Monday, June 11, 2012

Slow cooking - making yoghurt with the slow cooker.


Facebook is a source of great inspiration and practical tips, and I just love how I can stay in contact with friends from all over the world. I also celebrate the fact that it has introduced me to like minded people. (I have a bit of a love/ hate relationship with it, because I am so easily distracted on there, and I lose track of time. I suspect this is a common complaint.) 

I was thrilled to find a link recently on how to make yoghurt using the slow cooker. When our children were smaller and I was at home full time, I used to make it regularly, but never with the slow cooker. I would wrap it up in towels and place it in an eski with hot water bottles to keep it warm. I have to admit something started going wrong with the process and in the end I gave up. It just became so sloppy (or perhaps it was me who became sloppy as I lost my focus and started to take too many things on). My new recipe and method truly works a treat. I cheated and test tasted it this morning, while it was still a little warm. Yum.

With 8 cups of milk and just half a cup of Greek yoghurt I have managed to fill a pre-loved yoghurt container and an ice-cream container. They will sit in our fridge now for 24 hours. Tomorrow for breakfast we will have home-made yoghurt with mixed berries! I can't wait. It's moments like these that I feel so glad to be at home full time again. I feel like such an awesome provider. It is so much easier to focus on the things that are important to me, and my family, little though they may seem. And I am reminded again that it is indeed the simple things that make my heart sing. 

So here is the recipe (and below I will post the original link). 

Pour 8 cups of milk into the slow cooker. Set it on low and leave it for 2 and a half hours. 

Unplug the slow cooker. I wrapped it in towels, because the air temperature is fairly cold at the moment. I left it for 4 hours. 

Take out 1 cup of milk from the slow cooker and whip in half a cup of yoghurt, return to the slow cooker. I whisked the whole mixture. 

Wrap in a few towels and leave it. For me that was overnight. The idea is to leave it 8 to 12 hours. 

Then transfer the new yoghurt into containers and place in the fridge for 24 hours. 

Done!!! Now impress your family. :) 


Here is the link to the recipe - http://apartmentprepper.com/?p=3021


3 comments:

  1. Good!I do not own the slow cooker,maybe I get one.
    I make buttermilk (there is a lot on internet,how to make easy)

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  2. I used to make lots of yoghurt in one of those EsiYo thermos contraptions. Now that two of us are lactose intolerant I have not bothered as much, but the good stuff in yoghurt is really beneficial and I wonder whether, now Sophie and I are drinking rice milk, whether our tummies might manage a small portion of cool yoghurt every now and again. Will have to do some experimenting! Maybe even brew a batch with rice milk. I bought coconut yoghurt once! DELICIOUS but it cost a bomb!
    As always, you've inspired me Atsa. xx

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  3. Wimmera - a slow cooker is such a brilliant buy. You can prepare your meal early in the day and it is ready in the evening. It makes life so much easier, and I just love how it cooks it slowly. It certainly made making the yoghurt much easier. I must have a go at making buttermilk. Thanks Wimmera for responding to my post. I love seeing you here. Asta x

    Dorothy - I like rice milk. I wonder sometimes about eating diary products - for many reasons, one being the bobby cow issue. But it would be hard to give up cheese and yoghurt. If you try making yoghurt with it please tell me how it goes.
    I'm glad I inspired you. You do the same for me! A x

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