Homemade Yogurt

After posting my goings-on to Facebook, I received alot of interest in my latest venture: homemade yogurt. So I decided it deserved its own blog post.

I had been interested in making my own yogurt for awhile now but never screwed up the courage to try it. So with the Eat From Your Pantry challenge in front of me as well as the start of a new year (and new resolutions on my part, which you will see on the 1st), what better time to try?

I first read about the process of making yogurt in your Crock Pot on the Crock Pot Lady's blog (yep, that's what she's called around the blogosphere). Since this week is a slower week with no preschool, Toddler Time music class, or Bible Study it was the perfect week to try. After reading the recipe instructions I realized I only need milk and a small container of yogurt, so I decided to try and make this batch organic in keeping with one of my 2010 resolutions. Popped over to the grocery store and we were all set.

I started the process on Tuesday morning, and let it sit for the requisite timings following all of the instructions. I put it in the fridge that night and dished some up for us this morning. Voila! It turned out just like, well, yogurt.

I transferred the contents of the Crock Pot to a plastic container and will simply dish out what we need per meal. I also plan on adding bits of fruit (from our home canned collection) to each batch individually so as to add variety (and follow the suggestion of the Crock Pot Lady who let me know that if you mix it up all at once it changes the consistency).

There are a couple of things I am going to try next time:

1. Sweeten it. It's plain yogurt with no added sweeteners and my girls weren't too keen on that. The adding of fruit helps, but I think I still need a little something extra. I am going to read all of the comments on the Crock Pot Lady's blogpost to see if anyone else had success adding it to the main mix. If not, I will just add a bit to each bowl when I add the fruit.

2. Thicken it. My yogurt was a bit watery for the girls (I prefer a bit thicker consistency so as to make it a bit less messy for them). One of the comments on the blogpost suggested adding a packet of gelatin when you mix the yogurt starter in, so I plan on trying that. I have several packages of gelatin, so it will be a good use of it. In the meantime I am doing this:

Draining the yogurt using a coffee filter. And since I only have little filters, I am doing it in batches. The texture when done is like thick Greek yogurt, so I think mixing it back in with the regular, less dense yogurt will give me the texture I am looking for.
Verdict: This was super easy. So easy in fact I don't know why I didn't try it before! (How many times have I said that to myself?) Now I will be looking for all sorts of fun ways to use it up. And when you figure in the cost analysis (which is on the Crock Pot Lady's post) it is insane how much cheaper it is to make your own organic yogurt. What a great way to head into 2010!

5 comments:

mub said...

Something else you can try to thicken it up is to use part powdered milk when you make it too! It works quite well =)

Camille said...

Vanilla and honey will sweeten it up without changing the consistency too much. :-)

Stephanie ODea said...

I'm so glad you are enjoying the yogurt! We have a lot of fun with it in our house.

xoxo steph

Sarah Kay said...

Mub - how do you add the powdered milk? As powder or do you turn it into milk first?

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