Thursday, May 31, 2012

Slow Cooker Yogurt


I love nothing more than being able to make something myself instead of buying it "pre-made" from the store. Typically for me this includes things like pizza crust, pasta sauce, tartar sauce, whipped cream, corn bread, etc. For some reason, I never had the desire to make my own yogurt until I went hunting for organic, full-fat, plain yogurt to feed Annabelle as a baby food. I couldn't find it anywhere (at least not anywhere convenient) so I decided to make it. I am so glad I did! I was nervous because it seemed complicated and easy to mess up - definitely not the case.

For my first batch I used a half gallon of organic, ultra-pasturized, whole milk. I didn't thicken or strain it although, I may try this in the future - especially if Rob and I plan to eat it ourselves. At our local grocery store the cost was $3.67 for the half-gallon (64 oz.) and was around $3.75 for 32 oz. of plain non-fat (they didn't offer any with fat), organic yogurt. Around a 50% savings for very little work and I got exactly what I wanted instead of trying to find a grocery store that carries what I need. If you made this for yourself and didn't care if it was organic or not, you could save even more. I'm sure you can get good deals on regular milk fairly often.

My first thought upon waking up this morning was, "I wonder if my yogurt turned out ok". I was pretty excited to take a peek and see how it turned out. I lifted the lid and voilĂ ! Sure enough, it had turned into yogurt overnight. I couldn't resist and had to taste a spoonful immediately. Considering I am never a fan of plain yogurt, I was ecstatic! I could have eaten a bowl of just plain yogurt with no complaints. It was a nice creamy texture and not nearly as "tangy" or "tart" as store bought yogurt (which I liked). With just a little sweetener and fruit mixed in it was perfect.

Needless to say, between the cost savings, ease of preparation, taste, and expected frequency of use, I plan to use this recipe over and over again. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Find the recipe here: http://jillsusanne-tanzertable.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html?recipe_id=6025694

No comments:

Post a Comment