Get Set Sunday: Crockpot Greek Yogurt

by Erin at SlimSavers.com

Once upon a time, a beautiful (and smart) maiden found a super easy recipe for crockpot Greek yogurt. Delighted, she sung “I will make this today [Saturday], and we will have glorious, healthy, beautiful Greek yogurt all week made lovingly by me!” The maiden followed the recipe and everything worked out perfectly. She’s now sitting in her castle eating some delicious, homemade Greek yogurt with her beautiful family and all is right with the world.

The end.

HELLLLOOO?! FAIRY TALE ALERT!!!

First, I am beautiful and smart (hahhahah) and, second, I did find a recipe for Greek yogurt that seemed easy enough. However, it was not going well.

I used a recipe from One Good Thing by Jillee. I was supposed to get the milk to 180 degrees in the crockpot, and I just couldn’t. The highest it went was a little over 170 when I called it and continued with the recipe. (I guess the crockpot I inherited from my Grandparents almost 10 years ago doesn’t cut it?)

I’ll spare you the details of my Saturday late night/Sunday early morning frustration and tell you that I DID successfully make yogurt in the crockpot, and it’s delicious! I followed Jillee’s recipe almost exactly — Like I said, I only got the milk to 170 and I didn’t do the second straining because, frankly, I was over it! I used coffee filters and a colander to strain the yogurt instead of a cheesecloth, and it worked out nicely.

Ingredients

• 8 cups (half-gallon) of whole, 1%, 2% or skim Pasteurized Milk. (I researched that ultra-pasteurized doesn’t get it think enough, but you can use the ultra and add some powdered milk when you add your yogurt starter, I read.). I used whole, organic milk.
• 1/2 cup store-bought natural plain yogurt. I used a 7 oz container of plain Fage yogurt.

Directions

1. Put milk in crockpot, cover, and cook on low 2 1/2 to reach 180 degrees (according to Jillee’s recipe). I had to put mine on high for almost 3 1/2 hours to get it to the right temp.
2. When the milk has reached 180 degrees, unplug the crock pot, remove the lid, and let it sit until the milk temperature gets down to around 110. Mine took less that an hour.
3. When the milk has reached 110, whisk in the yogurt.
4. Put the lid back on the crockpot, wrap the whole thing up in a big towel or blanket or whatever like a snuggley baby and put it in an OFF oven the oven light on.
5. Leave it alone for seven to eight hours or overnight. I left mine overnight.
6. After that, that the crockpot out of the over (turn the light off), unwrap it, and check it. If it looks like yogurt, move on (it won’t be super thick yet like Greek yogurt, but it’ll look like regular yogurt). If it doesn’t, put it back in the oven with the light on for an hour more. Mine was ready when I first checked it.
7. If you’re good with the consistency, you can be done. If not, refrigerate the yogurt for an hour.
8. After the hour, strain it any way you can in the fridge for another hour. I used three coffee filters spread out in a colander over a bowl.
9. After that hour, strain it again or don’t if you’re good with the consistency. I didn’t do the second round. I kept the “stuff” (whey) that was drained because I read you can put it in bread. I plan to make banana bread later this week so put it in there.
10. Save 1/2 cup of the yogurt if you want to do this again.

Good lord! When it was done, I had to eat it. It was delicious!! You’re making plain yogurt here so add some honey if you want it sweet and make any other kind of combination you want. I had blueberry and honey with a little cinnamon yesterday and today I had some chopped apples, honey and cinnamon.

(I haven't gotten sick so I guess 170 degrees was OK to kill the evil bacteria?)

Read more at SlimSavers.com.

Erin and Joline, both health and wellness junkies, spent many years pinning down the truths about eating healthy and inexpensively. Both feel the it’s-too-expensive-to-eat-healthy excuse is untrue and infuriating.