I’d read about this phenomenon. I’d bookmarked the post. I’d been meaning to do this for what seems a really long time. Why I didn’t until now? I’ll forever live with the regret.
I had the recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking up on my laptop, following along yesterday. But it is really simple. Really, really easy.
The ingredients
You need to plan to do this on a day you will be home to check on progress. The recipe goes sorta like this…Put your whole 1/2 gallon of whole milk in your crock pot turned to low.
After 2 1/2 hours, unplug it and letting it sit with the top on – for 3 hours. Next scoop out some of the warm milk, mix in a portion of your plain yogurt and put it back in the warm milk. Mix again. (rough instructions, please go to A Year of Slow Cooking for amounts and details on time).
Then wrap it in a thick bath towel overnight. (Gollee. Wish I’d gotten a picture of that).
Next morning, you have you this much yogurt. The two big, glass containers are quart sized. (Be sure to save out a starter for next time).
We sweetened one container with a jar of Nana’s strawberry and fig preserves. We also experimented with adding some vanilla flavoring and Splenda. Then, at supper time Middle Girl sweetened another vanilla batch with honey.
The consistency is not as thick as that of store-bought yogurt. Nana used to make yogurt years ago. She says, and I read on Stephanie’s site, that you can add a packet of plain gelatin to thicken it. We might experiment with it. It is more like the consistency of Gogurt. My friend, Paige, suggested freezing small portions in plastic bags just like a Gogurt!
Benefits check list:
- It is delicious! The children and I ate it with breakfast, lunch and supper. We had friends over – they tasted it – and loved it!
- I could see this falling into the cooking fun category because the children were so interested and loved mixing in the fruit and flavorings.
- Fresh fruit!
- Oh the savings! We go through Sam’s Club-sized boxes full of yogurts. They are always on the list.
- I have visions of getting tiny plastic containers for Hodgepodgedad to put yogurt in his lunch.
- We can make more when we run low.
I’ll be sure to update this post on how long the yogurt lasted. Full instructions are over on Stephanie O’Dea’s site with even more instructions on using low fat milk, the cost savings breakdown and more!
As a yogurt fan, this was some of the best I’ve ever had! Don’t know how I can manage to pack it in lunchboxes that get thrown places (don’t want it to spill all over a lunch box), but I will certainly make it and take it to school with me. Tricia’s readers, you don’t want to NOT try this one!
Oh, what a wonderful idea! We have got to try this!
Hooray for good for you things. This will get some good ol’ dairy in some skinny children around here 🙂 So, time for a little poking fun. Now I am the bread-baking, homeschooling, laundry-detergent making AND yogurt-making mama. Frugal living fun 🙂
You really need to get out your blue-jean jumper to complete the picture.
Forever poking fun,
Nana
The “blue jean jumper” made me scream with laughter.
Ellen – me too! Nana and I are always making fun. Me being the bread-baking, homeschooling, homemade yogurt making mama. 🙂
I too had a problem with my yogurt coming out not as thick as store bought even though I was using a yogurt maker. I added gelatin at first and this worked fine, but found what I thought a better solution. By adding 1/2 cup dried milk per 1/2 gallon of milk prior to heating you add more lactose to the mix. This gets broken down and results in a thicker yogurt. It also adds more calcium to the mix which many of us need just a little more of. More frugal to make your own yogurt, better tasting and healthier!
Tricia, Couldn’t you strain it with cheesecloth to thicken, like with Greek-style yogurts? We make kefir here. Although it has a slightly more sour taste than yogurt, it’s a fantastic solution for us for sour cream or anything we’d use yogurt for, since it’s hard to find anything sweetened more naturally here. We leave it sitting with the grains longer and then strain with cheesecloth to make a kind of cream cheese.
Thanks so much Carey! I have heard that advice. But, we don’t mind it a little more like a gogurt anyway. I just wanted to be sure that those trying this weren’t surprised at the consistency. That this recipe doesn’t make a ‘store-bought’ like yogurt. It’s better!