Amazing Crockpot Greek Yogurt

This yogurt is so simple to make all you need is some milk, a crockpot, a tub of Greek yogurt, a large towel or blanket, and a method for straining. Patience doesn't hurt either. The entire process including chilling and straining/thickening the yogurt takes about 20 hours, but it is definitely worth it.

Crockpot Greek Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon of milk - I use whole or 2%.
• 1 cup or 1 container of favorite plain Greek yogurt to use as the starter. The brand doesn't really matter as long as it contains active cultures. You will only have to buy this once - the rest of the time you will just use the yogurt you've made as the starter.

Directions:

1. Pour milk into crockpot, turn on low, and let sit for 2 1/2 hours.
2. After the 2 1/2 hours, turn off crock and let sit for another 3 hours.
3. After the 3 hours, take your tub of store bought yogurt and mix in a bowl with 1 cup of the warm milk.
4. Slowly whisk this mixture into crockpot with rest of warm milk. Cover, unplug, and cover entire crock with large towel or blanket to incubate.
5. Incubate crockpot for 8-10 hours.
6. After the 8-10 hours you will have very warm, very runny yogurt!
7. To thicken yogurt, place in a colander that has been lined with coffee filters and place over a bowl. Of course, if you have a fine mesh colander you could use that, but I like to just put my yogurt into the filter-lined colander, cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge.

Carefully give the yogurt a stir every 30 minutes or so to make sure the thick yogurt that will collect on the bottom gets mixed in evenly with the rest - this will ensure that the whey you want to strain out can get through the filter, making your yogurt thicker. With every stir your yogurt will be thicker and thicker, so just keep checking on it and stirring it until it is at your desired thickness. Depending on how much whey you strain out, you may have to dump out the contents of the bowl at least once during this process.

This stuff is sour! So just add some jam or honey to sweeten it up. Don't forget to save 1 cup to use as the starter for your next batch!