Introduction: Greek Yogurt

About: In a valiant attempt to keep myself from dying of boredom, I create.
I didn’t think that Greek Yogurt would be that much different than the yogurt I usually bought, until I tried it.  The fact that it has twice the protein doesn’t hurt either.  But I have a really hard time paying over a dollar ($1.25) for 6 oz.   So I decided to try and make some Greek yogurt of my own.  I finally found some plain Greek yogurt that listed 5 different active bacteria, just what I needed for my start.  It works a little different than Kefir, but not so much that you can’t make 2 quarts of yogurt for about the cost of three 6 oz. cups.  Yes!  Also, you add your own sweetening and or fruits, plus you can keep the last 6 ounces for your start in the next batch.

Step 1:

Supplies:
6 oz. of plain, active culture Greek yogurt
3 quarts skim milk
Crockpot/slow cooker
Quart jar
Spoon
Cup
Thermometer
Oven or Wonder Box (not shown, directions found here, http://thermalcooker.wordpress.com/category/thermal-cookers/wonderbox/)

Step 2:

Pour 3 quarts of skim milk into the slow cooker.  Put in on “warm” and let the milk slowly get up to 140°.

Step 3:

I checked it every 1 hour or so.  It took my slow cooker 5 hours to get up to the required temp.

Step 4:

Once the milk has reached the required temperature, mix the 6 oz. of yogurt with a cup of the warm milk.  Mix them well.  Pour the yogurt mixture with the rest of the warm milk, mix well and put the lid back on.

Step 5:

At this point I put the stoneware part of my slow cooker into the Wonder box.  This will hold the temperature for long enough for the lactase (milk sugar) in the milk to be eaten by the culture bacteria and ferment the milk into yogurt.  The yogurt will need to be in the box for 8-10 hours.  If you don’t have a Wonder box, heat your oven to 120° and put the stoneware with the milk in it, into the oven.  Turn off the heat and let it sit in the oven for 8-10 hours.  Any longer than that and the yogurt will go a step further and make cheese curds.  Now cheese curds have their place in the world, but I want yogurt.

Step 6:

You will know you have reached the right stage when you open the lid and you see a layer of whey on top of the yogurt.  Whey is the yellowish fluid that is left over from yogurt or cheese making. 

Step 7:

Take a spoon and dip off as much whey as you can into the quart jar.  Whey is great to use in baking, especially in baking things that normally have milk in the recipe.  If you don’t want to use it for baking, use it to water plants that like acidic conditions like strawberries, raspberries and roses.  That works.  So I will use this whey in my next batch of wheat bread.

Step 8:

Put your yogurt into a storage container and store in the fridge, thus slowing down the fermentation process, using as you will, and saving the last 6 oz. to use as your start in your next batch of yogurt.

Step 9:

I like honey on mine.  YUMMMMMM! Enjoy!
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