Easy Healthy Homemade Yogurt

Here is a recipe that is super easy and is super healthy for you and your family, Homemade Yogurt! Yes, it is so easy to buy yogurt, but the problem with commercially produced yogurt is that the fermentation period is so short, usually less than an hour. For yogurt to be truly beneficial, a longer fermentation is needed. This recipe uses a crock pot to let the yogurt ferment and grow all those healthy probiotic cultures.

Homemade Yogurt
8 cups organic or raw milk (I use 1%, but you can use whole or skim)
4 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt as starter (once you've made yogurt, you can keep this amount of your homemade yogurt for the next batch as your starter)
A slow cooker/crock pot

1. Pour milk into a pot and heat on the stovetop until temperature reaches 185 degrees F. You can use a kitchen thermometer if you have one, but if you don't, the milk will be slightly bubbly and frothy but not boiling.
2. Let milk cool down until it reaches about 100-110 degrees F. Again use the thermometer, the milk will be warm to the touch.This takes about 8-10 minutes. While milk is cooling, turn your crock pot to low.
3. Add the plain Greek yogurt to your crock pot and stir in 1 cup of the cooled milk. When it is completely mixed in, add the rest of the milk from the pot. Stir.
4. Put the lid on the crock pot. Turn off the crock pot. Cover with a thick towel and leave at room temperature for at least 8 hours. You can leave the yogurt to ferment for up to 24 hours.
5. When time is up, set crock pot in refrigerator for a few hours to help the yogurt set. (Do NOT stir! It's important for the yogurt to not be disturbed for this time so it will properly set.)

A yummy berry, pineapple, yogurt smoothie!

The yogurt will keep in the fridge for up to 14 days. You can stir in honey or agave to sweeten and it's delicious with fresh or frozen fruit and in smoothies! You can try different kinds of milk or half and half to find the consistency that you like. And you can strain the yogurt through cheesecloth to make a thick Greek style or yogurt cheese!

Enjoy!
Angela from Windy City Knits

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Meet the Artist ~ Sharon Pacheco of HoneyTeaThyme

Interviewed by JeannieRichard

Who doesn't LOVE honey?! :D

If you don't, its high time you do yourself a favor of ingesting some pure wholesome honey
handmade by Sharon Pacheco of Honey Tea Thyme!

Be amazed by the wonders of what honey can do for you, even by applying on your wounds - I was truly amazed myself and thrilled to have opened a new door of holistic and natural healing remedy.

Let's get on with it and find out what honey can do for us, especially Sharon's flavored honeysssss....
I am going to get some for my family!

❤

ISG: Describe yourself in under 50 words.
Sharon: I am a very fair minded individual. I love my family and am devoted to them. I look for truth in everything that I come across. I love nature and gardening and being a mom.

ISG: You've been working with honey for 25 years, how did you chance upon the wonders of honey?
Sharon: In 1994 our family aquired 3 beehives and we went to work setting them up and producing our own honey. Since that time I have been facinated by the amount of work it takes the bees to create honey. I have given it to my children whenever they were sick and watched them overcome colds and flu and coughs quickly.

ISG: Tell us more about the wonders of honey!
Sharon: My little boy who was about 6 at the time, got burned by hot butter all over his chin and neck. I lived 20 miles away from town and a doctor, and I had no car at the time. I put raw honey on it because I had read that honey helped heal burns from the inside out. I had him lay down and left the honey on for 20 min. Even though the skin on his neck had bubbled up, he healed up quickly without tenderness. He carries no scars from this experience. From that day on I have been amazed and enthralled with a product that cannot be duplicated, one given to us by God for the benefit and health of mankind.

ISG: Are you usually inspired, or do you research, or do both to come up with new honey flavors?
Sharon: I usually am inspired to make a new flavor I have been pondering about for a while. When I think I've got it right, I invite my family over to test it out.

ISG: How has honey consumption improved your life?
Sharon: I rarely get a sickness of any kind. It has been years since I have been to the doctor or taken one of my children because of the use of honey in so many remedies heals us from our ills.

ISG: Do you personally use your own honey before making them available for sale?
Sharon: We use all our own honeys before making them available. My husband and children each have favorites. We are currently working on an organic ginger flavor we hope to have ready soon.

ISG: Besides working with honey, what other endeavors do you engage in?
Sharon: I love to garden and grow as much of our own 'free from chemical' food as our climate and greenhouse will allow. I like to make my own salves, we have our Muscle Salve available on our Etsy shop. I love to make salsa and no sugar jams and jellies. I love to sew and quilt and spend time with my family.

ISG: Any advice to honey maker enthusiasts out there? ;D
Sharon: Make sure you know where your honey comes from, its always best to buy raw honey and be careful not to heat it over 100 degrees, as this will destroy the wonderful enzymes the bees took so much time to put there.

ISG: If you were given two wishes to make, what would you wish for?
Sharon: I wish I had been able to know my great grandmother, she was known as Dr. Annie, and when people got ill with something beyond their knowledge, they would take them to Grandma Annies and she would heal them from all sorts of illness, I wish I knew what she knew, I wish the knowledge had not been lost. I wish to have more freedoms in the choices of health care.

ISG: Life is an unbounded journey of surprises of both bitter and sweet, what is the one saying that keeps you going that you would love to share with us?
Sharon: Miracles happen to those who believe!

❤
~ Honey Tea Thyme supports a healthy environment
by using 100% handmade and recycled labels. ~

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V I S I T
Honey Tea Thyme Online Shop
Honey Tea Thyme Official Website


F O L L O W
FaceBook 
Behance Network


G I V E A WA Y
YES! A chance to get some of those honey ~ enter now!
❤

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