Homemade Yogurt

One of the things I've already crossed off the hippie list is homemade yogurt.  I started making my own last summer and really loved it.  It's easy, it's economical, and it's right up the ol' hippie alley.

So, here's how to make your own yogurt.

Homemade Yogurt in a Crockpot

Ingredients:
Half-gallon of milk
2 tbsp to 1/2 a cup of yogurt with live culture

Directions:
1.  Pour the milk into your crockpot.
2.  Heat the milk to 180 degrees.
3.  Turn off the heat.  Allow the milk to cool to 110 degrees.
4.  Once the milk has reached 110 degrees, ladle out a small bowl of the warm milk.  To this, add 2 tbsp to 1/2 cup of yogurt.  Whisk until smooth.  Add milk/yogurt back into the crockpot of warm milk.
5.  Wrap the crockpot ceramic and lid in a towel, and place in the oven with the oven light on.  Do not turn on the oven.
6.  Allow to sit 8-12 hours or overnight, insulated in the towel.
7.  After 8-12 hours, you should have yogurt with a layer of whey on top.  You can either stir in the whey (it's good for you!) or pour it off.  Pour the yogurt into your container of choice, and store in the fridge.  Should be good for at least two weeks.



My milk of choice comes from my grocery delivery service, so it's local, organic, ethical, and all those good hippie things.  It also comes in a glass bottle that I return to the grocery service so it can be recycled or reused.  At any rate, use whatever kind of milk you'd like.  I like 2%, because I believe fat is not bad for you.  You can use skim or whole if you choose.  While you can make this recipe with a full gallon, it takes forever and produces more yogurt than you can eat.  Try a half-gallon.

Milk heating up.  Milk bottle ready to be returned.

My crockpot is fairly fancy and has a temperature probe.  I can insert it and the crockpot sets off an alarm when it's reached 180 degrees.  However, any food thermometer will do.  You can also make yogurt on the stove--just be careful not to heat the milk too fast and curdle it.

Why are we heating it to 180 degrees?  Because it kills off any bad or competing bacteria.  Why are we letting it cool to 110 degrees?  Because 110 is the happy place for yogurt bacteria.  When you add the culture to your milk (either from previous homemade or store bought (with live culture!) yogurt), you've given the cultures a warm happy place to multiply.  Hotter than 110 will kill the bacteria.  Colder will cause them to shut down and not reproduce.  Wrapping the ceramic in a towel and putting it in the oven (with just the light on!) will help the milk stay at 110 degrees.

This is a ridiculous picture:  my crockpot, wrapped in a bath towel, resting in the oven.

I will say this:  the yogurt produced is really good.  However, it's much thinner than commercially produced yogurts.  It's also sour--it's plain, unsweetened, unflavored yogurt.  I find this perfect for smoothies; it produces a lovely texture, adds protein, and there's no need for the sugar or flavoring with all the fruit I toss in there.  But you can customize the yogurt to your needs.

-Add vanilla extract for vanilla flavoring.  Or try adding jam if you'd like that fruit-on-the-bottom feel.  Bonus hippie points in you made and canned the jam yourself.
-Use honey or maple syrup or other sweetener of your choice to sweeten the yogurt.
-If you want a thicker yogurt, or greek yogurt, place cheesecloth in a colander and pour in the yogurt.  Let the whey drain off until it's as thick as you'd like.  (I've never done this myself, so I am not sure how long it takes to drain.)

While it's not really time consuming, you do need to stick a little close to home while things are heating and cooling.  It takes about an hour to heat, and 1-2 hours to cool off.  But at the end of it, you have a half-gallon of yogurt for the cost of a half-gallon of milk and a few minutes work.  Not too shabby.  And your friends will be very impressed with your hippie skills.

Happy yogurting!