Crock Pot Yogurt

I've been talking to a lot of people who want to know how I make my own yogurt.  It all started because Mikayla needed a soft food, high in protein, and with full fat milk which can be hard to find, not to mention expen$ive.  So I hit the internet and did a lot of research and tried several different things.  I didn't want to buy a yogurt maker and the other methods seemed like a lot of work.  But we were going through 2+ quarts of yogurt a week and I was getting desperate.  So I decided to try a method I found for the crock pot and was I surprised!  It worked great!  So for practically no work and mere pennies I can make organic, all natural, full fat (or half fat) yogurt as thick (greek style) or thin (australian style)  as I want it.  Try it,  you'll love it.

1/2 (8 cups) gallon milk
1/2 cup - 1 cup powdered milk
4 oz yogurt with live cultures
your choice of flavorings and sweeteners

Put 8 cups of milk (2% or whole, I've never tried lower fat but I'm sure it would work) in a crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours.  Depending on how thick you want the yogurt to be you can add powdered milk (1/2 cup for medium consistency, 1 cup for thicker consistency) or for a more jell-o like consistency use 2 pkts unflavored gelatin (although if you used flavored I'm thinking it would make flavored yogurt...but I've never tried that).
After 2 1/2 hrs unplug the crockpot and leave it  be for 3 hrs.
Add 1 cup of the warm milk to 1/2 cup yogurt with live cultures (any brand works as long as it has live cultures.  I like Dannon all natural or Oinkos).  Once again you want to use plain instead of flavored unless you want to flavor the entire batch.  The stir the yogurt-milk mixture back into the milk in the crock pot, leaving the crock pot off and wrap the whole thing in a bath towel.  Leave it to culture overnight.
In the morning put it in the fridge.  I like to add 3 TBLS of agave or 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla to mine and then divide it into 1/2 cup tupperwares that my kids can just grab out of the fridge.  You can also add fruit puree to flavor it,  or fresh fruit as you serve it.
Good luck!  Happy yogurt-ing!