Years ago my sister and I each bought yogurt makers and made our own yogurt with raw milk. It was good but since my yogurt maker died I've been buying it ready made. I like the variety of flavours available but am finding them all too sweet. That led me to buying plain, unsweetened from the health food store at a cost of about $4.00 a litre.

After a little research I found out that it can be made without a yogurt maker if you have a heating pad. I had heard before that you could make it in a thermos or in the oven but my oven doesn't go low enough (lowest setting is 150 degrees) and I don't have a big, wide mouth thermos.

The heating pad worked great! I put the pint sized jars onto the heated pad, folded the pad over the top and covered the whole thing up with a heavy towel. In 4 hours it was ready. It may have been ready even sooner but I forgot about it so it might only take 3 this way.

It turned out very nice, thick and tasty, not too tart and definitely not too sweet! And all it needs is a bit of jam or fruit for flavour and there you have it. Very inexpensive with a litre of milk costing around $1.00!

To learn more about yogurt making at home check out these links:

http://chetday.com/howtomakeyogurt.htm

http://rubyglen.com/kitchen/yogurt.htm

Blessings, Joy