Thanks to Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking, I decided to give this a try. I’ve made it on the stove before, but I did not have time to stand over it so I thought that I would try this method. I have a 2-quart Crock Pot, so I just halved the recipe. Actually, I used just under 2 quarts of milk. I also added some vanilla extract to the milk since I had plain yogurt.

The milk will slowly heat in the Crock Pot for about 2-1/2 hours. Mine only took about 2 hours,probably because I don’t have a high & low setting on this one.

After it has heated up to about 130 degrees, turn it off and let it cool down to about 115 degrees. It’s still pretty warm, but not too warm to touch. While this is cooling down, I scooped 1/4 cup of yogurt into a bowl and let it come to room temperature. After the milk had cooled down, I added about 1/2 cup of the warm milk to the yogurt and stirred well. It immediately started to thicken up which is a very good sign! Add this mixture back to the remaining milk in the Crock Pot, stir well, and cover with towels to insulate it. This keeps it from cooling down too quickly.

Let mixture set for about 6 to 8 hours, or until it starts to thicken up.

Pour into containers and place in the refrigerator overnight to finish thickening up.

Well, I think I rushed mine. It was setting up very nicely, but I put it in the fridge too quickly. It cooled off quicker than it should have (maybe because it was setting in front of the AC? 😉 ) so I went ahead and put in the fridge. We’ll use this to make smoothies, eat with fruit, etc. I will definitely be doing this again, but next time I’ll place it in a different location and it will NOT go in the fridge before it has set for 8 hours.

Don’t forget to check out the Grocery Cart Challenge for more great recipes!