How to make the best tasting, low sugar, greek yogurt!

Making Homemade Low Sugar Greek Yogurt

I had wanted to try making yogurt for years but it seemed so intimidating.  Then one night we had an activity in Relief Society and we learned how to make yogurt.  I couldn't believe how easy it was!

There are a few essential tools you need.
A slow cooker with low setting or an instant pot with yogurt setting.
A digital thermometer.
A microwave.
A microwave safe bowl. (I use a glass bowl.)
A strainer.
A dish cloth or cheese cloth.

First I heat the milk in the microwave.  It takes about 35-40 minutes in my microwave to get a gallon of milk up to 180 degrees.  You can do this on the stove but it would take quite a long time and you would need to stir it the whole time!  It's very easy to burn milk on the stove, so I go for the microwave.  You can also heat the milk in the instant pot, but I totally burned the milk when I tried this.  I did do it once without burning the milk, but it had a different texture when heating it in the instant pot.  It was kind-of grainy.  Needless to say, I prefer the microwave.

Then I strain the heated milk into my instant pot pan.  (Use hot pads!  The milk and bowl are super hot.)

After the milk is heated (click here to find out why you should heat the milk.) You need to cool it down.  You can just let the milk cool slowly or you can cool it down quickly with some ice in a plastic bag.  (Do NOT add ice directly to the milk without the plastic bag.)  I usually use the ice method because I have often forgotten my heated milk on the counter and had to reheat it to 120 to get my yogurt started.

After it's cooled to 115- 120 degrees I add my starter.  I have tried many starters and I like Tillamook Vanilla bean best.  I could use some of my homemade yogurt as a starter, but it's so yummy we usually eat every drop and I'd prefer to eat the homemade yogurt and buy my starter.  I add about 1/2 -1 cup of yogurt to my warm milk.  Whisk it in until it's fully incorporated into the milk.

Then I put a bit of plastic wrap over the top of the milk/yogurt mixture and I put a plate on the top.  (The plate holds the heat in.) You can use the top of your instant pot, but after cooking lots of beans and meat, the lid of my instant pot smells a bit funky.  (I have soaked it in vinegar and it helps a bit, but the smell is still there.)  So I choose not to introduce those smells into my yogurt.  (Just to be safe.)

Then I press the yogurt button on my instant pot and increase the time to 10 hours.  (I felt like the yogurt was thicker at 10 hours.)  Then the magic happens and the milk turns into yogurt!  I have also tried setting the instant pot to 24 hours.  I don't feel like the yogurt gets any thicker or tastes any different, but apparently after 24 hours the lactose in the milk is gone.  I'm not an expert but several sites claim this to be the case.

At this stage you could just eat the yogurt as is, but I prefer a super thick greek yogurt.  So I strain my yogurt for several hours.  I use a large strainer I got from IKEA and a large roasting pan to hold all this yummy yogurt.  I place a dishcloth or several layers of cheesecloth (I sewed the edges of my cheesecloth together so it would be easier to wash.) in the strainer and then scoop the yogurt onto the cloth.  Then I cover it with more plastic wrap and fold the edges of the towel over the plastic wrap.  I didn't do this once and the whey dripped down the towel and all over my fridge.  Huge mess. Then I let it sit in my fridge over night or for several hours.

The yogurt will separate from the whey and you are left with super thick yogurt.  I lift up the cloth and dump the yogurt into my mixer.  I mix in stevia and 1/4 cup raw cane sugar and lots of vanilla with my whisk attachment.  I do it to taste, so sorry I don't have measurements.  Whisking the yogurt gives it a creamy texture.  I use the whey on my tomato plants and garden.  You can use it in baking, but I haven't experimented with it yet.  You can also add some of the whey back into the yogurt as you whisk it if you want a thinner yogurt.

I gallon of milk will make about 2 quarts of yogurt.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!  Happy yogurt making.


This is the slow cooker I used for years to make yogurt before I got my Instant Pot.  It was only about $10 at Walmart.  It makes delicious yogurt.  Just set it on the warm setting.  I switched to the instant pot because I can make twice as much yogurt at once and we go through lots of yogurt around here.