Thick and Creamy Homemade Yogurt

Ingredients:

1qt milk (this recipe works well with 1%, 2% or whole milk)

1/2c powdered milk

2T plain yogurt (with live cultures)

Directions:

Pour a quart of milk and 1/2c powdered milk into a heavy bottom saucepan. Lately, I've had lots of success with my cast iron dutch oven. I can do everything all in one pot, less to clean up afterward.

Heat milk over medium-low heat until it reaches 180 F degrees, stirring constantly to avoid burning the milk on the bottom of your pan. Remove from heat and cool to 110-115 F degrees 

Scoop out about 1/2 cup of the warmed milk and in a Pyrex or bowl and add 2T room temp plain yogurt (any plain yogurt will do, Greek yogurt makes for a wonderful yogurt. Make sure your yogurt culture has plenty of active live cultures in it for optimal results). Whisk together, add the yogurt milk mixture to the warmed milk in the saucepan and whisk thoroughly. 

Pour mixture into a quart sized Mason jar, cover tightly then place the jar in a warmed crock (I let mine heat up on low for about 30min, then unplugged it). The crock will have to be sealed to keep the heat in, so if you have a shorter crock, you may have to lay your mason jar horizontally.

Wrap the crock with a thick towel and a fleece blanket to keep it warm OR if you are heating your milk in a cast iron dutch oven, you can mix everything in the dutch oven, wrap it and leave it to culture OR if you have a large enough food dehydrator you could place your mason jar directly into the dehydrator and set the temperature at around 105 F.  Let yogurt sit bundled up in blankets overnight (or for 8-10hrs, the longer it sits the more tart it is, I've made it in as little as 7hrs and it's very mild but still thick).Unbundle your yogurt after it's done culturing, store in the fridge.

 Add sweeteners, flavors, jams (strawberry rhubarb jam swirled in is wonderful), granola upon eating! Bon Appetit!