Making Yoghurt in a Slow Cooker (Dairy or Coconut!)

I love making yoghurt from scratch - it’s incredibly economical, making it a great way to reduce your weekly grocery bill and also opt for organic ingredients, and it also means I know exactly what’s in my yoghurt (and more importantly, what isn’t!). There are so many different slow cooker recipes available for both cow’s milk yoghurt and coconut yoghurt, but frankly I find their results pretty hit and miss. My recipes are work-every-time reliable - promise!

First, make up your yoghurt mixture - either our dairy-free coconut yoghurt in Modern Slow Cooker (page 171, steps 1 - 3) or our super-thick cow’s milk yoghurt also in Modern Slow Cooker (page 177, steps 1). Both recipes can easily be scaled up (follow the exact same method with double the ingredients). Additionally, the coconut yoghurt uses our secret ingredient kuzu (available from us here!) - this makes our yoghurt thick and creamy every single time, and is also incredibly good for gut heath (double win!).

Individual Pot-Set Yoghurt:

Pour your yoghurt mixture into glass pots with lids (these are the ones we use). For the coconut yoghurt you’ll need 3 jars (or 6 for a double batch!) and for the cows milk recipe you’ll need 7 jars.
Snap lids firmly onto glass pots and arrange in 6.5L slow cooker. Fill slow cooker with water until the jars are two thirds submerged. Follow the steps as per the recipes in the book, but basically you’re leaving the jars to incubate in a warm environment for 24 hours.
Once incubated, transfer glass pots to fridge for minimum 24 hours - yoghurt will continue to thicken as it cools. Enjoy! At this stage you can top with a fruit coulis to flavour (simply cook down fruit and a little sweetener until soft).

Single Big Batch:

Pour your yoghurt mixture into a pudding basin with a lid - if you’re making a single batch of either recipe you can use a 1L pudding basin (like this one), or if you want to make a double batch (go you!) use a 2L pudding basin (like this one). Alternatively, if you’ve got a glass food storage container with a lockable lid big enough to hold your yoghurt mixture but small enough to fit in your slow cooker, you can use that also. 500ml glass jars are also a handy option - depending on the amount of yoghurt you’re making you might need multiple.
Place in 6.5L slow cooker and fill with water until the pudding basin / glass container / jars are two thirds submerged. Follow the steps as per the recipes in the book, but basically you’re leaving the jars to incubate in a warm environment for 24 hours.
Once incubated, transfer glass pots to fridge for minimum 24 hours - yoghurt will continue to thicken as it cools. Enjoy! At this stage you can top with a fruit coulis to flavour (simply cook down fruit and a little sweetener until soft).