Saturday, May 15, 2010

Making Homemade Yogurt

So a great Mommy friend of mine makes her own yogurt and I asked her how easy/hard it is to do.  She assured me that it was suppper easy so I thought I'd give it a shot!  Well it was SUPER easy!  Just have to be home to monitor it, but other than that it is just a few small steps.

So why would I make my own yogurt?  Because Thomas is going to be able to start eating yogurt at 8 months old, only one month away and I want to make sure I know what he's eating.  Plus, it's going to save our family money!  After Thomas was about 6 months old I could start eating dairy again and now I've been trying to eat more yogurt because of how good it is for you so I also plan on eating the homemake yogurt.  Also, I hope that J starts to like it too :)

I want to make sure that my family is making good choices and with making my own yogurt I am making another step in the right direction.  Will I make all my own yogurt all of the time?  I hope so!  Now I just want to learn how to make different flavors!

Here is the recipe I used:

Crock Pot Yogurt

Recipe notes: This recipe uses a 2 quart crock. In using a 4 or 4 1/2 quart crock I found the yogurt to have a bit of a "springy" texture. I was able to alleviate this by heating the milk an additional 15 minutes for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes.
  • Turn your crock pot to low and pour in 1/2 gallon of milk.
  • Heat on low for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
  • Once 2 hours and 30 minutes have elapsed turn your crock pot off and unplug it. Let the milk cool in the crock with the lid on for 3 hours.
  • After 3 hours remove 1-2 cups of the warmed milk and place in a bowl. To that add 1/2 cup of yogurt with live active cultures and mix very well.
  • Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the milk and whisk thoroughly.
  • Place the cover back on the crock and wrap the entire crock pot in a thick bath towel or two.
  • Let it culture overnight, 8-12 hours.
  • In the morning stir yogurt (if desired) and store in glass quart jars or a container of your choice.
  • For optimum texture, refrigerate for at least 8 hours before using
Here are a few pictures of my finished product:



The finished product after running through cheese cloth to make thicker



store bought consistency :)


the liquid under the colander after straining through cheese cloth for 6 hours

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