I Made Yogurt!

Yes, I did! I made yogurt in my crockpot. My slow cooker has never been a great friend to me because it seems there are so few meals our family enjoys out of the crockpot. For the yogurt I used the method on A Year of Slow Cooking blog. I followed it exactly even though my crockpot is seven quarts (crazy big) and she did hers in a 3-qt. I was checking it at 11:30pm, at the end of the 8 hour final wait, and was pleasantly surprised by a creamy, mild tasting yogurt. I knew I would want it thicker so I strained it through coffee filters in colanders in the fridge overnight. This morning I had a nice thick yogurt, but half the amount. I am going to save some of the whey for some recipes in my Is Your Flour Wet? book. I am excited about this triumph because I actually like this yogurt better than the tangy store-bought yogurt. Today I bought some cheesecloth to properly strain the next batch.

So thick on the back of the spoon!

This morning I mixed a little organic strawberry preserves and some honey into it and it was so delicious! For the boys I even threw in some fresh strawberries. Along with our yogurt we enjoyed Whole Wheat Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones. The recipe is actually for blueberries, but we had strawberries. I brushed the tops of the scones with a little milk and sprinkled some demerara crystals on for looks. We found the scones to be a little under sweetened, but I don't know if that is because the over sweetness we are used to in almost everything we eat from the store, or because it really needed a little more sugar. I think this recipe looks great and hope to try it another day. Speaking of sugar, this morning I drank my coffee with just half n half and no sugar, and I liked it! That is something for me. I went from those terrible-for-you flavored creamers to half n' half and a bunch of sugar, and now...no sugar! Yay me. Now if I can just make it stick...

My whole wheat bread came out okay yesterday. The risen loaves actually looked better than the baked loaves. They tasted good, but the texture wasn't right for sandwiches. I'm hoping to find a veteran bread maker to mentor me into the perfect loaf of bread.

I also made some whole wheat chocolate chip cookies this week. They were actually really good. I'm trying this recipe next. I went to Whole Foods today and bought some Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and some Spelt--new adventures!