yogurt

We love yogurt around here - with fruit and homemade granola. But man, I do not like the price tag. So when I saw a facebook friend talking about making homemade yogurt, I was very interested. The recipe I found online was a little different from hers but it was easier.

Yesterday was the second time I made my own homemade yogurt in my crock pot! It's so easy and the results this time were even better.

Here is Noah sharing his milk duds with me...

So all you have to do is cook a half gallon of milk in a crock pot for 2.5 hours and then turn it off and let it sit for 3 hours. Then, add 1/2 cup yogurt with 2 cups of the warm milk, whisking to combine. Then wrap the crock pot in thick towels (so the milk stays the proper temperature for the bacteria to proliferate) for 8 hours or overnight. Then all you have to do is refrigerate to thicken, sweeten and enjoy.

My first time making the yogurt I added 1 cup sugar and 1 T vanilla and it was good, but a little too runny. Runny is normal, but I wanted to try to thicken it up without straining the fluid out (b/c I'm lazy - but you can do that with coffee filters and a sieve and the yogurt is supposed to get as thick as greek yogurt/sour cream). So I added a large package of vanilla pudding before I put it in the fridge. It turned out really really great! Still a little runny, but it tastes even better. Terry was like, Mmmmmm yogurt pudding, my favorite =) But You could add fruit or any kind of flavoring.

Oh, and I added red food coloring to one to satisfy Noah. He wouldn't even try it before b/c it wasn't pink. Hopefully now he will =)