Pour half a gallon (8 cups) of milk into a crockpot. A 2 quart will work but having some room to stir, a three or four quart crock, will work better. Turn your crock to it's lowest setting, cover the milk, and leave along for 2 1/2 hours.
Turn off the crock. Leave the milk covered. Don't touch for three hours.
Now that the milk is warmish, scoop out 2 cups. Mix in 1/2 cup store bought PLAIN yogurt that has "active cultures" listed in the ingredients. I used the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart with no trouble at all.
Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into the crock. Add up to 1 cup of powdered milk. If you're using whole milk to start, you don't really need to add powder. But use powdered milk if anything less than whole milk, and use the full cup of powder if you started with powdered milk or skim milk!
Now wrap the whole crock up, base and all, in a thick bath towel. Leave it alone. Forget about it. Hopefully you're doing this part in early evening and you can leave it on the counter until morning. That's best. The longer the milk is left undisturbed, the thicker your end product will be. After 8 to 14 hours, unwrap your crock and check on the results. The milk should have thickened up (texture will depend on how much fat and protein are in the milk you used) and taste tangy.
You can serve it toped with honey or fruit or you can stir fruit in. Growing up on homemade yogurt, I opt for the topping it with something option. Mixing stuff in tends to break the protein chains and make the yogurt runny. This is also the perfect yogurt to use in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking and it makes a rich substitute for milk in baking. I used mine for the milk in biscuits this morning and my word! They are they best biscuits I've every had.
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