Learning how to make Greek yogurt has changed my life! Packed with protein and calcium, homemade Greek yogurt is creamy, delicious and so easy to make. Eat it plain or customize it with your favorite fruit and a touch of honey for a healthy breakfast or a satisfying snack.
If you’re wondering how to make Greek yogurt, I’ve got a secret to tell you: IT’S EASY!
It takes awhile from start to finish, but most of the time consists of the ingredients sitting there, turning itself into yogurt. Yes, you read that correctly. The ingredients do most of the heavy lifting. Your actual hands-on work is minimal.
This homemade yogurt is made by mixing milk with a little bit of yogurt. Then, the magic begins. With enough time and patience, you end up with MORE YOGURT!
And here’s the really cool part: Your homemade Greek yogurt is about half the price of the store-bought kind. If you’re someone who likes to start each day with a yummy bowl of yogurt, you’re going to save some serious moolah by making it yourself.
You don’t need super-fancy kitchen gear to make your own Greek yogurt, but I strongly recommend 2 items:
- An instant read thermometer (Less than $15 on Amazon)
- Cheesecloth (Less than $5 on Amazon)
The thermometer lets you know when your milk has cooled to the precise temperature while cooking. The cheesecloth is for straining your yogurt, turning it from regular to Greek!
WHAT IS GREEK YOGURT?
If you hadn’t noticed, Greek yogurt has been on a mission to conquer the galaxy. Or at least the dairy aisle. Seriously, you can’t swing a bag of oranges in a grocery store without hitting it. But what is it, exactly?
Greek yogurt is like concentrated yogurt. It’s yogurt with a higher milk content, but with much of the water strained out. The result is a thicker and more tangy yogurt. It is lower in carbs, sugar, and sodium, and higher in protein than regular yogurt.
INGREDIENTS – WHAT YOU NEED
All you need to make yogurt is milk (1%, 2%, nonfat, or whole) and some “starter” yogurt to provide the active cultures. Add some fruit and honey to customize the flavor. Ligonberry peach? Why not! Pineapple passion fruit? Go for it!
HOW TO MAKE GREEK YOGURT – Step by Step
Pour gallon of milk into a large pot (Reserve 1/4 cup of milk for later). Bring the pot just to a boil, and then turn off the heat immediately.
Let milk cool until the temperature reaches 100 degrees. Remove the film on the top.
While milk cools off, mix 1/4 cup of plain yogurt and the reserved 1/4 cup milk in a separate bowl.
When the cooked milk finally cools to 100 degrees, add in the yogurt/milk mixture. Mix it up gently but thoroughly, then cover the pot with a lid. Wrap pot in a towel, and leave in your oven with the oven light on only for overnight or 16 hours. When the time is up, presto: you magically have yogurt!!!
You can stop right here and you have regular yogurt, or you can strain it further if you want Greek yogurt. Using a colander lined with cheesecloth or flour sack towel, start draining your yogurt. The goal is to separate the solid yogurt from the liquid. If it looks like a wet, white blob, you’re doing great.
Every few hours either gently squeeze the cheesecloth or use a spoon to stir the yogurt blob to help it to drain faster.
After about 6 hours you have nice, thick Greek yogurt. Opa!
Pour into Tupperware and chill and transfer to the fridge to chill. Enjoy plain, or with chopped fruit and honey.
It lasts in the fridge for about 2 weeks. If you’re using some of the yogurt as a starter for the next batch, make it within 1 week.
CAN I MAKE GREEK YOGURT FROM ALMOND MILK?
Not with this recipe. My recipe was created using cow milk. It might work with other animal milk, such as goat milk. It definitely won’t work with non-dairy milk. There are other recipes for almond, coconut, soy, etc. You’ll need to do a little research to find one you like.
CAN YOU FREEZE IT?
You can, however…
Heaven knows I love to freeze food. And while it’s possible to freeze Greek yogurt, I just can’t recommend it in good conscience. You won’t have any issues in terms food safety, but the final product will most likely have a different texture and mouth feel than you’re expecting. As an ingredient in Homemade Yogurt Pops or Healthy Popsicles, it freezes just fine. But as a stand-alone food item, it is just so much better when it’s enjoyed fresh.
(If you absolutely have to freeze your home made Greek yogurt, portion it into an ice cube tray, then pop out a few cubes as needed. No more than a couple of months in the freezer, however).
PRO TIPS/NOTES
When adding fruit to your yogurt, fresh or frozen each work well. Frozen fruit gives you more consistency with the flavor/ripeness (notice how sour frozen strawberries are always sweet?).
The size of the fruit pieces is up to you, but the fruit typically found in yogurt is chopped to about the size of raisins. I like to leave the yogurt plain, then add fruit and honey just before eating. This lets me enjoy different flavor combinations throughout the week, rather than 7 days in a row of raspberry yogurt.
Save some yogurt in Tupperware to use as the starter for the next time you make it. You’ll never have to buy store-bought yogurt again!
If the yogurt doesn’t end up with the right consistency you were hoping for, don’t throw it out! You can use it in dozens of easy recipes, like smoothies, sauces, or as a substitute for sour cream.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO WITH YOGURT?
- Make this Easy Spinach Artichoke Dip.
- Mix this satisfying Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie.
- Create this phenomenal Freezer Friendly Baked Tandoori Chicken.
- Make this No Guilt Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie.
- Bake these amazing Homemade Muffins.
If you make this recipe, I would love to see it! Snap a picture of it and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #happymoneysaver and tagging me @happymoneysaver.
Homemade Greek Yogurt
Ingredients
- 1 gallon milk any kind
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt Greek Gods plain yogurt brand is my favorite
- honey optional
- fresh fruit optional
Instructions
- Pour gallon of milk into a large pot (Reserve 1/4 cup of milk for later).
- Bring the pot just to a boil, and then turn off the heat immediately.
- Let milk cool until the temperature reaches 100 degrees. Remove the film on the top.
- While milk cools off, mix 1/4 cup of plain yogurt and the reserved 1/4 cup milk in a separate bowl.
- When the cooked milk finally cools to 100 degrees, add in the yogurt/milk mixture. Mix it up gently but thoroughly, then cover the pot with a lid.
- Wrap pot in a towel, and leave in your oven with the oven light on only for overnight or 16 hours. When the time is up, presto: you magically have yogurt!!!
- You can stop right here and you have regular yogurt, or you can strain it further if you want Greek yogurt. Using a colander-lined with cheesecloth or flour sack towel, start draining your yogurt. The goal is to separate the solid yogurt from the liquid. If it looks like a wet, white blob, you’re doing great.
- Every few hours either gently squeeze the cheesecloth or use a spoon to stir the yogurt blob to help it to drain faster.
- After about 6 hours you have nice, thick Greek yogurt. Opa!
- Pour into Tupperware and chill and transfer to the fridge to chill.
- Enjoy plain, or with chopped fruit and honey.
- Your homemade Greek yogurt lasts in the fridge for about 2 weeks. If you’re using some of the yogurt as a starter for the next batch, make it within 1 week.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was first posted Jan 24, 2013, but has been updated with new photos and better detailed instructions & tips on January 12th, 2021.
I have tried making yogurt in the oven with the light on but mine always turns out very thin, like kefir. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but suspect not enough heat. The Crockpot method looks promising. Have any of you tried incubating the mixture on the “warm” setting for the 6-8 hour stretch, or is that too much heat for too long? TIA
I have had good luck using an oven, and rather than using the oven light, I ran a small work/task light with a 100 watt incandescent bulb. The cord did not seem to get dangerously pinched by the oven door, as there was enough “give” in the door edging. It maintained a great temperature between 100 and 110 degrees F.
I haven’t yet tried making the strained greek yogurt, but I have made unstrained, “regular” yogurt using live-culture greek yogurt from the supermarket — one of my favorites is the “Noosa” brand. It is available in a “honey” flavor without any fruit on the bottom. I have also made kefir from both packaged, “Yougormet” brand starter and from Lifeway brand plain kefir as a starter. I found that I like the packaged starter results better.
Back to the yogurt — for a tangy-er flavor, let the culture work for 24 hours — the results will also be thicker.
I make yogurt in the crockpot because if I allow it to cool with the lid on, there is no layer that needs to be skimmed. One less step. 🙂
Recently I made yogurt from greek yogurt, and my family didn’t like the texture – it was lumpy. So I checked out the ingredients, and it included corn starch! I think the corn starch in the yogurt made the lumps and is a crazy marketing ploy for them to charge more for yogurt! Yikes!
Thanks for your blog!
Just found your website and LOVE the great instructions and helpful hints from everyone.
To make a very thick product to replace cream cheese in recipes, I use a coffee filter in a strainer placed over a bowl to catch the whey cover the entire thing with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for a day or two…depending on the amount of firmness you need. I have used the whey to marinate chicken breasts…very tender and juicy.
I came across your website via Stumble Upon and have found it very interesting. Good job.
I use Greek yogurt every morning to make a smoothie for breakfast, so I certainly will try this method. I use milk-based yogurt for my smoothie, but use almond milk as the smoothie base. Do you or one of your readers know if you can you make yogurt with almond milk?
Several years ago I was into making kefir when someone gave me a culture, but I never really liked the taste or consistancy.
I have heard you can use almond milk to make yogurt!
Thanks for the reply. I will give it a try and report back.
There is a specific culture for dairy free yogurt. Here is a link to a very good website…http://www.culturesforhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=dairy+free+starter
Good luck!
Hi Karrie! ~ I JUST FINISHED making my VERY FIRST batch of yogurt in my crockpot!!! It is WITH OUT A DOUBT THE BEST YOGURT THAT I HAVE EVER MADE OR EATEN!!! It was SO SIMPLE!
I took 1 gal of whole milk, poured it into the crockpot, set it at the highest setting and after about 1 – 1 1/2 hours I began checking the temp on it about every 15 – 20 mins. When it hit the desired 180 degrees I sat the ceramic pot in my kitchen sink filled with water about 1/3 of the way up the side. I did put in a little bit of ice to help facilitate the cooling process. (if you choose to do that, watch it VERY closely! At least closer than I did!) I took a cup of yogurt and set it out on the counter to warm UP TO room temp while waiting for the milk to cool down. I also dipped out 1 cup of the milk and sat it on the counter as well. When it got down to the 100 degree mark I mixed the cup of yogurt and cup of milk together with a whisk in a small bowl and then mixed it into the crock of cooled milk. Mixing the yogurt with a cup of milk made it easier to mix in with the main crock of milk and allowed me to be more gentle in the mixing. I remeasured the milk temp when I sat it back into the outer metal part of the crockpot and realized that the milk had cooled down quite a bit more than I realized it had as I had not taken it out of the water for one thing and secondly, I had not watched it as well as I should have and it got slightly cooler to begin with than it should have! (Moral is don’t get caught up with anything else, ie: huhhmmm… …watching a tv show …… instead of checking your temps!) So I turned the crockpot BACK ON to a medium temp setting and GENTLY stirred it while it warmed back up to between 100 and 110 degrees. I then unplugged it and covered it and wrapped it in two LARGE, HEAVY bath towels, let it set for about 8 hours and have the MOST BEAUTIFUL homemade yogurt I have EVER seen! And the taste is PHENOMENAL! It is currently sitting on the counter draining out its whey!
As to one of the questions raised above, the yogurt I used was the Wal-Mart brand of plain non-fat yogurt. We do actually carry the Greek Gods brand here where I live in Greensboro, NC, but frankly, on a VERY fixed limited disability income, I can’t afford the almost $4-$5 per quart of the plain yogurt. And the plain “flavor” doesn’t come in a smaller size package here that I can find. It may not be packaged in a smaller size anywhere in the plain, though the various flavors other than plain are packaged in individual size serving packages. I guess they figure no one would want/eat an individual plain size! (I can understand why they might think that)(but I do think its a little narrow minded).
Oh! Karrie! ONE more thing! I had a thought. Tell me if you can think of any reason why it WOULDN’T work! I’ve only had Greek yogurt once. It was a store bought brand (not Greek God’s) I recently tried it, knowing I was planning on making some soon. But frankly I didn’t care for it. It was sorely lacking! It was smooth, it was thick, but it left me very unsatisfied. But I haven’t been able to put my finger on why. So I don’t know if I’m going to feel differently about the homemade version or not. Hopefully I will. But here’s the thing. I realized this morning, while trying to decide whether to strain, or not to strain, that if I strained it, then decided that I really preferred it NOT strained. . . theoretically I should be able to gently mix some of the whey back in until I reached my desired consistency. . . correct? Or is there a fundamental “FLAW” in my plan that I am unaware of?
Karrie, THANK YOU SO MUCH for EVERYTHING that you share with us and the time you spend putting it all together even BEFORE putting it in the blog! I understand that you do receive some compensation, but regardless, ….. this is a BIG job to do all by ones self! Again, thank you! You do an exceptional job!
Shelly
p.s. I tried to give this a 5 star rating below, but it would only allow me to do a 4 star…. I don’t understand why, but just wanted to make sure that you knew, both for the technical purposes, but also because you deserve the 5th start! 😉
Shelly, thank you! I am so happy you like it…really made my day! I can’t think of a reason adding it back in would harm it but the consistency might change a little bit. Try it out and let me know what you think about how it turns out!
Hey Karrie, You’re VERY welcome! I did try it and have to say, the Greek yogurt is just a little to thick for my personnel preference. It’s almost like taking the whey out takes something away from the flavor for me. So I DID try adding some of the whey back in to thin it back out some (changing the consistency was actually the part of the point) but it worked perfectly, like I had never strained it out! I’ve made homemade yogurt before, but this was BY FAR the best. After thinking about it, I doubt it had anything to do with using the crockpot per se, but rather the fact that it was made using ALL MILK and NOT A POWDERED MILK BASE! The difference is PHENOMENAL!
Also, you might already be aware of this site, but just in case your not, I’m going to leave the url link for you:
http://cheeseandyogurtmaking.com/home-cheese-making-
kits.html
They sell just about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you need for making various different cheeses and yogurts at home. (including various different cultures for cheeses and yogurt, as well as animal and vegetable based rennet tablets) It’s a very interesting site. They even have a section with recipes and cheese making info. They also have a blog site that I really think you might enjoy!:
http://www.cheeseandyogurtmaking.com/blog/
HAPPY HOMESTEADING!
Thanks for the update, Shelly! 🙂
Thank you soooooo much. You saved me from buying store bought. Hence they are all filled with sugar , corn syrup. Thanks to you I can easily make this. And have my granola comfortable.
two thoughts – the texture that you do not have versus Greek Gods (which by the by is my favorite store bought Greek yogurt as well!) is probably because they add pectin. That may well be the difference in texture.
And they do, have the L. bulgarus (sp) as well as a few other cultures, so not sure that it has to be only L bulgaris to call it “Greek yogurt” ?
Have you ever had this yogurt result with a smokey taste? I did leave the yogurt in the oven with the light on for more like 18 hours. Do you think that extra time changed it? …Also my pan has a lot of burned milk on the bottom after cooking and most came off but some is still sticking. Do you think that I heated it too hot? Do you get a burned pan after making yogurt? Maybe that is where the smokey taste came from. Any suggestions on cleaning up after would be appreciated! Thanks again for your recipe. I will give it another shot for sure. I really would love to be making my own greek yogurt!
I have never had that happen before. Hopefully it was just a fluke. Try it again and see if it works better.
To clean up try using old dryer sheets! It works great on burned food! https://happymoneysaver.com/10-ways-reuse-dryer-sheets/
I am afraid of the chemicals in old dryer sheets. I just soak my pans in a strong baking soda solution with hot water overnight. Then use more baking soda on a scrubbee pad. It works well and is all natural
I love making Greek yogurt in the crockpot, im fourtunate enough to have a crockpot that has a probe thermometer. It almost takes 4L (1 gallon) of milk, and i add 2 cups milk powder. I just set it to 180 degrees and then it beeps at me, i uncover it, take it out and put it on the stove top and use a thermometer that came with and old espresso maker i had until it gets to about 110 then i add the yogurt, wrap in a towel and put in the oven overnight. In the morning i put it a colander lined with cheesecloth or a thin dishtowel over a bowl. Refridgerate for a few hours (i let it go all day when i went to work and it was a bit more like a wierd thin cheese! Oops! still tasted good). I love mine with honey, peanut butter and cinnamon and a handful of sliced almonds if we have some. I literally have it every day so it makes sense for me to make it. That and our town is often out of things like the brand i enjoy! So easy especially if like us, you use it in place of sour cream in dressings and dips. The thicker it is the less you notice its yogurt!
Hi Sarah! I know it’s been 6 months since you posted this, but I’m crossing my fingers that you’ll see it! 🙂
You mentioned that your crockpot has a probe thermometer . . . I would REALLY LOVE to know what brand/model of crockpot you have and where it can be purchased! My crockpot was part of my “hope chest” from high school and I love it but it’s over 30 years old! I graduated in 1981! :-0 (geez I’m feeling so old looking at that!) Anyway, now days the only crockpots that I can find have a dial that says, Low, Med, & Hi. Mine has a dial on it that has a temp setting similar to an electric fryer that plugs into the bottom side of the pot. I LOVE my crockpot, but it will eventually need to be replaced. And now that I have “realized” that I can make yogurt in it, . . . it will be MUCH sooner than later! You’re welcome to email me personally at shellyscorner at yahoo dot com. (I hope that’s okay Karrie! Not trying to break any rules, just trying to avoid being off topic so to speak in the comments!) Thanks so much for getting back with me! (to ANYONE who knows where a crockpot like this can be gotten and gets back with me!!!)
Hi there!
I would like to make your recipe but have a question first… When you heat the oven at 100 degrees, do you mean Fahrenheit or Celcius?
As you’re in the US I’m guessing it’s ºF but I better make sure before I start right 😉
Yes, you are right! It is Fahrenheit! 🙂
Dear Karrie and other readers. In this article/post is missing one extremely important detail. You can create homemade Greek yogurt ONLY IF YOU USE GREEK YOGURT for yeast (as Karrie did). Any other type of yogurt makes just plane dried yogurt. The real greek yogurt contains meanly Lactobacillus Bulgaricus which is bacterium strain from Balkan Peninsula (southern Europe). Here, in America into yogurt exists only Lactobacillus Acidophilus which gives different taste and texture.
Thank you for this bit of information. I was wondering if it needed to be specifically Greek yogurt as the starter. 🙂
I have heard that you need to use Greek yogurt as a starter to make Greek yogurt. I haven’t tried using a regular yogurt to make Greek yogurt before as I use my old batch of yogurt as a starter for the next batch. Try it out and let me know if it works!
According to the manual of my yogurt maker, you do not need to use Greek yogurt as starter to make Greek yogurt. That makes sense when you realize that Greek yogurt is basically conventional yogurt with its whey strained out.
Put another way, to make Greek yogurt you first have to make conventional yogurt, which means there can’t be fundamental differences between the bacteria needed for the two types of yogurts (though of course, not all yogurts have identical bacteria collections).
I think I might add a drop of vanilla in it, and see how that would taste. And adding fresh fruit would really make it special too. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, could I make this recipe in half? Would like to try today but am not going into town until tomorrow and don’t want to use up all my milk for my little lady. And can I use plain Greek yogurt as my starter?
I love making yogurt, I use the oven light method like you but in smaller batches. I add 1/2 cup of dry milk to make it thicker like greek yogurt, sometimes you just don’t feel like waiting for that last step. I also don’t use a thermometer for the temp but my finger, If I can leave my pinky finger in the hot milk and count to 20 then it’s ready. I once took the temp and it was 120. I think one benefit to maling your own is that you can have fat in your yogurt. It’s near impossible to find anything but non-fat yogurt at the store.
Wonder how this would turn out with goat milk? Not cost effective at all but I bet it would be amazing…
Or I can still make a trip to the store for yogurt and buy Greek yogurt without the time, mess or hassle….
Where do you get milk for $2 a gallon??
Costco!
Hello! Thank you so much for all your tips and tricks. My family and I LOVE them! I’m just wondering about the homemade greeek yogurt:
How long can I keep the starter? Can I freeze it, or how long will it stay good in the fridge. How long will the yogurt itself keep in the refrigerator?
Thank you, thank you!
Angie
I think I love you! I can not wait to try all your awesome (& easy) ideas!!! Thank you!
Aweee, thank you Lori!
can you stir in vanilla extract to the yogurt and not have it change consistancy too much? I like vanilla yogurt. Can’t wait to try this. I add greek yogurt to my smoothies for added protein.
Use vanilla powder. It won’t change color or texture. Be sure to use it sparingly until you get used to using it. My first attempts of “if some is good, more must be better” were rather surprising.