So I’ve always thought that I didn’t like yogurt but I buy it because my kids do. Purchasing organic yogurt (greek yogurt too)  can get expensive and I’ve heard that you can make yogurt in a slow cooker so I started looking around at various recipes for slow cooker yogurt and found some short and sweet info in a review on Amazon for the VitaClay Multi-Cooker (slow cooker/crockpot/what have you) that I have. The instructions for slow cooker yogurt in the review by are as follows

Using the thermometer I heated the milk, using the reheat cycle to 180F, turned it off and let the milk cool to 115F, than just added some plain yogurt as starter, I used Greek yogurt, replaced the clay lid, placed a terry cloth on top of it and locked the top cover of the multi-cooker. It was turned off but kept the temperature beautifully for long enough to let the yogurt cultures work the milk into a great, thick yogurt.

Armed with these more than brief directions on making yogurt I jumped right in and it worked out great. I’ve flushed out the directions a bit so lets get cooking.

Super Simple Slow Cooker Yogurt

Ingredients: 6 C. Milk (I used 2% but from what I’ve read the higher the fat the better it works) 2/3 C. Plain yogurt with active cultures Slow Cooker

I gathered up my ingredients and since there were no measurements or proportions in the little blurb I read I had to guess a bit. Pour the milk into the slow cooker. To heat the milk I used my slow cooker’s reheat setting, you’ll have to see what works for you but it should heat the milk slowly without scalding the bottom. Heat the milk to 180 degrees then turn off the slow cooker. Let the hot milk cool in the slow cooker with the lid closed to 120 degrees. (Even though the review said 115 I’ve found that 120 works better for me.) While the milk is cooling measure out the starter yogurt and let it get to room temperature. Once the milk is at 120 degrees spoon some of the warm milk into the starter yogurt and mix, just enough to make it soupy. Pour the mixture into the warm milk, move to the slow cooker, cover and let sit for 7 hours. My slow cooker has a clay insert so it retains heat well, if yours does not you could wrap a couple of towels around it to help keep the heat in. You want to keep it as close to 120 for as long as possible. Also make sure you keep the slow cooker off. After 7 hours remove the lid and viola … … you have home made yogurt! Super deilicious slow cooker yogurt. It couldn’t be easier. Slow cooker yogurt can be a little runny at first but if you refrigerate the yogurt it will firm up a little bit. I also like to drain my yogurt overnight in the fridge and make nice thick Greek yogurt, but that’s another post. Also save some of this home made yogurt or Greek yogurt so that the next time you make yogurt you can use that as the starter.

Once you learn how to make yogurt you’ll never have to buy plain yogurt or Greek yogurt again.