Home made Yogurt

I finally joined in on the Homemade yogurt craze that has hit Ridgecrest. (It seems like everyone out here is making their own yogurt.) My first attempt failed miserably and so for my second I had 2 of my friends write out their recipes and tell me all about how they do it. Once I was equipped with 2 recipes and lots of advise I began my second attempts and it turned out great. We go through lots of yogurt because it is one of the few things that Gwen likes to eat, so this is going to save us some money.

Here's the recipe it is an overnight sort of thing, It's not a lot of work, it just has to sit for a while. So it is best to start in the afternoon or early morning.

Ingredients:
8 cups milk (equal to a half gallon)
8 oz of yogurt (equal to 1 cup)
1/2 cup dry milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. cook 8 cups of milk on low in your slow cooker for 2 1/2 hours. (3:30pm-6:00pm)
2. after cooking for 2 1/2 hours, turn off the slow cooker and leave the yogurt alone for 3 hours. (6:00pm-9:00pm)
3. Mix in the 8 oz. yogurt and dry milk.
4. wrap the entire slow cooker in 1 or 2 large bath towels and leave it alone for 8-12 hours. (9:00pm-5 am/9am)
5. after the 8-12 hour period, mix in the sugar and vanilla or other desired flavoring.
6. Put yogurt in storage containers with lids and refrigerate. (Gwen likes to freeze the yogurt in Popsicle containers and it comes out just fine, but I'm sure I should look into a frozen yogurt recipe.)

Next time:

• I think I will go to the grocery store and buy some cheep fruit, puree it, and add it to the yogurt in step #5. (I don't like chunks in my yogurt.)