Ben goes through yogurt like crazy! It was getting so expensive at $4 a quart, especially because the only whole milk yogurt I could find was the organic version. I don’t really care about buying organic, but it certainly was getting pricey. I came across a few sites that said you could make your own yogurt in the slowcooker. Weird, but I thought I’d give it a try. One failed miserably and another I tweaked a few times so that it works for us.
Slowcooker Yogurt (makes 2 quarts)
1/2 gallon whole milk
1/2 cup plain, or vanilla, store-bought yogurt (with live cultures) OR 1/2 cup yogurt saved from your last batch of Slow-Cooker Yogurt
2/3 cup powdered milk
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin (or 1 packet)
2 tbsp vanilla (optional)
1. Turn your slow cooker on Low, plug it in, and add a half gallon of milk. Whisk in the powdered milk. Cover and allow milk to heat for 2½ hours.
2. When the time is up, turn off the slowcooker. Keep your cooker covered.
3. Meanwhile, soften the optional gelatin in 1/4 cup cool water and then transfer it to a double boiler.
4. Heat in the double boiler until the gelatin granules are dissolved, stirring continually.
5. Stir and heat just until warm, being careful not to overheat the gelatin, since overheating gelatin reduces its gelling properties.
6. Whisk this gelatin mixture into milk in the cooker.
7. Cover and then let it sit for 3 hours. (Remember, slow cooker is off)
8. When the 3 hours are up, whisk the ½ cup of live-culture yogurt into the crockpot of milk.
9. Cover. Wrap a large towel around the cooker to keep the warmth in.
10. Let the mixture sit for 8 hours or overnight.
11. If you wish, whisk the vanilla into the remaining yogurt.
12. Refrigerate your yogurt in canning jars or other containers.
Notes
Steps 9-12 are from original recipe. You can do it this way, or after I mix in the yogurt…I pour everything into two quart glass canning jars. I stick these in a little travel cooler we have, fill it with hot water and let that all sit for 8 hours. This seems to work better than just covering the crockpot in a towel.
I haven’t tried it with skim or 1% milk for myself, so I’m not sure if that turns out well.
Sometimes I add the vanilla (because lets face it, plain yogurt really isn’t that good). Other times I just mix some fruit in.
Yogurt tastes best if it’s been in the fridge for 24 hours.
All of this seems like a lot, but it gets pretty easy once you do it a few times.
