Sun~Drop & Chocolate: Homemade Yogurt

Sometimes I ask myself, "why are you blogging about what everybody already knows about?" Either they've done it before or they saw you did it on Facebook and probably don't want to hear about it in detail! Well, I guess I'm writing for my own personal journal or you are reading this because you actually want a detailed account of what I did/made or whatever besides: Amanda Cline: is making homemade yogurt. Amanda Cline: That was good yogurt! HA!

So here goes...A few months ago I saw a recipe for homemade yogurt on a blog and I read through it and thought, "Yeah, right! Too time consuming and why?!" But then I thought about it a bit, realized how much I could save because, if you have read past recipes I've blogged about, I use a lot of yogurt! That's the number 1 reason I wanted to make it. I am perfectly comfortable with the Stonyfield and Fage Greek I buy at Kroger. Also, Amelia has begun to like it too. :)

It all started because I found a local raw milk source. I know, I know. At this point, I've already lost some of you! Well, know that you don't have to be using this type of milk to make the yogurt. You can use whatever kind you'd like. Kroger milk works just fine. I was just excited about buying a gallon of milk fresh from "Bessie" and using it soon! :) In the meantime, I've learned, from my source, that using raw milk with fresh, good cultures, is a bit contradictory when making yogurt. I won't be using my "gold" for yogurt in the future. :)

I got my trusty ole crockpot out and started to work! I poured a gallon of cold milk into the crockpot. Turned it on high and periodically checked the temp of the milk over the course of 5 hours. I used a meat thermometer thought directions called for candy thermometer. Not sure about the difference, but it worked nonetheless. After the milk reached a temp of 160 degrees, which sterilizes the milk, (this is where using raw milk is redundant), I took the lid off the crockpot and let it cool to a temp of 110. This is the proper incubation temp. I turned the oven on to 200 degrees to preheat. I poured a small amount of the milk into a bowl. I added one cup of plain Fage Greek yogurt. This acts as a "starter". In the future, I'll have my own homemade starter. :) I mixed the milk and yogurt together until smooth. Then I put that back into the crockpot and mixed it all together.

Now the weird/funny part comes in....

I put the milk/yogurt mixture in glass jars. (I'm sure you read that I was looking for unwanted glass jars. :) Then, I turned the oven off, placed jars in the oven and turned on the light. (The light is said to keep the heat going a bit. Some think it doesn't matter, but I chose to stick to the script for this first show.)