I have always loved yogurt. I was partial to Yoplait, all those fun flavors in conveniently packaged single servings. I never gave a second thought to how many of those plastic cups I threw away. It never occurred to me to read the ingredients, it was yogurt. Then, as most of you know, I began my real food transformation. It has been slow going and I still eat plenty of things that I shouldn’t, but yogurt has been the easiest change to make. My sister-in-law gave me this super easy crock-pot method for making yogurt, and I haven’t bought a single serving cup loaded with high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and fillers since.
Homemade yogurt with bananas, strawberries, and agave nectar
Ingredients
1/2 gallon milk (whole, 2%, or even raw milk)
1/2 cup yogurt or starter culture
Directions
Place milk in crock-pot on low (I used raw goat’s milk for the first time this week). Cover. Leave for 2 hours and forty five minutes.
Turn off. Do not uncover. Leave for 3 hours.
Remove 1-2 cups of milk from crock-pot. Stir in 1/2 cup of yogurt (once you have made your yogurt you can reserve a 1/2 cup for the next batch, but eventually it will stop working and you will need to by a new container).
Pour back into crock-pot, stirring gently.
Cover. Wrap with two thick towels and let sit for 8-12 hours.
Uncover in the morning (I try to start yogurt at about 3:00 in the afternoon, so I can wrap it up before 9:00 and uncover it between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning).
Homemade yogurt will be a bit on the runny side because it does not contain fillers, if you must have thick yogurt you can add 1/2 – 1 cup dry milk powder when you add your starter.
Place in a storage container and refrigerate. I store my yogurt in mason jars because they are easy to sanitize.
Serve cold with fresh fruit. You can sweeten it with agave nectar or sugar. If you are trying to go low calorie try Stevia. I use yogurt for cooking, baking, salad dressings, dips, fruit salad ….. the possibilities are endless.
Wow, this is awesome, I am going to try it.
Do you know if soy milk will work?
I’ve heard that it will work, although I have never tried it myself. Good luck!
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