Slow Cooker Yogurt Recipe

I try to make as much at home as possible, mostly to control the ingredients in our diet. So when a friend told me she was making yogurt at home, in her slow cooker no less, I was intrigued and had to give it a try. I found an easy step by step post on how to make the yogurt, and picked up the ingredients. Making your own yogurt is almost too easy, the hardest part is finding the time to do it. The process takes around 18 hours if not longer (depending on how thick you want your yogurt), so timing is everything when you start it.

Ingredients:

• 1 Gallon Whole Milk
• 1 5.3 oz Greek Yogurt with cultures (l. bulgaricus and s. thermophilus)

Equipment Needed: 

• Slow Cooker
• Cheesecloth
• Colander
• Instant Read Thermometer

Directions: 

Step 1: 

Empty your gallon of whole milk into your slow cooker and put it on high heat for 2-4 hours. This depends on your model, and the original recipes said it would take 2 hours – mine took 4. Your milk needs to start to boil and reach 180 degrees.

Step 2: 

Turn off your slow cooker and let your milk cool down to 110-115 degrees. Again, this will take 2-4 hours. Set your starter yogurt out so it can reach room temperature during this step.

Step 3:

In a small bowl add about 1 cup of the warm milk and the starter yogurt and milk together. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker and mix it in by stirring back and forth.

Replace the lid of your slow cooker and wrap the whole thing in a towel. Let sit for 12-14 hours, or in other words, go to bed.

Step 4: 

After 12 hours check on your glorious yogurt! Trust me you will smell it when you open the lid. Mine was thick already, but not as thick as I’d want my final yogurt to be.

Step 5: 

Line a colander with cheesecloth and place in bowl. Scoop your yogurt inside and let it sit for at least 4 hours. This will help separate the extra whey from the yogurt and thicken your final yogurt.

My yogurt didn’t all fit in the colander at once, I thankfully have another colander so I had two bowls going at once. You can wait until it sinks down and there is more space in the one colander if you only have one set.

Step 6 (Optional):

At my friend’s suggestion, I took my now thickened yogurt and put it in my mixer. This is to make sure each batch is now smooth and have the same consistency.

Step 7: 

Spoon your now finished yogurt into jars or containers and place in the fridge. Once cool, enjoy! Keep refrigerated until you’re ready to enjoy it. Add honey, berries, granola and make it your own!

After your yogurt is done – you’re going to have left over whey. Put it in a jar or container and pop it in the fridge. We’ll have some posts coming soon on what we’re doing with our left over whey soon, but here are 16 ideas to use Whey. Use it to replace stock in recipes, water your plants, make drinks, make cheese. It’s amazing what you can do with it! So this recipe has absolutely zero waste!

So, why make your own yogurt? With the low cost of milk right now, the ingredients cost me a total of $2.29 for the milk and $0.59 for the starter yogurt, or a total of $2.88. I ended up with 10 cups of yogurt, and 6 cups of whey. A regular 6 pack of flavored yogurt at the grocery store usually runs around $3 and each of the yogurts is around 3 oz, so you’re paying $3 for 18 oz of yogurt, or  16 cents an ounce. When you make it yourself $2.88 for around 80 oz of yogurt, or 3.6 cents an ounce. Plus if you keep some of your own yogurt aside for the next batch, next time you just have to buy a gallon of milk! It’s a win-win all around.

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If you try this recipe let us know what you think!