Home made yogurt...

[Sebrightmom]

I got this recipe from one of my yahoo groups. I have made it several times. Works great!

Making yogurt in a crockpot.

1/4 c. store bought natural live active culture, full fat plain yogurt (this will be your starter.
After your first batch of yogurt, you can use 1/2 cup of some of your homemade yogurt as a starter instead.)
8 cups whole milk (pastuerized and homogenized is fine but DO NOT use ultra-pasteurized)

Pour the milk in a crockpot and turn on LOW. Let it cook on LOW for 2 1/2 hours.
Turn crockpot off, leave on cover and let it sit for 3 hours.
Take a cup or two of the warm milk after 3 hours and put it in a mixing bowl.
Mix in your starter yogurt, blend well.
Stir yogurt/milk mixture back into the crockpot.
Cover, wrap crockpot in a towel and go to bed.
In the morning, pour into a container and store in the fridge

 

[Wifezilla]

You have to watch those crock pots. Some models are just too hot. Test it with water first.

I use an old base off of a Hamilton Beach crockpot. It is the style that use to be popular during the 70's and 80's. Rectangular hot plate base and metal crock.

I place that base (set on 1) in an old cooler against one wall. My covered casserole dish filled with warmed milk and cream goes on the other side. I cover it all with a thick towel and leave it overnight. It maintains a perfect 110.

 

[inchworm]

I have to confess - I hate yogurt. I think I found one flavor of one brand that didn't taste sour to me. Does homemade taste better?

Is it cheaper? My kids love it and those little dinky yogurt cups at the store keep getting smaller and smaller....

Inchy

 

[Wifezilla]

I make plain yogurt and then flavor it after. You can make it less sour by shortening the set time. Yogurt made with cream tastes better to me. As for cheaper, since I tend to buy the greek style yogurt (which is more expensive than other yogurt), yes, it is cheaper for me.

As for those dinky cups... ::shudder::: they are loaded with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup. Not only are they expensive, they are downright unhealthy.

 

[onebuggirl]

Yeah--I love that recipe! It's pretty lean and low calorie without the usual fat in cornbread recipes. I even replace the flour with whole-wheat pastry flour and it works well. Mmmm--yogurt!

What is this wheat pastry flour is it like the wheat bread flour?

 

[me&thegals]

Hi--I have found whole-wheat pastry flour in my healthfood store and a large grocery (Woodman's) store. I'm not sure if it has less or more gluten--probably more--but it makes a more tender batter product than whole-wheat flour, which tends to bog down. I find it to be perfect for batter breads, cornbread, waffles, pancakes and muffins. It has the full nutrition of whole wheat but a better texture. Again, I'm not sure, but it's probably just a different variety of wheat than what is ground for all-purpose flour.

 

[me&thegals]

Sending this one back into circulation for new members

 

[greenrootsmama]

Hi, I'm new here and my yogurt follies attracted me to this thread. I have tried to make yogurt in my crock pot twice and failed miserably. LOL. We don't have goats yet so we buy our raw goats milk and it gets pretty expensive to throw it away when I mess it up. All of the stove-top recipes I've found online recommend using a double-boiler and I don't have one. So naturally when I saw the crock pot recipe I got pretty excited. The first attempt I made ended up smelling like yogurt but that was the same consistency it was when I started. With the second attempt I added powdered milk. But then I somehow managed to over cook it. So, although it had a nice thick consistency, it was brownish. I have to wait until we get more milk before I can try it again but I think the crock pot idea is going to have to go by the way-side.

 

[me&thegals]

I find my yogurt to be a bit hit or miss sometimes, too. I microwave my milk (or stovetop) it to 180 degrees to kill unwanted bacteria, then cool it back down to 110, add the culture, and try to keep it at 110 for at least 5 hours. I put it in a warm oven (about 135), then turn the oven off, but keep the oven light on for a little warmth. This seems to have the most reliable outcome for me. Good luck! It IS a lot of milk to throw out! Do you have chickens or other animals you could feed the rejects to?

 

[greenrootsmama]

We have ferrel cats and a dog so it gets eaten. It's just a shame because it's so expensive. I can't wait until we have our own goats. I'm getting killed buying the milk. It's around $8 a gallon here and we go through about 3 gallons a week.