Crockpot Yogurt

[Granny Smith]

Crockpot Yogurt

Step 1
Pour half gallon of milk into crock pot. Cover and turn crock
pot on high. Cook for 2 1/2 hours.

Step 2
Whisk in 1 cup of powdered milk

Step 3
Turn crock pot off and let set, covered, for 4 hours.

Step 4
Remove 2 cups of milk from the crock pot. Pour into bowl and
mix in 1/2 cup of yogurt. This is a "starter" and contains the cultures that will allow the milk to develop into yogurt. Pour milk and yogurt mixture back into crock pot and stir.

Step 5
Cover crock pot and wrap with a heavy towel. Let set 8 hours
or overnight on the counter wrapped in the heavy towel.

Step 6
Put yogurt in to jars and refrigerate.

After the yogurt is finished:

If flavored yogurt is desired, you may stir in fruit, honey, jam,
or other sweeteners.

Experiment to find the flavorings you enjoy.

You can also mix equal parts fruit juice and yogurt to make a
drinkable yogurt.

[meemo]

I'm goin to try this tomorrow. I have a yogurt maker that makes 8 half cup containers. Its a lot of trouble for such a little bit of stuff. This sounds simple enough for me to do right.

[gayla]

I had a yogurt make that I could never make work but I have used this one for the crock and it works DH is in love with it

[Valerie]

Making this today. Starting it this afternoon, though, so it's not finished at 3 in the am!

[Valerie]

This is a good recipe! Not nearly as time consuming as heating the milk on the stove and cooling it in the sink, when you figure that with this all you do is turn the crockpot on then turn it off later then wrap it up even later. Much easier than dealing with a cooler full of jars of hot water.

[Sheila]

So whats your preference in yogurts to start with?

[Valerie]

That it tastes good. And that it doesn't require too much effort or make too many dishes, or take too long. Dang, I'm picky!

[Sheila]

Apr 21, 2013 17:25:57 GMT -5 Valerie said:

That it tastes good. And that it doesn't require too much effort or make too many dishes, or take too long. Dang, I'm picky!

What i meant was what is your favorite to use as your starter ''culture'' i have never made yogurt before gonna try this seems really easy

[Valerie]

Oh oops! Sorry! The only starter culture I've ever used is organic plain yogurt from the store. I like the Stonyfield best, but I've used Dannon in a pinch. Just have to be sure it says "live yogurt cultures" and doesn't have gelatin in it for the thickener. I don't know what difference the gelatin thing makes. Oh, this last time I used Greek yogurt for the starter. Matter of fact, I think I want some right now!

[Valerie]

Does anyone know, what is the purpose of heating the milk, then cooling it back down before adding the culture? Seems to defeat the purpose of using raw milk.

[Sheila]

They say biggest reason to heat milk to almost boiling before fermenting is that it improves the texture of the yogurt

[eyeofthestorm]

Valerie, in his Good Eats episode on yogurt, Alton Brown said the only reason to heat milk above the temperature for culturing would be to pasteurize it. He said if you're using pasteurized milk from the store, you only need to heat it warm enough to foster the culture.

NOW - every time I have purchased a culture (not just a cup of yogurt), the directions for using raw milk say to make a mother, and to pasteurize the milk before making a mother. Then, use a portion of the mother to culture raw milk. I suspect the pasteurization eliminates all competition for the culture, by removing other living cells. Supposedly, if you keep making a new mother from the old mother and always pasteurize the milk before culturing the mother, the cultures never need to be replaced. I confess, I have never made it that far. I have either decided to change cultures, or (last time) I had too many things going on and asked DH to choose between kefir and yogurt, and he chose kefir.

<shrugs>

[Valerie]

Hmmm, maybe that's why they say to replace the culture every so often if you're using your own as the culture for the next. Maybe just too many competing bacteria get in there.

[Granny Smith]

It seems like you should only have to heat the milk to about 100 degrees, so you don't kill the bacteria in the yoghurt. Problem is, everytime I've tried it that way, the yoghurt never got nice and thick. I bring my milk to a boil and cool it down to 100 degrees. It works everytime. I don't know why.

[Valerie]

I read a recipe the other day where the person only brought it to 100° then put in the culture. Her solution to getting it nice and thick while leaving the milk raw was to keep it warm for 15 - 20 hours. She cultured it in a cooler, and added jars of hot water periodically, to make sure it stayed warm enough.

I was thinking about that today when I started mine, so I turned it off before it got too hot. I did it in the crockpot last time and it came out good, but I think it overcooked the milk. It had thick skin on it, like it had been scalded, and it didn't go away. That crockpot might have got too hot, though. Today I only heated it to about 120° and I have it wrapped in a towel in a cooler. I'm fixing to add some hot water jars in a minute, just to make sure it stays warm tonight. My last batch I followed this recipe exactly, and it didn't get real thick. I read that if it's not thick, it just didn't stay warm enough. We'll see how this turns out.