Easy Yogurt

Many years ago I used to make yogurt at home using powdered milk, a starter from purchased plain yogurt, an electric heating pad, with a towel on top of it in a particular basket. Well, that worked very well, but now I have milk goats.

I have read, more than once, that goat milk will not make good yogurt. Phooey. That's simply not true. At the natural foods store I bought a liter of wonderful yogurt made from organic, grass fed cow's milk. It was marvelous! It was pourable, but still beautifully thick. And it occurred to me that I could try using that as a starter.

I looked around on the internet and found instructions for making yogurt using a Crockpot. I have made several batches of it, always using some of the current batch to inoculate the milk for the subsequent batch. It is wonderful! Here is the current batch with 1/2 cup poured out:



Here is how to do it. Pour 2 quarts (1/2 gallon) milk into your 3.5 - 4 quart Crockpot:



Put on the lid, plug it in, turn it on low and set the timer for 2 1/2 hours (2.5 hours.)



Turn off and unplug the Crockpot and let it sit undisturbed for 3 more hours. Then, measure out 1/2 cup plain yogurt (with live cultures) and mix it into 2 cups of the warm milk.

Pour the milk with the yogurt back into the Crockpot, mix well and put on the lid. Then wrap the whole thing up with a couple of big fuzzy towels or a nice warm blanket and let it sit for another 8 hours. Longer (if you are doing it overnight) will not hurt (up to a point!)

That's it! Pour it into a container (I used a half-gallon jar) put on the lid and refrigerate.

This is the BEST yogurt we've ever had. My husband loves it, and he's not that easy to please. :) I enjoy it plain, but my favorite way is with a little real maple syrup drizzled on top.