thicken it up. You can however strain your yogurt through cheese cloth to help make it thicker.
Scoop your yogurt into containers and place them in the fridge and your done. That's it. It's ready to eat.
If you want to add flavor like vanilla or honey to your yogurt you can, add it when mixing your starter yogurt into the batch of milk.
Also set aside about 1/2-1 cup of your yogurt you just made for your starter yogurt for next time. You can do that about four times before you need to buy another starter yogurt.
We now use our home made yogurt in place of sour cream a lot. We have put it in tacos, and made ranch dressing with it so far. It came out perfect, though I would not add honey or vanilla to the batch if you plan on doing that, not sure that would taste just right.
Enjoy!
So here is what you need for your home made yogurt:
Milk- I use whole milk, but have used 1% as well and it came out just fine. I have heard that you should not use skim milk. If you want to do a dairy free yogurt then you might want to do some more looking online for other sites that would have better info. I do plan on making a dairy free one someday but just have not done it yet. But when I do I will do a post about it.
Starter Yogurt- This is a yogurt from the store that has LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES in it. That is a very important part or your yogurt will not turn out right.
Crock pot- any size will do, but the bigger the bigger the batch of yogurt.
Take your milk and pour it into your crock pot to the top. Turn it on high and let it sit. You want to have little bubbles around the top, but not boiling. It should be around 200 degrees at the highest temps. What your doing is killing off any bacteria in the milk.
Next turn your crock pot off and let it cool down to about 115-120, this is important that it's below 120 degrees.
Once it's cooled off scoop out some of the warm milk into another container, you don't need much maybe 1/2 to 1 cup of milk. Take your starter yogurt, about a 1/2-1cup depending on how much milk you are using. (you can't use to much) and mix that with the milk you scooped out. Mix this well. This will warm the yogurt up before adding it to the main mix. Once that's done then pour it into your crock pot and mix well. You don't need to make bubbles while mixing, you can be gentle about it.
Once it's all mixed up take your crock pot and place it in your oven, make sure your oven is turned off. Wrap a towel around it and let it sit over night.
The longer it sits the thicker it will get. I have let mine sit for up to 14 hours before.
The next day take the crock pot out of the oven, remove your lid and check out your yogurt. Now there will be a watery part on top, you can either just mix that in (which will make your yogurt a little thinner) or scrape it off the top, that's what I do.
Your home made yogurt will not be as thick as store bought yogurt, because most store bought yogurt contains pectin in it to help thicken it up. You can however strain your yogurt through cheese cloth to help make it thicker.
Scoop your yogurt into containers and place them in the fridge and your done. That's it. It's ready to eat.
If you want to add flavor like vanilla or honey to your yogurt you can, add it when mixing your starter yogurt into the batch of milk.
Also set aside about 1/2-1 cup of your yogurt you just made for your starter yogurt for next time. You can do that about four times before you need to buy another starter yogurt.
We now use our home made yogurt in place of sour cream a lot. We have put it in tacos, and made ranch dressing with it so far. It came out perfect, though I would not add honey or vanilla to the batch if you plan on doing that, not sure that would taste just right.
Enjoy!
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