Make Mine Home Made!

****Update to yogurt with fruit****

I put it in the fridge overnight and it thickened back up, it's not as thick as store bought but it's edible- not drinkable.

I'm on a "make mine home made" kick! So, I thought I would give yogurt a shot. We eat a ton of yogurt and after reading some other blogs, it seemed simple enough. I realize now that there is probably a more specific way to do it than I did, but it worked and we have a ton of yogurt!

This is 48 oz. in the mixing bowl and a 16 oz jar all made from less than a gallon of milk and a few spoonfuls of vanilla bean yogurt I already had!

When it was all said and done, the yogurt was a little runnier than I like it, so I strained some of the whey out and it was just right! I didn't have cheesecloth, so I just made due with a scrap of all cotton fabric- worked great!

I added a little vanilla and honey to the mix.

 I separated some of the yogurt to add fruit to. I had read that it might thin it out some, and it did. I just left it that way and let the kids drink it like a smoothie- they loved it!

I'm going to keep experimenting, and hopefully I will have it down to a science! Until then, we will just have to eat all this up so we have empty jars!

So, let me share what I did to make yogurt....
                    Pour most of the contents of one gallon of whole milk into the crock pot on the medium setting. Let the milk heat up in the crockpot for 4 hours.  Scoop out 1 cup of the warmed milk and whisk together with 3/4 cup of yogurt. Add this mixture back in to the crockpot and stir to mix. Leave this mixture on medium for another 3 hours. Turn the crock pot off and completely cover in bath towels to keep the heat in. Let this sit out for another 8 to 10 hours and you will have yogurt! - if it's thinner than you like strain the whey, then add fruit, honey or whatever you like. If you want really thick yogurt just wrap the yogurt in cheesecloth and let it strain out as much whey as you like until it reaches the desired consistency.