Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt and my family goes through a lot of it! We put it in smoothies, we eat it plain, we put it in parfaits and my one-year old daughter has an almost unhealthy obsession with it! However, when you look at the ingredient list of most major brands of flavored yogurts, they contain things like citric acid, benzoates and other un-pronounceable ingredients. Do you really want to be putting all of THAT into your body?! So, that is how I arrived at the decision that I would attempt to make my own yogurt at home- crazy, I know- but I figured I could make my own plain base and add fruit and flavoring to my liking. Here goes!

Ingredients:

-8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk

-frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

Directions:

-Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

-Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

-When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.

-Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened-it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

-Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.

-Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Keep 1/2 cup of plain yorgurt for a starter for your next batch of yogurt. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days.

Instead of blending the yogurt while it was warm, I added fruit as I ate it. I had some fresh, homemade strawberry jam that I used and mixed it with the yogurt- kind of like "fruit on the bottom." Let me tell you, this stuff is delicious! My baby ate three bowls of it today, already. This is way better than the store-bought stuff and I can feel good about the ingredients that go into it and goes into our bodies.