Homemade Yogurt

Along with milk, bread & eggs, yogurt is now one of our staples and must be stocked in our fridge constantly. This all happened when I started making homemade yogurt. I had put off trying it for a long time because it sounded tricky, but not so!

I particularly love to use homemade yogurt on top of muffins & pancakes and in smoothies. My husband was never a yogurt fan until now. He likes it with frozen blueberries or strawberry jam.

Each time I make it, it turns out differently, so you can probably expect the same! It's a simple thing but requires you to be home; I usually start mine around dinner time and it's ready to sit overnight by bedtime. All you need is a crockpot, candy thermometer, small cup of plain yogurt, towel, and maybe other add-ins. If you're daring to try it, here's how it's done:

Homemade Plain Yogurt:

1. Heat a half-gallon (8 cups) of milk in the crockpot -I use high setting- (or double broiler) to 185 degrees (that's just before boiling, you should see some small active bubbles around the edges). I use a candy thermometer to tell for sure. This takes about 2-3 hours-ish.

2. Let milk cool to 110 degrees. (To speed this up, put the crockpot in the sink with ice water... be careful because it cools off fast this way- maybe less than 20 minutes)

3. Scoop some milk out into a bowl and add: 1/2 cup of plain yogurt to whisk then return to pot.

4. Wrap pot in a towel and sit overnight. Yogurt is done!

For Vanilla Yogurt:

During step 3, Add about 1/2 - 1 cup of sugar (or other sweetener...I like brown sugar & honey) and 2 Tablespoons of vanilla. You can do other extracts as well... I've sometimes added -on top of the vanilla- 1 teaspoon of almond extract. Some people add cinnamon or other spices. why not!

Tips:

1. Ways to thicken yogurt is to: use whole milk, add about 1/2 cup of powdered milk during step 3 OR add a small package of unflavored gelatin during step 3, after yogurt is done you can strain out the whey by dumping batches of yogurt into a fine mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter.

2. Certain flavorings should not be added in step 3, like strawberry jam or fresh things... those should be added in the end.

3. If you do a flavored yogurt, you can set aside a very small amount of un-sugared and un-flavored mix from step 3 in a little tupperware (wrap it up in the same towel as the big pot) to use for your next starter when you need more yogurt.