Easy Crockpot Yogurt

I absolutely love recipes like this that require very little actual work, and can just be doing their thing in the background of everyday life. Homemade yogurt is so easy and delicious, plus it is a fraction of the cost of store bought yogurt! But the number one reason that I chose to make it for my family is to avoid all of the sugars, artificial ingredients, gums and stablizers that are in store bought yogurt. 

My family loves yogurt. In fact I think yogurt was one of the only sources of protein my son would eat until he was about 4 years old! I wish so bad that I had started our raw dairy journey when my kids were tiny for that reason! Everytime I make a new food out of the raw milk from our goats and check another product off of the shopping list forever, I do a little happy dance! 

This recipe is highly customizable and basically makes itself. You essentially just use your slow cooker to scald the milk and then the heavy warm crock radiates heat all day (or night) long to help culture your new batch of yogurt. The hands-on time is about 5 minutes, though the waiting time is about 15 hours. I like to start this in the afternoon so that it's ready to sit for its long 8-12 hour warm resting period overnight. We then wake up to fresh yogurt and I'll serve it with fresh fruit and some homemade granola.

If you would like a thicker, greek style yogurt I recommend straining this yogurt through 3-4 layers of cheese cloth for a few hours too. To do this, simply set a large colander in a bowl, line it with cheese cloth, and then pour the yogurt in from the slow cooker. Cover it with a clean dish towel and let it sit for a few hours until it's the consistency that you like. Do note that the yogurt will also thicken some when refrigerated. Play around with it until you figure out how thick or how thin you prefer your yogurt and make notes. I personally like a thinner yogurt, and want to have as much yogurt as possible from each batch. If you strain the whey out, you will have less yogurt in the end. 

• I'd highly recommend getting a little instant-read thermometer to make homemade yogurt - it's all about the temperature! I use this digital thermometer all the time.
• The goal is to scald the milk which takes place around 180 degrees. So you could check it with a thermometer the first time to see if the "warm" setting is warm enough or if maybe an hour and 45 minutes would work on low. Once you figure it out, I don’t think you would have to use the thermometer every time.
• After the milk is scalded, the waiting time is meant to bring the milk down to around 115-110 degrees so that it’s still warm but won’t kill your yogurt culture!

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