Crock Pot Yogurt, YUMMM!

In our house, we go through quite a bit of yogurt. Daddy eats it every day for lunch, and R eats it several times a week. (I don't eat it, due to an incident a few years ago where I ate it right before I found out I had a stomach bug. Yogurt doesn't do well coming back up... TMI, I know). I always feel bad because Daddy has to take this teeny little cup of yogurt to work to eat, because yogurt is so dang expensive! So, I thought I'd try to make some. I found lots of recipes for yogurt, ranging from super weird incubation methods to lots of added ingredients so I kind of picked up different pieces of each recipe and made my own. The base of the recipe comes from this blog, but I adjusted it because my home is picky about yogurt flavor and texture. This recipe makes a pretty thick, tangy, but not pucker-y tangy yogurt. And it's super good for you! I use a 6-qt. crock pot, but I'll put the 4-qt. amounts in ( __).

Crock Pot Yogurt

3/4 (1/2) gallon of milk (whole makes very thick yogurt, 2% can also be used, don't recommend 1% or skim)

1 1/2 (1) cup non-fat powdered milk (a little less for whole milk)

1 1/2 (1) Tbsp honey (optional)

1 1/2 (1) cup plain yogurt with active cultures (the fewer ingredients the better, aim for less than 3)

Fruit jam of your choice

Pour milk, powdered milk and honey into crockpot and whisk together. Cover and set crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours. After 2 1/2 hours, remove crock from base and let cool for 3 hours, with lid on. (If you have a food thermometer, the temperature we're aiming for is 105-115, over 120 will kill cultures, I checked it with a food thermometer, and 3 hours is pretty accurate). After 3 hours of cooling, remove 2 cups of the milk into a bowl and add yogurt to bowl. Stir together and then add back into the crock. Put crock back into base and wrap the whole thing with a towel for 6-8 hours. (If you're anal like me, try to keep the temperature between 105 and 115. The cultures grow very quickly at that temp, and produce a thicker, tangier yogurt. Once the temp dropped below 105, I turned the pot on low or warm until it reached 110, then turned it off. The temperature will coast up 5-10 degrees after you turn it off. This does NOT have to be done). Check for desired thickness by tilting. There will be separated whey on top, but the yogurt will be firm. You can either GENTLY stir the whey back in (it's very nutritious) or pour off most of it and then put a couple of clean dishtowels on top to soak it up. Add more towels to mop it up overnight and you will have a very thick yogurt. To flavor yogurt: Add a spoonful (or 2!) of your favorite jam on top of the yogurt, and stir in right before you're ready to eat.

There are plenty of recipes for soy yogurt, 1% or skim milk yogurt, almond milk yogurt, etc. but I haven't tried them, so I can't vouch that this method will work for them. It seems time consuming, but it's really just having the crock sit on the counter all day and doing a couple of things to it every few hours. My husband wont' be going back to store yogurt any time soon!