I make homemade yogurt...

Who does that surprise? I just thought I'd post on here how I do it. It's really really easy and WAY cheaper than buying it. I started making it a while ago, and now that Bruce has started eating it, it's a skill that's coming in handy even more. All of the baby yogurts are loaded with sugar, and I like to feed Bruce organic foods. The whole milk organic yogurt is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive for the small quart you get!

So here's what I do/have done. I now have a "yogurt maker" which is a pretty big misnomer since it doesn't do any of the "making." Basically the yogurt maker I have is just an incubator, but I've made it in the past in the oven and in the crock pot.

The "recipe" is as follows:
4 cups (1 quart) milk (I use whole/organic milk for Bruce's yogurt and skim milk for mine)
1/2 cup instant dry milk powder (helps make it thicker)
1/2 cup PLAIN yogurt (you can either take some from the previous batch you made, or buy it at the store, just make sure it has live, active cultures listed in the ingredients.)

Instructions:
- In a pot, combine the dry milk and milk and heat on medium to just below boiling. Basically when you start to see all the bubbles and know the boiling point is right around the corner. Make sure you keep stirring it to keep anything from burning to the bottom.
- Remove from heat and either put in a bowl of ice water or in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes to bring the temperature down to luke warm. (you want it to be cooler than 100 degrees or else it will kill the active cultures, but still warm).
- Add in the 1/2 cup of yogurt

Then you can do 1 of 3 things:
1) put it in your yogurt maker and let it sit for 4-10 hours depending on how firm/tart you like it. (it will continue to thicken when you put it in the refrigerator)
2) Pre-heat your crock pot on low heat, unplug and let sit for about 20 min to cool down a bit. Once you've done the above steps, pour in crock pot and wrap in a towel for insulation. Let it sit for about 8 hours away from drafts so that the inside stays warm.
3) Preheat your oven on the VERY lowest heat setting. Put a lid on the pot from above, wrap it in a towel and put it in the oven on a cookie sheet. Turn off oven and make sure the door stays closed for at least 8 hours. (MAKE SURE THE TOWEL IS NO WHERE NEAR THE HEATING ELEMENT!)

And there you have it...

To make it sweeter you can add sugar, artificial sweetner, or honey (no honey for babies though...).

To add flavorings you can add: baby food (even for the adult yogurt!), fresh fruit chopped or put through the blender, vanilla extract for vanilla flavored yogurt, cinnamon, or anything else you can think of!