Saturday, July 25, 2009

Homemade Yogurt

I have been wanting to make some homemade yogurt for a long time. Lately Ella has showed a renewed interest in eating vanilla yogurt so I finally made it a priority on my "to make" list. My sister has a yogurt maker she said she'd lend me, but I decided to try out Erin's Crock Pot method first. It worked and it was super easy!

This recipe makes A LOT of yogurt. I ended up with 80 ounces of yogurt and according to the recipe, it's only "good" for 7 days. We'll see. I may have to make every recipe I own that calls for yogurt! I will probably halve it next time I make it.

I am not a fan of yogurt at all so I can't really tell you if it is good or not (it's all icky to me!). When Ella wanted some, I added a dab of honey and a touch of vanilla and she gobbled it up. I did taste a teeny bit and it tasted sweet to me (instead of bitter and gross).

The cool thing about this recipe is the low, low cost to make yogurt, which I hate buying because it gets so expensive. I used 1/2 gallon of milk ($.90) and a small container of yogurt ($.30). That works out to less than $.02/ounce or $.08 for a 4 oz serving (the size of the small container we bought for $.30!). You can easily make homemade organic yogurt for about $.04/ounce ($3.5 for a half-gallon of milk and $.80 for the organic yogurt). That is a great deal for an easy snack, as a substitute for sour cream, or to make in to a yummy fruit dip!

3 Thoughts From Others:

Chief Family Officer said...

Okay, you've convinced me - I am going to try this!

The Campbell Family said...

you can get a gallon of milk for $1.80? whoa. this wouls be great for our household if I could easily flavor it - my males like their variety when it come to yogurt. I do have to admit I am confused by using yogurt to make yogurt, though...

Camille said...

Cathy -- I hope you have better luck with this than that darn foccacia! ;-)

Stephanie - Yeah, milk has been on sale at one store or another for $1.89/gallon lately. You need the yogurt to grow the yogurt (as it is a live culture).

The directions do include flavoring with fruit. I would add some honey for sweetness. You can also strain it to make it thicker. Just put some yogurt over a cheesecloth or some similar type material and let is strain.

Give it whirl -- see if they'll eat it! ;-)

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