Homemade Yogurt

I've been wanting to try this for years. And yesterday we finally did it. We made yogurt at home! We did it in the mini crock pot. Well, first I scalded the milk on the stove then I added the starter and poured it all into the preheated crock pot. I had a little instant-read thermometer tucked in there since I wasn't sure how warm the pot would get. As it turns out, it gets pretty hot. I left it off most of the time, just turning it on occasionally when it looked like it was starting to cool off. Eight hours later we had yummy fresh yogurt! The flavor is really nice. And it is about the right thickness. My only complaint is that it's not perfectly smooth. It has very, very tiny soft curds. I don't know if that means I left it too long or not long enough. Or maybe the temperature wasn't quite right. Still, for a first try I thought it turned out great. And so did the girls. Matt, on the other hand, refused to try it until he was sure it was safe. He said he was going to wait a couple of days to see if anything happened to us. I guess my microbiology talk during the yogurt making freaked him out a bit. Ooops!

Here is C about to enjoy her third(?) bowl. We topped it with some homemade strawberry syrup from last year's strawberry picking. Although she did say it was good enough to eat plain.

We are almost finished with this first quart. I have just about enough to start another batch. I guess I know one thing I'll be doing tomorrow.