Crock-pot Yogurt

I am feeling mighty proud and domestic this morning.  I have accomplished a great feat--I made yogurt in my crock-pot.  

I started with 1 cup of store-bought yogurt (with live cultures and all), and a half-gallon of milk.  Who knew it was that simple?  By this morning, I had about 10 times the yogurt I started with.  Incredible!

The process is very easy.  There are many recipes and blog posts with pictures on the internet that showed me how to do it.  

1)  Pour a half-gallon of whole milk into the crock-pot and cook it on low for 2.5 hours.

2)  Turn off crock-pot and let milk stand for 3 more hours.

3)  Mix 1 cup of yogurt with 1 cup of the milk in the crock-pot, and return the mixture to the crock-pot.

4)  Wrap crock-pot in a blanket or large towel and let it sit overnight (or 8-10 hours).

The next morning, the crock pot is full of yogurt. 

Yogurt should keep in fridge for 7-10 days.  Be sure to save 1 cup of yogurt to culture the next batch.

The next step is to sweeten it and serve it up in ways the family enjoys.  (Some folks eat plain yogurt, but we prefer sweetened).  I added honey to one bowl of yogurt, and The Referee liked that.  Jersey #1 said it needed more sugar.

I added mashed bananas to the honey-yogurt bowl and Jersey #3 thought that was wonderful.  Bananas really sweetened it and added texture.  Half of us like chunks of fruit in our yogurt.

I took a few spoonfuls of the store-bought yogurt and added it to a bowl of the crock-pot yogurt, to add some sweetness, and texture, to help the younger kids adjust to the change.  Crock-pot yogurt is not as thick as store-bought.  Basically, it will fall off the spoon.  Gelatin can be added if that is an issue.  Two spoonfuls of store-bought yogurt mixed in was plenty enough to please my cautious preschoolers.  They gobbled up the yogurt mix, and said it was yummy.    

Yogurt is a major staple in our household.  Finding a way to make it at home, for a fraction of the cost is exciting.  The preferences in level of sweetness and texture vary widely in my family.  So, I am thinking it is going to be best to make the plain yogurt in the crock-pot, and add texture/sweetness upon serving.

I am sure I will keep busy finding more and more ways to use my homemade yogurt in other meal recipes.

Next, I need to find an easy way to make granola to go with the yogurt...