Thursday, November 6, 2008

Homemade Yogurt in a Crock Pot


Did you know that you can make delicious homemade yogurt in your crockpot- AND that it's EASY?

I didn't either until a couple of days ago when I found this site.

It really works! Here's what I did:

1. Put 3 cups of whole milk in my crock pot on the low setting for 2 1/2 hours.

2. Unplugged the crock pot. Let it sit with the lid on for 2 3/4 hours (ish)

3. Took 1 1/2 cups of the warm milk and mixed it with 1/3 cup Dannon plain yogurt.

4. Poured the yogurt back into the crock pot, put lid back on.

5. Wrapped crock pot in beach towel and left it unplugged and insulated overnight (or at least 8 hours- I left mine for 13 hours)

That's it! The next morning it thickened into a very nice yogurt. I like my yogurt extra thick though; so I let it drain for about forty minutes through a coffee filter-lined colander in the refrigerator. The whey that runs off is good for using in homemade bread (or so I hear- I'm going to try it in a couple days).

If my daughter were a little older, I would have had her help me and taught her a little bit about bacteria along the way. Here, by the way, is a site that gives a good overview of the science of yogurt.

Do you have any experiences with homemade yogurt? Any good recipes or things I should try?

2 comments:

Julie said...

I also tried the homemade yogurt - and mine was runny. I'll take your advice next time to let it sit longer. I used the whey (a week later) to make sauerkraut. Yum.

Amy said...

I just started making yogurt too. my recipe is - mix together 2 cups room temp water, 2 cups powdered milk, 1/4 cup plain yogurt. Then add 2 cups boiling water. Cover pot and insulate with blanket for 6-8 hours. I have also had success with pouring it into jars and placing the jars in a cooler filled with hot tap water. My favorite thing to do with it is to mix it with mango juice and make a mango lassi and drink it!

just discovered your blog and i really enjoy it.