Go Greek (Yogurt)

Everything around my house is perpetually covered in yogurt. Toys. Shoes. Walls. Floors. TV stand.  Banister. ME.  I find yogurt EVERYHWERE (even my bra, people.)

My two-year-old is not an adventurous eater but he does eat yogurt without a complaint.  Because he is so finicky when it comes to food that isn't in cookie form, I do what I can to sneak in extra nutrients and protein into foods he will actually eat.  We go through a lot of greek yogurt in our house.

Here's the thing about greek yogurt: you can go BROKE on it in a hurry especially when you have a voracious pregnant woman and a wild child wolfing it down every day.

I stumbled on a DIY greek yogurt recipe during one of my ins-MOM-nia episodes last week.  Having forgone a trip to Mc D's for a medium Coke and small fry earlier that day (still craving, BTW) because I had just restocked the yogurt supply and was feeling B-R-O-K-E, I was like, "Yeah, girl.  We pinning this recipe for sure."

This past Saturday I set out on my greek yogurt experiment, fully expecting it to be total failure because who makes yogurt at home that doesn't suck anyway?!  To my shock and delight, my forray into the world of yogurt making yielded ONE GALLON of edible if not incredible greek yogurt.  It was ridiculous easy and it cost under $6.00 to make.

I want to pass on this good thing to my fellow yogurt enthusiasts! 

I still kinda can't believe it worked.  I waited 3 days to try it because I was legitimately scared. Realness.

Because why wouldn't you SnapChat making yogurt?

The recipe I used was featured on this lovely little blog.  Jillee posted a recipe for "Foolproof Crockpot Greek Yogurt."  I was drawn to the recipe because it was simple, easy to follow, and though the process was time consuming, it requires so little hands-on effort.  Plus, I typically have all of the 3 ingredients (yes, only 3) this recipe calls for in my home on a regular basis.  So convenient.

To make Jillee's Foolproof Crockpot Greek Yogurt you will need the following things:

• Large crockpot
• Thermometer (I used a meat thermometer)
• 1 gallon of milk (I used whole milk)
• 2-3 cups powdered milk (I used 2)
• 1/2 cup of plain, greek yogurt (I used Chobani; once you make your own yogurt, you can use 1/2 of that for your active culture going forward)
• Storage containers for the yogurt

I followed Jillee's instructions exactly.  It took probably around 5-6 hours in the crockpot for my milk to reach 180 degrees and then about another, oh, 3 hours for it to cool down to about 115 degrees.  The longer the yogurt is in my fridge, the creamier it seems to get.  The consistency is thick and creamy.  It does get a tad runnier when you start stirring it and adding mix-ins.   I'd say at worst, the consistency breaks down to "regular" yogurt but it's certainly still satisfying.

I experimented with the yogurt this week to see how it stacks up to store bought by using it a few different ways in the kitchen.  It's AWESOME as a replacement for sour cream.  It's DELICIOUS as a veggie dip. It also performed ADMIRABLY in baking.

At left: Banana Chocolate Chip Greek Muffins; At right: Greek Yogurt Veggie Dip

My personal recommendations:

• Though I find this yogurt to be thick enough to pass as a greek, next time I make this I will up my powdered milk to 3 cups to fortify it further and make it even thicker.
  
• The next time I make this, I will attempt a half-batch.  The shelf-life of Jillee's recipe is approximately 10 days in the refrigerator.  Since my toddler is refusing this yogurt (such a bummer) I don't know that I can handle a solo gallon+ of greek in a week. I think I'll need to make and freeze more muffins as to not waste this batch. I'll let you know how my small batch turns out when I attempt!
  
• If you choose to use Mason jars to store your yogurt (like I did,) I recommend wide-mouth jars.  I used small-mouth jars and regret it.  It's just difficult to get the greek out...and frustrating.

Let me know how your yogurt turns out and if you like it, love it, or even loathe it.  I'm also looking for recommendations on how you jazz up your plain greek yogurt.  Share the goods, people!  Maybe we can all move to a hippie farm together and exchange ideas?  :)