Inspired by this post on another blog about making yogurt at home in the Crock Pot, I tried my hand at making my own yogurt this weekend. And as usual when I am inspired by what someone else has done, I ignored most of the directions and figured it out for myself. This time, the results were surprisingly good! I have a feeling this won’t be my last batch of homemade yogurt.
The ingredients I used were:
- 1/2 gallon Horizon organic whole milk
- 1/2 cup Carnation instant nonfat powdered milk
- Two 5.3 oz cups of Brown Cow nonfat organic yogurt with live cultures.
Note: The live cultures in the little cups of yogurt provide the bacteria needed to turn all that milk into yogurt. You must use yogurt with live cultures.
I started by heating the milk until it just boiled, then turned off the heat. (After reading other blogs about yogurt making, I learned that the temperature of the yogurt needs to be about 180 after heating. Good to know for future batches!) Then I poured it into a preheated Crock Pot, unplugged it, and cooled the milk until it reached about 115 degrees (2-3 hours).
Once cooled, I transferred about 2 cups of the milk to a blender jar and added the milk powder and yogurt. I blended it for no more than a minute or so to evenly distribute the yogurt cultures and dissolve the powder, then poured the blender contents back into the Crock Pot and stirred well.
At this point all that’s needed is to cover the Crock Pot, wrap it up in a big towel to insulate it, and let it sit overnight while the little yogurt cultures do their job.
I let my Crock Pot sit for about 12 hours. After that I was rewarded with a pot of fresh, tart, creamy yogurt.
After more Googling, I had learned that natural yogurt like this has a runny consistency when compared to store-bought yogurt, because American yogurt manufacturers add pectin to make their product firm. Also, I had learned that I could control some of that runny consistency by draining the whey (the watery part).
Draining the whey was easy – I put a piece of strong paper towel in a colander, then placed the colander into a large pot. I poured the yogurt inside the paper towel and set the whole contraption into the fridge for about 6 hours. Afterward the whey was about 1″ deep in the pot and the yogurt was less runny and had an even texture.
It’s delicious with a little vanilla and honey mixed in and with a bit of granola on top! I’m planning to have it for breakfast this week with some mashed, lightly sweetened frozen strawberries and a bit of granola. You can see how they look in their finished state, waiting for the breakfast table:
Homemade yogurt with mashed strawberries
I set aside just a couple cups of yogurt to make herbed yogurt cheese – I’ll let you know how that turns out in a couple of days.
~Stephanie
Spring is a good time for spreading your roots out into different directions, trying new things, and growing a little. Don’t forget to pot up your peace lilies so they can do the same.
