Making Yogurt

I am really excited about this post because I made Yogurt!! I have wanted to make it for a while, and had heard it was easy, but just never looked into doing it. Someone I know posted a recipe on facebook and it looked easy enough. So here is the recipe. 

 1. You will need a crockpot, 1/2 gallon of milk (it can't be ultra pasteurized but pasteurized and homogenized are fine), and plain yogurt that has live culture. You will also need a heavy towel.

2. Pour the milk into the crock pot

3. Turn it on low for 2 1/2 hours. After 2 1/2 hours unplug the crock pot and let it sit for 3 hours. 

 4. When 3 hours has passed take two cups of the milk and put into a bowl. 

 5. Stir 1/2 a cup of the live culture yogurt into the two cups of milk

 6. Mix it well 

7. Pour it back into the crockpot

 8. Stir the milk well and put the cover back on

9. Now take the towel and cover the entire crockpot so that any heat is kept in. Let it sit 8 hours or overnight. 

 10. In the morning the yogurt has thickened and is ready to be sweetened and have any fruit added. (this yogurt is not as thick as store bought yogurt.) you can make it thicker by adding gelatin. I am going to experiment with the gelatin next time I make it. 

 11. Get whatever frozen berries you want to use and let them thaw out slightly. 

 12. Put them in a food processor

 13. Add honey to sweeten and a little water (maybe 1 teaspoon) 

 14. Puree the mixture 

 15. Add it to the yogurt

16. Stir and Enjoy! Make sure you save 1/2 a cup of the plain yogurt that you made as your live culture to use in your next batch of yogurt. 

 The review from my boys was that it was really good. I went ahead and put half of the plain yogurt into a container in the fridge and then put the berry mixture into the other half of the yogurt. I also added 1/4 c. sugar to sweeten because the honey wasn't quite doing it. I think this will be something we keep in our fridge all the time. It was just way too easy to make.