Yes, I made yogurt in my CrockPot, and I am most excited about it! Lacey and I eat a lot of yogurt, so this is a way to cut costs a little bit. I found the instructions here, but I thought I'd consolidate the information.
The process takes a while, but most of it is just waiting. It's really very very easy.
Ingredients:
1/2 gallon milk (homogenized and pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized)
1/2 cup live/active culture yogurt, as a starter
You will also need a thick bath towel and, of course, a slow cooker
Instructions:
1. Pour 1/2 gallon milk in slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours
2. Unplug slow cooker, and let it sit covered for 3 hours.
3. After 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of milk, whisk in the live culture yogurt, and stir it back into the slow cooker.
4. Put the lid back on, keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel around for insulation.
5. Go to bed (or let it sit for 8 -12 hours). In the morning, it should have thickened (not as thick as what you buy at the store, but significantly thicker than the milk you started with).
6. Stir in whatever fruit and/or sweetener you like. Just keep in mind that as you stir, you may break down the proteins that make it thick, and it won't thicken up again.
7. It will be good in your refrigerator for about 7 days.
Some tips that were in the comments on the web site:
--The lower the fat content in your milk, the thinner your yogurt will be.
--Ways to thicken your yogurt. 1) Add a packet of non-flavored gelatin along with the live culture yogurt. 2) Add some NOT instant powdered milk (amounts between 2 tablespoons and 1/2 cup were all suggested). I assume that you either add it at the beginning or with the the live culture yogurt. I don't know, I haven't tried it. 3) Line a strainer with a double thickness of cheese cloth. Add the yogurt you just made and let the liquid drip out of it (I used a coffee filter, and it worked, but it was just a mess trying to get the yogurt off the filter, and I'm pretty sure that there were pieces of filter left over in my yogurt. I assume cheese cloth would still be messy but hopefully it won't leave pieces behind). This can take a couple hours or all day and night, depending on how much yogurt you use and how thick you want it.
--You can use 1/2 cup of the yogurt that you made as a starter 5 or 6 times until the cultures die. Then you'll probably need to start over again. One person said that the cultures in Yoplait are pretty weak and would die after maybe 2 batches.
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My Grandpa used to make yogurt like this and was making it while they were on vacation in Mexico once. He used powdered milk in his recipe and he spoke a good deal of Spanish but did not speak it fluently. He got what he thought was powdered milk and he said it was the best yogurt he had ever made. Later, he realized that he had used baby formula!
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