A while back, on pinterest, I saw that you can make yogurt in a crock pot. What’s this you say? I can make one of my favorite snacks at home? In my slow cooker? MEANING I DON’T HAVE TO DO MUCH WORK!?!? SIGN ME THE HELL UP!!!!
As any discerning culinary mind though, I was wary of something that was so easy. (I mean seriously, my 6 year old niece could do this.) But, I decided to put my unease aside and give it a go.
The recipe calls for 2 ingredients. That’s it. That’s all. (I told you. Easy peasy lemon squeezie.)
1 quart whole milk (or half milk, half cream for a thicker texture. That’s what I used.)
2 Tbs. yogurt culture (which you can buy online) or pre-packaged yogurt (which I used), or yogurt you’ve previously made
(This is the yogurt I used from our local Mennonite-run market. It’s delicious.)
In a saucepan, heat the milk/cream/both to about 110 degrees F. If you don’t have a thermometer, that’s about skin temp, or the temperature of a hot bath. And it’s okay if you don’t get it exact, this is a very forgiving recipe.
Once the milk/cream/both has reached the desired temp, whisk in your 2 tablespoons of culture/yogurt.
Pour the mixture into a quart mason jar and put on the lid.
Place the jarred mixture in the center of your crock pot’s ceramic insert, then fill—up to just under the lid—with hot water. My crock pot was a little shallow, so I could only fill up to about an inch below the lid, and it still turned out great. Remember, VERY FORGIVING this recipe is.
Cover your crock pot with a thick bath towel you’ve heated in the microwave, then put the lid on over that. (If you can fit the lid on your crock pot, great, if not, that’s great to. This will still work. Don’t worry. It’s going to be fine.) NOTE: DON’T turn the machine on. It confused me too. But no, you don’t need the crock pot to be on for this to work.
Now, you get to leave it alone for about 12 hours.
Seriously. Step away.
Don’t watch it. Don’t check on it. Don’t coddle it. There’s magic happening inside and you’re just going to scare off the yogurt fairies by standing around waiting. (Okay, maybe I made up the fairies.)
What’s really happening inside is that the culture you put in, or the yogurt, is changing stuff in the milk. (I like to imagine tiny little Cyberman-like bacterium going around saying, “You will be upgraded.”)
So, after about 12 hours (or more if you sleep in or forget that you’re actually making yogurt. Not that that happened to me or anything…) you can take your yogurt out of the now cold water and marvel at it’s glory, or you can just stick in the refrigerator and wait for it to get cold, then have some with honey and granola.
(See how thick it is?)
(Somewhere between sour cream and greek yogurt thickness.)
(Now L and I get to have some with fruit for breakfast!)
So, after my beta test with this recipe, I really see nothing I would do differently. It tastes glorious, the texture is thick and perfect, and it cost me a grand total of about $1.20 for an entire quart of yogurt that is basically $4.99 otherwise. (Because remember when the Cyber-bacterium were upgrading the milk? They were changing it into exactly the same kind of bacteria. Which means, whatever yogurt you used [or culture], this yogurt is now the exact same. So if you bought a $4.99 tub of local, raw yogurt, you now have the same thing for less than half that price.)
So…
Pros: Cost effective, low-input cooking, delicious flavor, thick texture.
Cons: You have to wait more than 12 hours to eat your yogurt.
All in all, I don’t think I’ll be buying yogurt again. Because, did I mention, now that you’ve made your first batch, you can continue using this as your 2 Tbs. of yogurt to make even more and so on and so forth!
Until next time my culinary comrades,
Miller
Thanks for this recipe! We eat yoghurt around here like it's going outta style..
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