Homemade Yogurt:
It's SUPER easy, SUPER inexpensive, and SUPER healthy
Ingredients:
It's SUPER easy, SUPER inexpensive, and SUPER healthy
Ingredients:
-4 cups whole milk for 1 quart of yogurt
-1 Tablespoon of Yogurt with live and active cultures
-Meat Thermometer
-Crock pot and 2 large towels or glass bowl with lid and oven with light
Instructions:
-Meat Thermometer
-Crock pot and 2 large towels or glass bowl with lid and oven with light
Instructions:
If using crock pot method, plug in crock pot and turn on high.
Pour 4 cups of whole milk into microwavable dish.
Now you want to cool the milk down to 120 degrees which is a good temperature for the cultures to grow. You can either just wait until it cools down with air temperature, or you can place it in a large bowl with ice water. Stir occasionally checking the temperature after stirring. (I had just made granola and so used that dirty bowl since it was going to need cleaned with water anyway.) It took approximately 10 minutes for the milk to cool using the ice water. Remove 1 Tablespoon of yogurt from refrigerator to warm up while milk is cooling down. Also, turn off and unplug crock pot.
Once milk has cooled to 120 (or close) pour into crock pot (if using that method) and gently stir in yogurt.
Here I did it in a smaller crock pot.
Wrap 2 large towels around crock pot (this acts as an insulator and holds the desired temperature)
Set in undisturbed place for: 6 hours for bland, sour cream type yogurt with more lactose, up to
12 hours for tangier flavor with less lactose (the longer you let it set, the more liquid will be at the top, you can either scoop that out or stir it in).
I prefer to let my yogurt set for 10 hours.
The non crock pot method:
Once yogurt has been stirred in, place lid on bowl, turn on oven light and let set in oven, near light, with door closed for the time indicated above. (I don't actually have milk in the picture below; it's just to give you an idea of what I did.)
Once yogurt has set up, place in sealed container in refrigerator. It will thicken more once cooled.
Helpful Hints:
-This yogurt is very bland by itself. You can add sweeteners/flavors of your choice. We love to eat it as is mixed with homemade granola.
-To make your next batch of yogurt, just use 1 Tablespoon from this batch.
-If the yogurt doesn't set up, don't throw it out! All you have to do is get the milk warmed up to near 120 and hold it at that temperature for about 8-10 hours. I forgot to heat up my crock pot once and the yogurt was still very runny after 10 hours. I put it in a glass dish and used the oven light method. After 10 hours it was set up perfectly; however, the milk had soured. This worked great in the buttermilk pancake recipe! So, if it's too bland from not setting long enough, use in place of sour cream. If it's sour from having to have it set too long, use in place of buttermilk in recipes!
Pour 4 cups of whole milk into microwavable dish.
Desired heated temperature is 180 degrees. Heat milk in microwave for 3 minutes, remove and stir; heat for 3 minutes, remove and stir; heat for 2 minutes, remove and stir and then check temperature. Sometimes I have to go one more minute. (Microwave times will vary. If you exceed 180 that's fine but try not to exceed 180 by too much.) From what I've read, the heating process breaks down the proteins in the milk allowing the bacteria to cultivate the milk.
Now you want to cool the milk down to 120 degrees which is a good temperature for the cultures to grow. You can either just wait until it cools down with air temperature, or you can place it in a large bowl with ice water. Stir occasionally checking the temperature after stirring. (I had just made granola and so used that dirty bowl since it was going to need cleaned with water anyway.) It took approximately 10 minutes for the milk to cool using the ice water. Remove 1 Tablespoon of yogurt from refrigerator to warm up while milk is cooling down. Also, turn off and unplug crock pot.
Once milk has cooled to 120 (or close) pour into crock pot (if using that method) and gently stir in yogurt.
Here I did it in a smaller crock pot.Wrap 2 large towels around crock pot (this acts as an insulator and holds the desired temperature)
Set in undisturbed place for: 6 hours for bland, sour cream type yogurt with more lactose, up to
12 hours for tangier flavor with less lactose (the longer you let it set, the more liquid will be at the top, you can either scoop that out or stir it in).
I prefer to let my yogurt set for 10 hours.
The non crock pot method:
Once yogurt has been stirred in, place lid on bowl, turn on oven light and let set in oven, near light, with door closed for the time indicated above. (I don't actually have milk in the picture below; it's just to give you an idea of what I did.)
Once yogurt has set up, place in sealed container in refrigerator. It will thicken more once cooled.
Helpful Hints:
-This yogurt is very bland by itself. You can add sweeteners/flavors of your choice. We love to eat it as is mixed with homemade granola.
-To make your next batch of yogurt, just use 1 Tablespoon from this batch.
-If the yogurt doesn't set up, don't throw it out! All you have to do is get the milk warmed up to near 120 and hold it at that temperature for about 8-10 hours. I forgot to heat up my crock pot once and the yogurt was still very runny after 10 hours. I put it in a glass dish and used the oven light method. After 10 hours it was set up perfectly; however, the milk had soured. This worked great in the buttermilk pancake recipe! So, if it's too bland from not setting long enough, use in place of sour cream. If it's sour from having to have it set too long, use in place of buttermilk in recipes!
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