Back in October I made yogurt in my crock pot. (I got the idea from Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking.)
I didn’t realize it had been OCTOBER, y’all – good grief. Five whole months. I’m following the same basic recipe as before, but I’ve added in a big box of raspberry and a small box of lemon jello, and used two teaspoons of multidophilus powder (NOT an affiliate link – I’m not allowed to be an Amazon Affiliate since I live in NC.)
So why did I decide to add jello? The thought occurred as I was debating another rainbow jello excursion. Yogurt manufacturers use gelatin to help their product thicken and set up, why shouldn’t I try the very same thing with my homemade yogurt? That way I get my yogurt to thicken a bit more AND flavoring agents as well.
My main goal is to make something the boys will eat that won’t bust my budget. Their favorite yogurt tubes are a berry/lemon combination, so I decided to give it a shot. 1/2 gallon of milk costs slightly less than an entire box of those tubes (and they’ll eat an entire box in a day if I let them) so either way I think it’s win/win.
Providing they actually EAT the stuff.
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Yeaaaaah, guesswhut?
Yogurt failure.
You read the stuff above the tilde line and you think I’ve got it together, right?
You’d be sooooo wrong.
Let’s dissect this thing, shallwe?
Problem numero uno: I poured the milk into the crockpot at 10:30pm. According to the crockpot recipe, I’m supposed to leave the milk on low for 3 hours, then pitch it, then cover it and let it sit for 7-8 hours.
You know I fell asleep on the sofa, right? Of COURSE I fell asleep on the sofa. I worked Sunday and then picked the kids up, came home and cooked dinner, did laundry and scrubbed my bathroom.
So I turned the crockpot off and unplugged it as I was going to bed. Set the alarm on my phone, thinking that I’d get out of bed and pitch it, then wrap it back up and go back to sleep.
And turned off the alarm in my sleep.
I finally woke up 1 1/2 hours later than I’d planned to when the dogs started barking at the sleepy-eyed little boy making his way from his room to mine for wake-up cuddles.
The milk was 90 degrees. It’s supposed to be 110. What’s a half-asleep mama supposed to do?
Turn the crockpot on high, of course. Turn it on high, make a cup of coffee, unload and load the dishwasher, clear the table, make breakfast, fold the load of kitchen towels, find my book and go back to bed. And lose track of time.
When I finally made my way into the kitchen, the first thing I did was turn the crockpot off and unplug it again. I stirred the milk with the thermometer only to blink stupidly as the needle JUMPED past the 150 mark and kept going until it got to 200 degrees.
Whups.
I dumped the ice-maker bin into the sink (then realized I didn’t put the plug in) and poured the milk into a gallon jug to cool it down. Pulled the crock out of the pot and scrubbed the milk-crust off while waiting for the milk’s temp to drop. And turned the crockpot on low so the crock would be warm for the milk.
I should have pitched the jello packets in while it was still insanely hot – it would’ve helped the jello to melt.
Once the milk’s temp got down to 110, I poured it back in the now-clean (and cool) crock, pitched in the multidophilus and jello and whisked it in, then put the lid back on. As I turned the crockpot switch to “off”, I realized that I’d never plugged it back in – so the crock never warmed up.
I wrapped the whole thing in towels and let it sit for the required 8 hours. When I finally opened the lid, I had a deliciously-flavored pot full of room-temperature milk with a weird crust on the bottom.