Homemade Freezable Yogurt Recipe in the Slow Cooker
I have to admit, we (Tricia) aren’t a whole foods family. The idea intrigues me and is growing on me but there are so many aspects that I find myself a bit overwhelmed. The more I learn the more I find that there are food items I can make at home that I never even conceived before. When I saw posts for homemade yogurt here and here; my interest was definitely peaked.)
So I pulled on my apron strings and determined to experiment a little to see if, in fact, I could do this. After all, I struggle with recipes that require rising with yeast, how in the world am I going to fare at culturing my own yogurt?
It turns out that it is easier than you could even imagine. Or at least easier than I imagined. I followed the directions, made some of my own adaptions and still came up with a successful product.
I was so excited and so were our kids who I let help me make it. Isaac is my yogurt eater and he loved adding his own fresh fruit to it each morning for breakfast. And I loved knowing that I had made it right at home and knew exactly what was going into it.
Homemade Slow Cooker Yogurt
Author/Source:
Tricia @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 8 cups 1% milk (you can use other types as well, I used whole)
- 4 ounces plain yogurt
- 0.5 cups sugar/honey
- 2 Tablespoons vanilla (optional)
Directions:
Pour the milk into the slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker on LOW, put the lid on, and heat the milk for 2.5 hours. After that time, turn your slow cooker off, unplug it, and let it sit, covered, for 2.5 – 3 hours. To the slow cooker add the plain yogurt (your starter), sugar (or honey), and vanilla and whisk together. Cover the slow cooker and wrap it in a thick towel to insulate it. Now you let the yogurt culture by letting it stand like this for 8+ hours. In this case, overnight. take a strainer, line it with a coffee filter, and place it over a bowl. Then ladle your yogurt into the strainer and place the bowl/strainer combo into the fridge where your yogurt can cool. After several hours, the whey will strain out of your yogurt, leaving it nice and thick! Scrape the yogurt out of the coffee filter and into a container (pour your whey into a separate container, it can be used – Alicia has some suggestions in her post). Serve plain or with your favorite fresh fruit.
Freezing Directions:
Portion into freezer containers and freeze. To serve: Thaw.
Servings: 10 (1/2 cup servings)
This Post will be linked at:
- Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop
- No Whine Wednesdays at Food on the Table
- What’s on the Menu Wednesday at Dining with Debbie
- Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try at At Home with Haley
- What’s On Your Plate at Good Cheap Eats
- What’s Cooking Wednesday at Turning the Clock Back
If you make it plain, no sweetener, you can save done back to make more, but I’m pretty sure freezing it kills the cultures, so if that’s your plan it wouldn’t work so well. I’ve ben making my yogurt this way for months with great success.
You can freeze plain yogurt with active cultures to use as a starter for homemade yogurt. I freeze mine in ice cube trays, bag the cubes up, and thaw a couple when I am ready to make yogurt. Since the cultures are still active enough after freezing to propagate in a new batch, I would think that yogurt would still contain the cultures after freezing. I don’t have a reference, but that is my experience.
What do you do with the whey?
Aboutyogurt.com says, “The freezing process does not kill any significant amount of the cultures—in fact, during the freezing process the cultures go into a dormant state, but when eaten and returned to a warm temperature within the body, they again become active and are capable of providing all the benefits of cultures in a refrigerated yogurt product.”
What do you do with the whey?
Use the whey to sour milk, ferment veggies, add to shakes (ever heard of “whey” protein this is where they get it from!)
This looks awesome. I’ve done yougurt on the stove and then insulated it in coolers, but this looks much simpler! Thanks for the great idea!
How long is this good for in the fridge?
[...] previous post [...]
When you mention to save the whey, what do you do with it?
I’m not up on using whey just yet but Alicia has some great ideas in her post: http://www.aliciashomemaking.com/2010/08/homemade-yogurt-in-crockpot.html
What a neat idea. I can’t wait to try this method.
I made my yogurt like this last month but I didn’t save my whey. What are some uses for the whey?
I’m not up on using whey, perhaps Kelly can fill us in. In the meantime, Alicia had some good ideas in her post: http://www.aliciashomemaking.com/2010/08/homemade-yogurt-in-crockpot.html
wow great idea! I would love to make my own yogurt. And this is easier than those fancy yogurt makers out there!
We make our own yogurt. It’s the best!
Yay for homemade yogurt! This is similar to the recipe I have used. Something else I have done is keeping the towel-wrapped slow cooker in the oven with the light on for the 8-ish hours. It helps to keep everything warm. Just be sure to not preheat the oven for something else
That’s a great idea for conserving counter space!
[...] 0.75 Cups Plain Yogurt or homemade yogurt [...]
How much does this actually make? And is the consistancy thicker or runny?
[...] Foodsaver supplies, you aren’t even come close to that cost, especially if you make your own homemade yogurt! And if you don’t want to invest in a Foodsaver how about some silicone ones?And the best [...]
It worked!! I’m so, SO excited since we eat yogurt daily! I used a little lemon extract since i was out of vanilla, and it is delicious! Just the right amount of sweetness (for me, at least! I don’t like it super sweet). Thanks for the recipe! Mine is super thick, which I love; I guess since i let it drain overnight….but if you add back in some whey, you can thin it to your desired consistency.
thanks again!!
I’m off to see what to do with the whey!!
If anyone is looking for ideas to use whey, there are a bunch here and even more in the comments: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/06/16-ways-to-use-your-whey.html
I’ve been making my yogurt this way or a few months and we love it! Thanks so much for posting this recipe. Just wondering if I double the amount I want to make do I need to add any extra time at any of the steps?
I am not exactly sure from experience, but I would guess yes. If you experiment, let us know!
I used 12 cups instead of 8 and it didn’t change the amount of time at any steps! It came out great and now I’ve got more yogurt.
I was wondering did you use anymore yogurt starter? or did you leave that the same too?
Thanks!
I just used the indicated amount of yogurt starter.
[...] first great success was whole wheat pizza dough in the bread maker. Then I stumbled in Once a Month Mom’s recipe for making yogurt in the crock pot. It was so easy and delicious and I felt good about [...]
I’m wondering if cheesecloth would work in place of the coffee filters as that is what I have? Any thoughts before I attempt this awesomely easy looking recipe?
Yes, cheesecloth will work! I just chose coffee filters because most people have coffee filters on hand.
[...] trying out this recipe for home made [...]
Still searching for your slow cooker yogurt making directions in your categories but haven’t found it under either slow cooker or yogurt. I had to do a google search to find it. Would be nice to add to the list! Thanks:)
Hmm, I will look into that. Thanks.
I have been making yogurt for quite some time now. I found that straining the whey was losing a good amount of my yogurt and a lot of the “good” protein. Instead, I add one cup of nonfat milk powder to the cold milk at the start of the process. Also, I’ve found if left to culture for closer to 10+ hours the yogurt comes out with a much thicker consistency. I hope that this helps.
Has anyone tried this with soy yogurt and soymilk?
After some googling to make sure, I saw that yes, it will make yogurt, but without stabilizers, it will be much runnier than the dairy version. I’m not sure how it would be affected by straining. Here’s the best post I’ve found on it. http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/4318169.htm#commercialsoymilk
Thank you for looking into it.. I’ll see what I can come up with!
I accidentally cooked the milk on high instead of low. Is it ruined? Not sure if I should proceed or scrap it and start over?