Home-made yogurt, take 2.

Obviously I cannot afford to buy organic everything. But I have realised I can afford organic milk now. My usual milk was £1 for 4 pints. At asda, 2x 4 pint bottles of organic milk are £3. So £1.50 per 4 pints, an extra £1 ontop of my shopping bill weekly, but i'm willing to pay that for the lack of hormones and anti-biotics. Its only a small change but its an affordable one and a sensible one for us. 

My favourite yogurt is any organic Yeo valley! But particularly the green one, its so creamy and gorgeous. It is also £1.79 per pot. And both my daughter and me could eat it in 1 sitting, so completely un-affordable.

Ive tried making my own yogurt before and it has always come out somewhat runny unless strained, but acceptable enough for the kids to wolf down. Since im paying an extra £1 week on milk i'm looking at making that up in other ways, one of my regular shopping staples was plain yogurt, we mix in fruit and nuts. I usually buy the big tubs (about 2 pints worth) from Lidl for £1.50, since i'm buying organic milk I decided to use some of it to try and make my own organic yogurt. So I have found a new method to make it in a slow cooker that is both lazier and it comes out thicker.

result!

I used a whole 4 pints of milk to make 4 pints of whole milk organic yogurt for £1.50. Which is cheaper than the value yogurt and organic to boot. Cant beat that.

Since this is the first time making a new batch I had to fork out an extra 50p for a starter culture, which was a little pot of yeo valley organic yogurt for me. Full of probiotic cultures.

So the method I used this time is simple:

Tip 4 pints of milk into your slow cooker, switch is on low for 2 1/2 hrs. 

Then switch off and leave for 3 1/2 hrs until warm, it should be warm on your little finger but hot will kill the bacteria. Lukewarm and it wont stay warm enough for the bacteria to culture the milk.

Whisk in your starter yogurt. Cover, and wrap in 2 thick bath towels to maintain the temperate.

Leave for 8 hrs.

Thats it.

:) simples.

I put the yogurt back into the milk container and into the fridge. Remember to keep a little to start off a new batch and you wont have to buy another starter. £1.50 - 4 pints of organic yogurt for not much effort or washing up at all. If you used standard milk then its just £1 for 4 pints of yogurt.