Delicious Homemade Crockpot Yogurt is a great way to enjoy your favorite breakfast without spending a lot of money. You can easily make a huge batch of yogurt with four simple ingredients.
I realize you can run to your local grocery store and pick up yogurt, BUT making your own tastes even better and richer.
I’m super excited to share my version of homemade yogurt with you.
👩🍳 Why This Recipe Works
Cheap – You can make this by only spending a few dollars and will end up with four servings.
Delicious – The reason why I enjoy making my own yogurt is that it tastes a lot better than commercially prepared varieties. Try it, and you’ll see.
Customizable – Easily add in all your favorites before serving. Chocolate chips, fruit, or a little maple syrup are all tasty options.
🥛 Ingredients
If you’ve never made this at home before, you’re in for a real treat. We’ve already talked about the fact that it saves you money, but it also tastes fantastic. Let’s talk about the main ingredients you’re going to need to make your own.
Milk: Your choice in milk determines how silky smooth the end product tastes. It will turn out extra creamy if you use full-fat milk.
Sugar: You don’t need a ton of sugar, just a little bit to sweeten it up. Use your favorite sugar substitute or even honey.
Yogurt: To properly make yogurt, you do need to have at least an 8 oz yogurt starter. Any brand or variety of yogurt that you like will work perfectly for this.
Vanilla: A teaspoon of vanilla extract will make this yogurt extra yummy!
💰 Cost Breakdown:
½ Gallon of Whole Milk: $1.95
Yogurt Starter (a small container of store brand yogurt): $0.59
Sugar: $0.12
Vanilla: $0.06
Total First-time Cost: $2.72 for 48 ounces of yogurt.
Notes:
- The total cost goes down to $2.13 after the first time since I can use the homemade yogurt as the yogurt starter.
- Your cost may be lower. A gallon of milk costs about $4 in my area – so ½ gallon is a little under $2.
🥛 Instructions
Step One: Pour the milk into the slow cooker, turn it on low, add the lid and let it heat for two hours.
Step Two: After the two hours is over, turn turn the crock pot off and unplug it. Leave the lid on and it let cool for two hours.
Step Three: Pour the yogurt starter in small bowl. Stir in vanilla extract and sweetener of choice. Ladle ½ cup of warm milk into the bowl. Stir gently until combined.
Step Four: Pour this mixture into the crockpot and combine using a gentle back and forth motion with the spoon or spatula to incorporate it into the milk. Replace the lid. Leave the crockpot turned off and wrap it with a towel to insulate it more. Let it sit for 12 to 18 hours. This will give the bacteria in the starter a chance to work.
Step Three: Line a colander with coffee filters and place it over large bowl to catch the whey that will drain from the yogurt. Pour yogurt from the slow cooker into the colander, and transfer colander and bowl to the fridge for six hours. The yogurt with thicken as the whey drains.
Step Four: Remove this from the refrigerator and scoop into small sealable containers and serve!
📌 Expert Tips
- Allow the yogurt to drain for at least 12-18 hours. If you rush it, the consistency just won’t be what you expected.
- Using whole milk gives the yogurt a creamier texture. Plus, it will be thicker and have a higher fat content.
- As the yogurt cools in the fridge, you will notice it begins to thicken. This is what is supposed to happen, so don’t be alarmed.
- Reader tip: Add a pack of unflavored gelatin for a much thicker consistency
- Reader tip: Add ½ cup of dried milk to the starter mix for a thicker yogurt
- If you’d like to, save the whey for other purposes, like adding into homemade smoothie packs!
- Save ½ cup of prepared yogurt to use as the starter in your next batch.
- Use the yogurt to serve as a base for a dressing, dip or a marinade. Leave out the sweeteners and vanilla. This allows you to get double the use out of your batch! However, you will have to sweeten to taste when serving.
- If the yogurt doesn’t thicken enough, allow it to drain longer. The more whey that is removed, the thicker the consistency will be.
Recipe FAQs
Equivalent amount of store-bought yogurt (1 ½ 32-oz containers): $3.43
Homemade first-time cost: $2.72
Homemade cost after first time: $2.13
After the first batch, your savings are $1.30 per batch.
If you go through one batch of yogurt per week, you’ll save $67.60 per year.
Yep! It’s a must if you want the yogurt to turn out. You can buy a store-bought container of yogurt or save some back from a batch you recently made. Either way, it’s important to use a starter.
Most of the time, homemade yogurt is going to last around two weeks in the fridge. Keep it airtight in plastic or glass containers with a tight-fitting lid.
You can use milk with a lower fat content, however, your yogurt may not be as thick.
You can use this recipe to make Greek style. You’ll need to use a cheesecloth instead of coffee filters when draining, and you’ll have to let it drain longer, probably overnight, which turns this into a 2-day-ish process (hence why I don’t take that route very often!)
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How to Make Yogurt in the Crockpot
Ingredients
- ½ gallon Milk whole
- ⅛ cup Sugar
- 1 8 oz Yogurt unflavored, single serve to use as a yogurt starter
- 1 tbs p Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Turn crockpot on low and pour in milk. Cover with the lid and let it heat up for two hours.
- After the two hours is up , turn crock pot off and unplug it. Leave the lid on and let it cool for two hours.
- Pour the yogurt starter in small bowl. Stir in vanilla extract and sweetener of choice. Ladle ½ cup of warm milk into that bowl and stir gently until combined.
- Pour this mixture into the remaining milk in the crockpot and combine using a gentle back and forth motion with the spoon or spatula to incorporate it into the milk. Replace the lid. Leave crockpot off and wrap with a towel to insulate it. Let it sit overnight, for 12 to 18 hours.
- Line colander with coffee filters and place it over large bowl to catch the whey that will drain from the yogurt. Pour yogurt into the colander, and transfer colander and bowl to fridge for six hours. The yogurt with thicken as the whey drains.
Notes
Nutrition
I have been making crockpot yogurt for a few years always with success – I use any plain yogurt for starter and often with skim milk. This morning my yogurt is runny. Can I salvage it?
Oh I need to try this! My family loves yogurt and I spend a small fortune on it. I’ve considered buying a yogurt maker but I already have a big crock pot. Have you ever tried it using liners? 🙂
Can you freeze the homemade yougurt?
I’m not totally sure since I don’t think I’ve tried it myself. But if you’ve successfully frozen store-bought yogurt before, I think it’d work similarly with this recipe!
What kinds of things can you use to flavor the yogurt?
Jam, jellies and lightly mashed fresh fruit are some of my favorite ways to flavor the yogurt. 🙂
I have used sugar, maple extract and chopped walnuts. I thought it was wonderful. In my next batch I plan to used granulated maple sugar instead of the sugar and extract.
Can I replace cashew milk for the whole milk? My daughter is lactose intolerant! Thanks! Erin 🙂
Thanks for sharing. I haven’t been putting sugar in before. But after reading your recipe, I added the sugar and made sure my yogurt stood to room temp and added some of the cooled,heated milk to yogurt first… Wow was my yogurt thick and smooth and yummy.
Yay! So glad to hear it worked out for you!
I’m curious, do any of you know if I could use the dairy kefir I make on place of the yogurt starter? Since they are pretty similar I imagine it would be ok. But I would really hate to waste both the milk and the kefir. ….thanks for any responses in advance!
You can make Greek yogurt with the coffee filters as I do. It turns out every time. It’s so easy, and if it ever gets too thick just add some of the drained reserved whey. Just relax if it doesn’t turn out the first-time you can do it again, you sure don’t have a lot of time or money invested. Oh and the thickeners, the powdered milk makes the yogurt creamy and adds more protein. As for anything else look very close as to the ingredients in THAT product before you add it to your healthy gut pleasing food. A food that our children will be eating. But that’s just my feelings. Enjoy your yummy yogurt. 🙂
Can I use almond milk or coconut milk with this recipe?
How long does this keep in the fridge? Thanks!
I was wondering where you get or what brand is the first starter ? I am anxious to try this recipe…I know yogurt helps when you take antibiotics, to restore your good bugs..
Hey Lillie, I’m not brand specific for the starter. I just typically buy the store brand single serve yogurt.
Just make sure it has active cultures int it
My comment above has missing letter errors in it. I am sorry for that. My computer has been locking up today and skipping letters as I type. have been trying to catch all. Of to reboot for the day. Linda
Have been making yogurt in my crockpot for the past several years. It is the best way ever made it. I’ve had 6 up yogurt machines, made it stove top, also. With the crock, you can make as much you like. This year, I plan to experiment with other milks and flavorings. Plus make yogurt cheese. You cannot go wrong with this recipe!
Hi, Jazmin, I’m looking forward to trying this out. I’m just wondering, though, how important the vanilla is. I’m definitely going to add sweetener when I do this, but I’m just curious about whether the vanilla’s important for the yogurt. Is that just to make it vanilla flavoured? If so, can I put in different flavours? I’m not partial to vanilla yogurt, although I do like some other vanilla things. 🙂
You can totally skip the vanilla, Michelle! That’s just for flavor. I sometimes leave out the vanilla altogether if I’m going to be cooking with the yogurt so I can season it according to how I’ll be using it that week.
I have got to try this because I had no idea that you could make yogurt at home! We go through yogurt like crazy so this would save us a ton of money!
It’s super simple and I worked out that it saves us about $1.30 per batch. Hope you try it out!