Crunchier and Crunchier

Yes, I’ve had so much time on my hands this summer I’ve decided to make my own Greek Yogurt. No, I am not serious. I did learn to make Greek yogurt, but not to fill up my spare time.  It’s purely financial, people!  To say the hooligans love Greek yogurt would be an understatement. They devour it as if they were born in Athens. Actually, now that I think about it, they love anything Greek…except lamb.

But, as usual, I digress.  I grew weary of paying over a dollar for a single-serving of yogurt, and, of course, they don’t all want vanilla so I can’t buy a large container, not that they are much less expensive anyway. I do love the convenience of individual servings in the frig, so they can come in from playing and have a protein-packed snack.

I’ve made yogurt before, using my crockpot, and it’s very simple.  But that was not GREEK yogurt, and was a little too runny for our tastes.  I’m not sure why it’s Greek yogurt just by the addition of a draining step at the end, but there you have it.  The internet gurus have spoken. I am curious about the nutrition information, and how it stacks up to purchased yogurt, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

 I followed this method, from One Good Thing by Jillee.  She always has great ideas for household stuff

There are tons of recipes out there, but basically you just pour milk into your crockpot, heat it on low for a few hours, let it cool a bit, and stir in some plain yogurt (for the active cultures…you can use your own, once you’ve made a batch).  Wrap the crock up in a towel and let it sit overnight in the oven, and it’s magically thickened. Don’t think about why that happens.  Lastly, you drain it for several hours and end up with delicious plain yogurt, ready for flavoring or using in place of sour cream.

This process did take almost 24 hours from start to finish, but I wound up with 12 cups of yogurt from one gallon of whole milk.  That’s SIXTEEN 6-ounce servings for about $6…and that was using organic milk.  Individually I would have spent nearly $20.  Of course, I still have to flavor it, but that doesn’t up the cost all that much, since I would be adding fresh fruit anyway to storebought yogurt.

The hooligans pronounced it delicious, so I’ll definitely plan to keep making it.  Now I just need to find small containers to store it in, so they’ll continue to snack on it.  I can flavor individual portions with applesauce, jam, honey, or fruit.  I think I may make some lime curd to stir in…Key Lime is my favorite and I think that might recreate it at home.

If you want to make these EXACT yummy parfaits(meaning not with storebought granola), I use this granola recipe from Rachel Ray.  It’s fun to make with kids, if you’re looking to spend a little time in the kitchen together.

To make the parfaits, I layered a little yogurt, drizzled with honey, some raspberries, some granola, then repeated.  I added a little extra drizzle of honey on top, so you could see a prettier picture. It’s really all about you.

Enjoy!