Slow cooker Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt and on the "17 Day Diet" which my mother, Aunt, Uncle and I did, you eat 2 servings of a pro-biotic food a day.  Well needless to say, that gets spendy.  I found this recipe somewhere on the internet  and unfortunately I don't remember where...but thank you whomever this came from.  There are several recipes but this one is the one I use.  I understand there is a way to individually jar this instead of one big batch and I may try that someday but for now this works best for me.



Ingredients and Directions:

I start my yogurt at 1pm if I can help it.  I tried 10:00 am and it was too early.  It made the incubation time too long cuz I have no interest in interrupting my sleep to play with yogurt...
2 Liters or Quarts of milk, I use 1% or Skim depending on what I have that day.  Pour half of the milk into the crock pot.
 
            

3/4 c. Powdered milk- If you use Instant, use 1 1/2 c. of powdered milk and whisk into the remaining quart of milk until there are no lumps...foam is fine.   Add to the crockpot.


 

 Make sure your crockpot is on Low setting and plugged in and set timer for 2 1/2 hours.  This is when I do the dishes and do many other things!

After the buzzer goes off, Unplug the crockpot and let sit for 3 hours.  Make sure you set your timer.  I will have totally forgotten about it in 3 hours so I HAVE to use my timer.
At the end of the 3 hours add 3/4 cup of yogurt...I use Mountain High...it has 5 pro-biotics vs the 4 in some other brands and some others have many fillers and HFCS in them.

I pull the inner pot out and put it into this insulated grocery bag that I purchased at Fred Meyer for this purpose but I understand you can incubate it wrapped in towels or blankets as well.  I leave this incubating until I wake up in the morning.  Usually about 8-12 hours.

When I wake up in the morning I have yogurt.  It is at this point I could put it into my storage container but I like more of a Greek Style yogurt.  I grab a Large coffee filter that I purchased from a restaurant and line my colander with it.  I put the colander in my glass bowl to catch any whey that will be dripping from this.  Then I scoop all the yogurt into this contraption, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator until evening.  You can use the whey in any recipe calling for buttermilk but due to the allergy restrictions in my home, I dump it.  If you continue to strain this, it will eventually become yogurt cheese which is very similar to cream cheese and can be used as such.  Just without the cost or the fat or preservatives.
At this point I add my fruits or whatever I am going to be adding and enjoy!

*note:  Yogurt is made thick by the strands that the culture creates in the incubation process.  You don't want to stir them too much, it will break those strands and you will end up with a runny yogurt.  Great for smoothies!