Recipe - Yogurt

Is it frugal to make your own yogurt?

Ummmmaaa - I have NO idea. I've read that it is, but honestly it just doesn't matter to me if it's cheaper or not. I know that homemade is so much better for my family that I don't even consider buying Yoplait very often. Oh how I love Yoplait yogurt, but have you ever read the ingredients? You can read my food allergy story to see why I make my own yogurt.

For years I didn't buy yogurt at all. There are so many ways to make homemade that I'd try and it was so complicated and time consuming that I stopped. It wasn't hands on time consuming, but you had to be careful so you wouldn't miss your window of opportunity.

After I read that you could make yogurt in the crock pot, I started researching more recipes. Here's the technique that works for my family.

1. I have a small crock pot (bought a thrift store and ONLY used for yogurt) that I fill up with whole milk (skim doesn't make very thick yogurt).
2. Plug the crock pot in for a couple of hours until it reaches 180 degrees. I usually do this first thing in the morning when I get up.
3. Take out your plain yogurt starter (with live cultures) plop a spoonful (maybe 2 T.)  into a small bowl so it comes to room temperature by the time your milk is ready.
4. After the milk is 180 degrees, take off the lid and then take the crock out of the crock pot heater thing-a-ma-bob.
5. Let sit for 45 minutes or until you can comfortably leave your finger in the milk for a bit. Please wash your hands first :-)
6. After the milk is cooled, add the room temp yogurt starter to the crock and sugar if desired. I am pretty sure that my crock pot is 4 quarts and I add 1/4 c white sugar. Last time I made it I added 2 T brown sugar and it was fine. I don't like things quite as sweet as the rest of my family does. I'm sure real maple syrup or raw honey would be better than adding refined sugar. It's better to add too little of sweetener than too much!
7. Wisk the milk, yogurt and sugar together. Put the lid back on the crock.
8. Wrap the crock up in a bath towel - note: I keep this towel with my yogurt crock pot. 
9. Let sit for 8-10 hours. I start this process at about 6:30 AM and put it in the fridge when the kids get home from school or when I see it sitting there. You are done!
   
   

When I was using skim milk, my son was the only one that would eat my homemade yogurt. Occasionally I'd eat it with granola mixed in, but more often than not, I'd forget about it or wouldn't have any granola. My husband wouldn't eat it either because he forgot to tell him it was there.

Now that I'm buying frozen blueberries from Azure Standard, we all eat it all the time! My daughter LOVES parfaits made with thawed blueberries, yogurt and granola. My husband loves ice cream, but he is satisfied with a frozen blueberry/banana yogurt smoothie (I make this after the kids get home from school and put it in the freezer for him to eat later).

When we are running low on yogurt, I wash the crock and start all over again. I make sure that I always have granola and since I buy 10 pounds of frozen blueberries at a time (for $13.00!), I always have fruit to put in the yogurt. I can't wait for this summer so we can add more fruit. I have heard that if you add strawberries and peaches, you can add fresh spinach in and it won't turn your smoothie green. I wrote that sentence and then tried to find the link, but it's not a smoothie, it's a slushy so I'll try it anyway!

This recipe is linked to:
Grocery Cart Challenge
Balancing Beauty and Bedlam