Homemade Greek Yogurt

Our family goes through a lot of yogurt. We always buy plain Greek yogurt because there are so many recipes I use it in besides just eating it. We use it in smoothies, popsicles, as a sour cream replacement for Mexican dishes, on baked potatoes, instead of milk with granola, and a variety of other ways. It gets to be kind of pricey when I am paying $6-7 for a container with 4 cups. My mom started making Greek yogurt and recently enlightened me that she makes a gallon at a time for a minimal cost. I priced it out and when I made this recipe, it made 1 1/4 gallons of yogurt and it cost me $6.71!!! I can make 4 times the amount of yogurt for the cost to buy it at the store. Awesome! My yogurt problems are solved! And the best part is, that the hands on time for this recipe is about 15 minutes! I made my yogurt in pints and it made 10 pints.

To start you will need the following ingredients:

1 gallon milk
3 cups powdered milk
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Greek Yogurt
Food Thermometer

Pour your milk into a large stockpot. Add 3 cups of powdered milk.

Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently. Heat up to 180 degrees F. Measure using a food thermometer.

Once it has reached 180 degrees F, turn the heat off and cool to 120 degrees F.

Next step is to add the Greek yogurt. Measure in a separate bowl and add some of your heated liquid into the bowl. Continue to add liquid until the cold yogurt is heated to room temperature. Add the mixture to your stockpot. Stir until well combined with a whisk. Then pour into your containers. Put the lids on the containers.

Place on a tray in an unheated oven. Put a towel over your containers and turn the light in the oven on. This will help to keep heat in your oven. Leave the yogurt in the oven for 4-8 hours. The longer you leave it, the more tart it will get. I left mine in the oven for about 5 hours.