Making Yogurt

Start off with milk! (obviously!) You can use any milk, but whole milk will make the yogurt thicker and tastier.

There is a slow cooker version which I wanted to do but time was running out so I heated it in a pan and used my slow cooker as an insulator. Heat the milk to 82 degrees C. Just before boiling point.

Then allow the milk to cool to 45 degrees C, this is the temperature at which it will cultivate.

At this temperature, add a couple of tablespoons of live yogurt and stir in. 

Leave the milk untouched for around 6-12hrs in an insulated container (I used my slow cooker) wrapped in a couple of towels.

Gloopy runny yogurt! 

It can be eaten like this, infact my daughter ate quite a lot of it while i wasnt looking. I prefer thicker greek style yogurt. To do this you need to strain off some of the whey through a towel/cheese cloth.

I strained mine in 3 lots and left each for about 3 hours to strain.

Put your remaining yogurt into an old washed yogurt container:

Yogurt! :) Save they whey, you can replace water for it in baking/bread making, its full of nutrients.
So is it worth it? Well, the pot above was yogurt I bought at lidl, 1.5litre for £1.50. The milk was £1 and produced just about 1litre after straining the whey. So price wise its actually about the same. I'm not keen on the texture or taste of the home-made compared to the shop bought, though my daughter loves it. So for us, we will probably be sticking with shop bought, unless we happen to pick up some heavily reduced milk, then it would make all the effort worth it.