Homemade Yogurt (2nd Attempt)

Yoghurt after 10 hours incubation, before chilling

Ingredients:
2 cups organic fresh milk (I used Organic Valley)
1.5 Tbsp farm fresh natural yoghurt


(1) Prepare the slow cooker pot by sterilising it through pouring in hot boiling water till almost full. Let it soak for at least 10 minutes. Once done, remove the water and wipe dry. Put the slow cooker back to its position and on the switch to preheat.

(2) Prepare a glass container (for storing the yoghurt) by sterilising it with hot boiling water. Once done, put on dish rack and let it drip dry.

(3) Using a saucepan, heat up fresh milk to between 85C to 100C. The top should look slightly foamy and the milk turn slightly thicker. Remove if there is any skin form on top, using a spatula.

(4) Once done, remove from heat and slightly emerge the sauce pan onto a patch of cold water. (Tap water would do). Let the temperature comes down to 45C. You can use your pinkie to test it - if you feel you can tolerate the heat comfortably and it is not burning hot, it is the right temperature.

(5) Put side by side a glass bowl and the preheated slow cooker pot. Pour half of the milk or slightly less in the glass bowl and the remaining into slow cooker pot. (Do it slowly so that it wont be bubbly).

(6) Add yoghurt starter into the glass bowl and stir to mix till the starter dissolve totally. Once done, pour this mixture into the slow cooker pot filled with milk earlier. (Do it slowly) Lightly stir, and remove bubbles on top, using a spatula if any. Cover the pot with its lid.

(7) Put back the slow cooker pot back to its position, this time turn off the switch. Wrap the slow cooker pot from top with a thick kitchen towel.

(8) Let the mixture incubate for 10 hours.

(9) Once done, transfer the yoghurt into the glass jar prepared earlier and put in freezer for 1 hour or in fridge for 3 hours, for it to set nicely.

(10) Enjoy the homemade yoghurt up to 14 days. Meanwhile, it is good to keep around 1/2 of the homemade yoghurt to be used as yoghurt starter for the next batch. It can be freezed or chilled.

Results: After the first attempt making yoghurt from scratch, i was determined to make it again, but not with thermos, I had the idea of using slow cooker pot after i saw someone doing it using crock pot from the internet. I was not sure if it would work, but after trying it out, it was actually better than using thermos. First, it is much easier to scope out due to the size and secondly is the insulation in slow cooker is much better after preheated it. I am also a bit skeptical of using stainless steel with yoghurt staying in for so long - i am not sure if there would be 'chemical reaction', thus this is definitely a better option - without having to buy a yoghurt maker. The only thing is i need to sterilise the pot to ensure it is clean and without smell from my other cooking (soup and dessert esp.)

On another note, the result may also be due to the amount of starter which i added more this time. For the previous attempt, i find that the texture was too runny, thus i thought of adding 1 tsp more to make it thicker. Thus, i may try reducing it back to 1 Tbsp using slow cooker pot so that i can compare apple to apple, next time.

Overall, i am quite satisfied with the outcome.