I have made this recipe so many times over, and every fresh batch amazes me. It is so easy and the yogurt tastes so fresh. My last batch of toppings were raspberry chocolate. It fresh, easy yogurt made from scratch. I made 10 mason jars of yogurt (about 1.5 times the size of an individual yogurt container) for about $6.
I started making this years ago when I decided years ago to reduce my waste. I wanted to reduce all the tiny plastic containers. I brought this back when I was on a tight budget, and again when I was eating no sugar. The truth is this is an amazing recipe that accomplishes all those things.
Yogurt dates back to 6000 BC. It is so delicious, and I often think they had so little amazing food at that time. It just isn’t true!
What’s the scoop, you need to know?
One gallon of milk makes a gallon of yogurt. You can eat it in these individual snack sizes, make it into dressings or yogurt treats. My husband sometimes feels bad when we don’t finish off the entire gallon in a week, but it really doesn’t matter. All 10 cost less than just 3 similar size yogurts like Noosa.
Stay tuned, I wont hold back the recipe or the amazing yogurt toppings ideas!
Fresh, Yogurt in a Crockpot
Ingredients
1 gallon whole milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt (with live active cultures)
I always prepare this after dinner at night. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and will turn to yogurt overnight. Now that I have it down, all I need to remember is heat to 180 and cool to 120.
Instructions
Set your crockpot on high to heat up
Pour a gallon of whole milk into a large pot and set to medium heat
When it reaches 180 degrees F., shut off the heat and let cool. (On my stove this is about 7 minutes.)
Allow the milk to cool to 120 degrees F. It should be warm to the touch.
Unplug to turn off the slow cooker
Pour a cup of the milk into the slow cooker and add the plain yogurt. Stir
Add all the remaining milk to the slow cooker
Unplug the cooker. Wrap the cooker in towels.
Let sit for 8-12 hours
Once the yogurt is made you might want to add fruit, honey or other flavoring. Add it to the bottom of each mason jar, add yogurt, add granola and seal. These keep for about a week.
Wala! Easy, fresh yogurt from scratch using a crock pot
Here is the trick. I make this on Sunday, and I use my fruit from the week before for my toppings. Since I do my shopping on the weekend we have usually replaced last weeks fruit with fresh fruit, and so this is an awesome way to use those ingredients that will only last a few more days.
The one pictured here is blackberry, lemon topped with granola and raspberries. It was sublime!
Want the list of cool yogurt toppings too? Check it out.
Sweet Lemon Pie
Pears and honey
Bananas and Agave
Any berries melted into simple sugar
Raspberry syrup with chocolate chunks
Nuts, oats or granola on top
Chia seeds
