This surely represents health, frugality and happy creativity,
I googled "crockpot yogurt" and found the basic recipes. I also looked up temperature details in some of my old cookbooks.
1. Pour milk into crockpot - 1/2 gallon. I used nonfat dry milk for maximum economy. I believe you could use any type of milk probably including soy, rice, etc. Super healthy
choice could be organic milk.
2. Heat until almost boiling. Thermometer* is my favorite way to know for sure so I used it.
180 degrees ( my crockpot took about 2 hours)
3. Turn off crockpot and remove lid. Cool back down to about 115 degrees.
95 degrees -bacteria will not be active 120 degrees, they will die.
4. Stir in yogurt starter. I purchased Dannon vanilla, 6 oz cup, since they were on sale. Plain yogurt is usually recommended as starter, but my vanilla flavored one worked fine. I believe any fruit flavored one would work too. JUST BE SURE THE LABEL SAYS ACTIVE CULTURES. I believe also, the more and varied the live bacterias contained, the better and healtheir
Now was the time to add an optional 1/2 cup of additional powdered milk for extra
thickness and nutrition which I did.
5. I have an amazing thermos* that keeps hot tea piping hot for 24 hours! Unbreakable too, I don't think it has a glass liner. Found at yard sale for 50 cents!
I filled the thermos with part of the milk/yogurt mixture and put lid on and let it sit all night undisturbed.
6. Insulate* the crockpot well. I put a thick towel around it, then a layer of newspaper, then a second thick towel.
7. Next morning I woke up to lovely thick creamy yogurt* in the crockpot and in the thermos!
I immediately filled a 6 oz container with some for the starter culture for the next batch.
I may look at a health food store for a small container of live active yogurt that has the most and varied types of bacterias possible listed on the label to use for starter yogurt. But for now I'll use what I have on hand.
* photos are on my facebook page. If you're reading this and not my FB friend, just request to friend me and let me know you found me at this blog. Then you can see the pics.
Happy eating! Love to hear in the comments how you did with making your own healthy frugal happy yogurt!
Patty
* I'm having tech troubles loading pics onto this blog. Not sure why. Iphone4 doesn't seem to be compatible. Anyone know how to solve this?
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