Edited on 10/5/09 to add: Since posting this I have also discovered that you can make raw yogurt on your counter top, without the use of a crock pot or yogurt maker. All you need is a starter and the super clear directions that come with it. Not only is it easier since you simply leave it on your counter top, but you also retain the benefits of the raw enzymes! You can find culture starters here.
I have tried other methods for making yogurt, but this is by far the easiest. I originally got this idea from Stephanie and use her basic recipe. Making your own yogurt is a frugal way to get some good probiotics into your family.
Here is the cost savings breakdown for us:
- Before: we would buy organic plain yogurt from Trader Joe’s: $3/quart
- Now: I make it out of our grass-fed raw milk from the farmer: $1.75/quart
- Savings = $1.25/quart x 2/week = savings of $2.50/week = savings of $130/year
Trader Joe’s is the cheapest organic yogurt you can find. The health food store sells it for $4.50/quart. For me, it is definitely worth the savings to do the five minutes of total work involved in making yogurt in the crock pot.
Crock Pot Yogurt
Recipe notes: This recipe uses a 2 quart crock. In using a 4 or 4 1/2 quart crock I found the yogurt to have a bit of a "springy" texture. I was able to alleviate this by heating the milk an additional 15 minutes for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes.
- Turn your crock pot to low and pour in 1/2 gallon of milk.
- Heat on low for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
- Once 2 hours and 30 minutes have elapsed turn your crock pot off and unplug it. Let the milk cool in the crock with the lid on for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours remove 1-2 cups of the warmed milk and place in a bowl. To that add 1/2 cup of yogurt with live active cultures and mix very well.
- Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the milk and whisk thoroughly.
- Place the cover back on the crock and wrap the entire crock pot in a thick bath towel or two.
- Let it culture overnight, 8-12 hours.
- In the morning stir yogurt (if desired) and store in glass quart jars or a container of your choice.
- For optimum texture, refrigerate for at least 8 hours before using.
221 Responses to Make Yogurt In Your Crock Pot
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Hi Shannon, we love yogurt and would like to try making this using my 5.5 liter (5.8 quart) crock pot. Since it will be my first time, I would like to do 1/4 gallon (approximately 1 liter) of milk first as my trial batch. As such, my questions are: 1) how long should I heat the milk in the crock pot? Should it be shorter than the 1 hr 45 mins since volume is half the recipe? and 2) how much yogurt should I add into the mixture? Also half of what your recipe calls for? Many thanks, Shannon! Cheers!
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Shannon Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 4:58 am
Terri – Things get a little tricky when you alter the volume since the heating/cooling times are dependent on the volume of liquid. You could monitor it with a thermometer, let it heat to 160-180 degrees and then cool to about 110. I usually add about 2 tablespoons of starter to each quart of milk. HTH!
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[...] – I use a crockpot version to make mine. We typically make about two batches each week. I incubate mine in an electric [...]
[...] I read about yogurt being made in the crockpot. It sounded like the perfect solution for someone who can’t always keep an eye on a [...]
I made this for the first time with raw milk and it came out great. Delicious. I won’t be buying anymore yogurt. I would like to try a non-heating method of making yogurt next.
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[...] Have you seen how much one of these things runs?Here is the RECIPEAnd here is the POST I found it withI also googled the process because I accidently froze my 1/2 cup [...]
Hi Shannon, my yogurt did’nt turn out. It was still liquid in the morning. I had to let the crock cool 4 hours instead of 3 because I was gone. when I wrapped with towels I turned it on low for 3 min. just so it would stay a little warmer than our kitchen.
I used an organic vanilla starter from the store. Is the milk wasted?
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Thickens with the addition of some psyllium husk when it’s all milk. I use thicker homemade oat milk, or oat milk and half regular milk, oat milk saves tons of money, really great with vanilla and nutmeg and cinnamon, like egg nog
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[...] day, to ask if she owned a yogurt machine, but one of my other friends replied with a link to this recipe and I decided to try [...]
[...] I gave up looking and started making my own a month or two ago in a crock pot. This – Make Yogurt In Your Crock Pot – is the basic recipe I use, except I monitor the temperatures with a remote thermometer so I don't [...]
[...] It might be a total flop, but if not….oh so wonderful. Anyway, this is where I found the original recipe in case you’re interested. I don’t have any pictures so far, but as soon as I have [...]
[...] http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=912 [...]
To create a thicker yogurt add 1 -2 tbs of skim milk powder to every pint of milk. Stir it in when the milk is cooling, before you add the culture. This gives a firmer set after chilling and an even creamier texture when strained.
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[...] Yogurt ~ first time to make in crock pot, I usually put it in my dehydrator [...]
To cut some of the time I need to supervise the pot could I warm the milk on the stove to 180 and then put it in the crockpot to cool down before I add the cultures?
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Shannon Reply:
September 11th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Anita – I don’t see why not, though I haven’t tried it and can’t guarantee anything.
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[...] with 7 glass jars (each under a cup), but you can make this with any maker, be it a warm oven, Crock Pot, deydrator, or other designated yogurt maker. I’ve Googled the instructions and tried other [...]
I made my first ever batch of Yogurt, it has been cooling in the fridge for about 8 hours, I followed the crockpot recipe, but the batch is rather snotty, how can I thicken,? can I reheat to 18 degrees and repeat the steps.?.
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I have made my 7th batch of yogurt and decided to get another croc pot. The one i am using i got at the thrift store. It is an oval blue Rival. The LOW temp gets very very hot and so the milk at 2 hrs and 45 minutes gets to under the boiling point as we need to see. I cool for 3 hrs etc.. excellent yogurt the next day. NOW – i wanted to start double making so i needed another slow cooker and went to the thrift store and they only had the older ones that are tall and brown. the low setting does not get hot like the round blue Rival. i realized that paticular croc pot needs to get cookin the milk on HIGH. All the recepies we read for croc pot yogurt say put on low WELL thats for the rounder ones that are newer the LOW setting on those crocs cook the milk hot to almost boiling. OLD crocs that are brown and tall – should be told to set on HIGH.
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Making my first batch of yogurt now! It will be done @ 1am
I’ll get up stir it & put it in the fridge so we can eat for a snack later! Mmmm I can’t wait to taste it!
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[...] quick internet search brought me to a blog called Nourishing Days. I was in search of a crockpot-yogurt recipe and this blog provided exactly what I was looking [...]
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[...] If you’ve decided against kefir and prefer yogurt, you can either make it homemade from really good-quality whole milk (without hormones) or buy whole milk plain yogurt and flavor it yourself. There are many good recipes and techniques for making homemade yogurt; I have had success using the crockpot recipe: http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/02/make-yogurt-in-your-crock-pot/ [...]
Hi there, I am interested in trying your method! I am hoping to give the yogurt a 24 hour incubation time to help it use up the vast majority of the lactose, making it more digestible for my family, as we have sensitivities. Do you think your method would keep the yogurt warm long enough? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Amy
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the easiest recipe with great results. i’ve made this many, many times. i usually strain mine to make greek yogurt. so good!
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[...] Yogurt-I tried this once and it worked okay, although I’d say it was more the kind of yogurt that’s good for using in recipes in place of buttermilk (pancakes, waffles, etc.) since it was so runny, although I could have strained it through cheesecloth or a coffee filter and it would probably been fine. Honestly, I usually use this recipe from Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life because it’s very easy. [...]
[...] organic and raw), a starter yogurt culture for the first batch and some basic kitchen supplies. NourishingDays.com provides an easy guide to making your own yogurt with a crockpot. A quick web search will yield [...]
[...] [...]
Laura – So glad you love it, and it is way cheaper! I have kept the yogurt in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks so far. Yogurt should keep for quite some time because of the good bacteria in it. Most that you buy at the grocery store have expiration dates a month away. I do use 1/2 cup from the previous batch for a while. Eventually it seems as though it isn’t as effective and the yogurt texture isn’t as good so I buy another starter batch from Trader Joe’s. I would say keep using the homemade yogurt as starter for as long as you’re comfortable.
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Keira Eddy – Hmmm… perhaps try adding 15 minutes to the cooking time of the milk. If it is sort of a ‘snotty’ texture then that should help.
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Sharon – No, I mean warm. What size is your crock pot? If it is the larger oval ones then it may require less warming time. You are looking to get the milk to 180 degrees, but with a larger surface area that will happen faster.
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Amy – Try adding 15 minutes to your cook time. What size is your crock pot?
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Elizabeth – I use it in smoothies, drain it to make a Greek yogurt or flavor it with fruit, honey or stevia.
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Laura V. – It’s hard to say as I am not sure what the carrying case is like. If it insulates it well and can keep the heat in then it should work.
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~M – I’ve never tried using coconut milk so I am not entirely sure. I think if you googled coconut milk yogurt you could find some recipes. I think that the difference between cow’s milk and coconut milk would be in the amount of sugar the lactic acid has to feed off of. So the fermenting process might not work the same.
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Julie – I buy plain yogurt as a starter. Then I save 1/2 cup of the homemade yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch. If I start getting some weird results – bad texture, too runny, etc. – I buy some more plain and start over.
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Shannon- I don’t know if it’s too late, and you’ve given up on homemade yogurt, but here’s what I did when I had the same results.
Just take that gooey, snotty-textured milk and heat it past 110 degrees again. Let cool below 110 again, stir in 1/4 cup or so of yogurt with active cultures. Cover tightly and put in microwave with a cup of steaming hot water (to keep the microwave warm).
This is basically starting over, and it worked for me this morning. About 7 hours later, it’s yogurt.
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Can you please share how you made it Greek Style? I have made this recipe twice but would love to know how to thicken it up.
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Tiffany – Once the yogurt is done refrigerate it for at least 8 hours and then dump it into a cheesecloth, flour sack or paper towel lined sieve that is placed on top of a bowl. You will end up with a thick yogurt on top after a few hours as well as whey in the bowl below. Don’t dump out the whey. It is really nutritious. Use that to soak grains and beans, or use it in baking or cooking instead of water.
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Shannon Reply:
February 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Jennifer – You could use skim milk, but I would recommend buying whole milk. Look for unhomogenized if you can find it and raw would be best. Heating the milk initially brings the temperature up to about 180 degrees. Then when you turn it off and let it sit it is cooling down to about 110 degrees. The reason for wrapping the crock pot in towels is to keep the temperature at around 110 degrees. This is the temperature the milk needs to be at for the yogurt to culture. So the towels act as an insulator so to speak.
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Caitlin – You add them after the yogurt is done setting and cooling in the refrigerator.
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Oops, I didn’t see that you’d answered part of my question above.
But would you use the unsweetened or unsweetened variety?
And would you try it first with TJs yogurt to make it low-dairy and, if that works, try the coconut milk yogurt? What are your thoughts?
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Ruth – Perhaps your yogurt didn’t get heated up enough or didn’t stay warm enough. I have had this as well and adjusted the heating time by about 15 minutes. If you have a thermometer that is the most accurate way of checking the temperature.
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Mike_A – UHT milk is basically dead milk. It is not a natural or whole food and as such we try to avoid it.
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Mike – I understand what you are saying, that heating the milk up to 180 degrees pasteurizes it. That’s true. But UHT and pasteurized are different things. This is why I am experimenting with raw yogurt. UHT milk is what it is because of shelf life and not nutrition or flavor. In any event it is a matter of good, better, best I suppose. Best equaling raw, better equaling pasteurized and good equaling UHT. No need to get snarky
.
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I didn’t see the reply but I tried it with the SoDelicious Coconut milk yesterday and it didn’t work. Should I be using some other kind of coconut milk? What about using almond milk or rice milk?
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I’m not an expert, as I’m exploring this webpage for a reason.
However, I would think that the little cheese balls are from the cream of the raw milk. Maybe not, but that would be my first guess. Maybe try taking the cream off the top next time, making butter/buttermilk with it or something, and using the rest of the milk for the yogurt. Worth trying to see if it changes.
I’ll be trying this recipe soon and I’ll try it with the cream and without the cream, to see what happens.
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Cori – Yes, I would guess it has to do with the cream, assuming you used unhomogenized milk.
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My daughter and I use the same recipe and she gets “balls” in hers, too. We figured out that the only difference in preparation is that I use a whisk and she just stirs. Try it!
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I read from another website that you are to put a cup of yogurt to the side for your next starter batch. So yes, save some of your yogurt for your next batch.
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Cori – Yes, that is what I do. I do find that eventually I have to buy some new yogurt from the grocery store because for some reason the yogurt doesn’t work forever as a starter. Not sure why.
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Mary – You need the milk to be up to 180 degrees, so you could check it with a thermometer. The purpose of heating the milk is to kill off any bacteria in the milk (good or bad) so that you can add new bacteria with the culture. You may want to check your milk after the initial heating as some slow cookers take a bit longer.
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Doug – Thanks for sharing your experience. The tricky thing with this recipe, though it is a simple one if it can work, is that all crocks are different and like you said the air temperature can effect the whole process.
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Teresa – I think this would be a gamble as the heating and cooling times are based on a certain volume. If you’re going to do this I would heat it up for half the time, check the temperature (you’re looking for 180 degrees) and continue to heat as needed until you reach the desired temp. Then do the same thing with the cooling (you’re looking for 110 degrees). Let us know how it goes!
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Tracy – If you do double it I would check the temperature after the allotted cooking time. You’re looking for 180 degrees. Continue to heat until you reach that point and then do the same for cooling (you want 110 degrees).
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