My Lime Green Kitchen

Posts Tagged ‘Yogurt’

If you halfway like yogurt,  you’ll love homemade yogurt! And, you’ll really love the price!

Yogurt

1/2 gallon whole milk
1 c. plain yogurt (Buy it the first time but save some of your own yogurt for the next time!)

That’s it . . 2 ingredients!  You will need a food thermometer also.  I use a 2-1/2 quart slow cooker and I’ve heard that those who use a larger slow cooker (as in 5 quart or larger) have had some problems with the yogurt cooking too quickly.  There are several ways to make the yogurt . . one is by heating the milk for 2 – 3 hours, then letting it cool for 2 – 3 hours.  If you use a thermometer, I don’t think it should matter what size pot you use.

Pour the milk into the slow cooker.  Place the lid on the slow cooker and turn to high.  Heat til the milk reaches 180 to 190 degrees.  Turn off and unplug the slow cooker and let it sit (unattended . . don’t bother it!) til the yogurt temp drops to 115 degrees.  Remove about 1 cup of the warm milk and stir into the 1 cup of yogurt to temper the yogurt.  Add it all back into the warm milk, stir.  I used a whisk to get it all blended together really nicely.

Replace the lid on the slow cooker and wrap the whole thing in a couple of thick towels.  Let sit 10 – 12 hours and you will have a slow cooker of yummy homemade yogurt!  Dish into containers and store in the fridge at least 8 hours before serving.

See that jar of caramel apple jam sitting there?  That’s what I’m going to add to some of my yogurt.  Add anything you want if you want to use add-ins.  We’ve added blackberry pie filling that I’d canned, peach pie filling that I’d canned, storebought sweetened frozen fruit, etc.  Canned fruit can be added when the yogurt is put into containers or it can be added when you’re ready to serve the yogurt.  At serving time, other things like nuts, granola, chocolate chips, etc. can be added to the yogurt.

6 ounces of plain yogurt was saved for another recipe, 2 larger cups were filled with plain yogurt.  Some of that will be used for my starter for the next batch, some will be used in place of sour cream on baked potatoes.  The rest of the batch went into 7 cups of Caramel Apple Yogurt.

Labeled and ready to go into the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving.