Mozzarella - 3rd Times the Charm

I thought my third attempt was going to bomb as well, but it ended up coming out pretty well. Again, I used the Ricki's 30 Minute Mozzarella recipe from 'CheeseMaking.com'.

Ingredients:
Milk:

• Quantity: 1/2 Gallon
• Brand: Cub 2% Reduced Fat Milk.
• Notes: It says it's pasteurized, I don't know if it was ultra pasteurized. Grade A, Homogenized.

Other Ingredients:

• 1/8 tsp. Organic Vegetable Rennet. Double Strength Plus, Gluten Free, Non-GMO 
• 3/4 tsp. Citric Acid (Dissolved in 1/2cup cool water)

Steps & Notes:

1. Mix in Citric Acid: Added the diluted Citric Acid to the milk.
2. Heat Milk: It is supposed to be heated to 90°F. I think it went a little over that, but I was really close. I could tell at this step that things were going better. The pH must have been right because it was already looking curdled.  
   
3. Add Rennet: Added rennet that was mixed in about 1/8c. cool water. I mixed it well and after a about 20-30 seconds I could already tell it was starting to set up, so I stopped mixing.
4. Let sit: It is recommended that it sits for 5 minutes. I think this time 5-10 minutes would have actually worked okay, where in my other attempts the curd didn't seem very solid. I actually left and went for a walk with my wife for an hour and a half or so.
5. Cut the Curd: Cut the curd in 1 inch squares. I was a little worried because, while the curd seemed strong, it didn't look smooth. I think from trying to mix it to much when first adding the rennet.
6. Cook a little Longer: Reheated the cut curd to 105°F while slowly stirring.
7. Strained the Whey: Scooped the large curds out of the whey, then poured the whey through a strainer. I let it sit for a few minutes and then kneaded it a bit. I was worried because it wasn't very 'strechy' and seemed pretty grainy and curdy. While kneading I squeezed a bunch of whey out of the curds and it started to condense nicely.
8. Microwaved curd: I microwaved the curd to get a little more whey out. Not much came out, unlike the first time I made it and a lot came out. However, the heating of the curds made them 'melt' together a little more. I microwaved it twice more for about 20 sec. but whey wasn't coming out and it seemed to be cooking the cheese , so I stopped.



It's pretty fun once you get the stretchy taffy consistency

9. Kneaded Curds: It was painful, but while it was really hot I kept kneading and it started to turn into that taffy kind of consistency and smoothed out. I pulled and stretched it for about 5 minutes.
10. Added Salt: I tired to add the salt too late in the process. It was more of an after thought after the cheese was all stretchy and smooth, once it started cooling it was hard to knead in.
11. Formed the Cheese: Made the cheese ball as it cooled. I put it in cool water to cool off. 

Results:

• Taste: A little bland because I didn't add the salt at the right time and I need to work out how much salt to use. It has a good fresh taste
• Look: It looks like mozzarella! It is smooth and a solid consistency.
• Texture: Fairly Moist, squishy, and a little chewy. It is also a little stringy, like string cheese.
• I would give it an overall rating of about 4 stars. 

Possible Improvements:

• Add salt sooner, and in a larger quantity.
• Try and get a more moist consistency
• I don't think I want to microwave it as long or more than once if no whey is coming out. I think it would turn out a little more moist.

Yogurt Cheese Brownies

We had a bunch of yogurt cheese (I still need to post about this) that was getting near the end and decided to experiment with using it as a substitute for cream cheese.

In high school there was an awesome cheesecake brownie recipe that I used to use all the time. I decided to try and use the yogurt cheese as a substitute in a similar recipe. I couldn't find my masterpiece from the past so I went with the 'Cream Cheese Brownies' recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book: Limited Edition, pg. 210. The closest recipe I could find on their website were these Cream Cheese Marbled Brownies.

Oven Temperature: 350° F
Bake Time: 45 Minutes
Equipment/Materials:13x9x2-inch Pan

Ingredients:
Brownies:

• 8 ounces Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips. All natural premium baking chips. (I don't really endorse any specific brand, but I really like Ghriardelli Chocolate).
• 3 Tblspoons butter
• 3 Eggs (It called for 4, but I like fudgie brownies and left one out)
• 1 1/4 Cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Cheesecake (Yogurt Cheesecake)

• 3/4 Cups homemade yogurt cheese
• 2/3 Cups Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Milk ( I added this, the original recipe didn't require it)

Steps & Notes

1. Prepare Chocolate: Melted butter and Chocolate chips in a sauce pan over low heat on stovetop. Removed and let cool while preparing the base.
2. Mix Base: 
• Mixed 2 eggs with electric mixer until foamy.
• Added: Sugar, water, & just 1 tsp. of vanilla. Beat until mixture was thick and lemon-colored.
• Added Chocolate: Beat in the chocolate mixture prepared earlier.
• Stirred in flour, baking powder, and salt
3. Created cheesecake mix:
• Mixed Yogurt Cheese with Sugar
• Added milk & 1 tsp. Vanilla and mixed well
• Added 1 egg, mixed well.
4. Pour into pan:
• Put 1/2 of chocolate base in pan
• Layered on Cheesecake mix
• drizzled remaining chocolate mix on top of Cheesecake.
• Swirled top chocolate layer with cheesecake layer using a knife.
5. Bake: 45 minutes at 350° F

I think they taste best after they have cooled for at least 20 minutes, you get the best taste of the chocolate and everything while it is a little warm. However, my wife loves brownies when they are hot out of the oven. The recipe recommends letting them sit an hour or two. 

Result:

• Taste: Great. You could tell it wasn't real cream cheese. There was a little tart yogurt flavor, but the fact that they are much lower in fat than real cream cheese kind of makes up for it.
• Ranking: 4. They are good brownies, but this batch at least wasn't anything amazing.
• Our son was pretty excited about them. He would have eaten the whole pan if we had let him.

Things to improve:

While looking back over the recipe I mentioned I noticed there were quite a few things I did not do as the recipe recommended.Many of them very minor. There were a few things I think might have made a difference.

• Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to the Cheesecake part. I think the acid might help setup the cheese better.
• Use fresher Yogurt Cheese. This was near the end of it's life and I think you can really taste the tart yogurt flavor, perhaps the lemon juice would have helped here, but I don't think so.

Mozzarella Failure

My second attempt at making Mozzarella was a complete failure.

I'm not going to go through the whole process I went through to make it, I used all the same ingredients, measurements, and steps from my first attmept. I will share where I think things went wrong.

1. The pot seemed a little dirty and I didn't wash it or 'sanitize' it before I used it. Something might have contaminated it, disrupted the pH, or intoduced foreign bacteria or other organisms that might have messed up the processes.
2. The first time I made it I didn't pre-mix the citric acid in water. I did do it this time, but I might have used too much water.
3. Again the milk was heated too high the first time around, I let it get over 100° F. Unlike last time I didn't wait for it to cool off before adding the rennet.
4. I might have put in too little rennet.
5. I let the milk sit with the rennet for over 5 minutes, but might have done several things wrong here.
• I disturbed it pretty badly early in the process
• I probably should have given it more time, especially if I didn't get the right amount of rennet
6. While reheating after cutting the curd I stirred a little too quickly. The curd completely disintegrated into the whey turning into a yellow creamy and slightly curdly mixture. I let it sit for an hour or so after, and it kind of set again, but it was still really delicate. This is why I think I might not have had enough rennet, mixed it poorly, or had the milk too hot.
7. I still tried to strain and knead what curd I could, but as you can tell from the picture above, I didn't have much luck getting anything going.

It turned out to be kind of like a...umm...ricotta cheese or something. I kept it and will try to find a way to use it.  

First Attempt Mozzarella

The first attempt at Mozzarella happened this afternoon. At first I looked at the directions on Dr. Fankhauser's Cheese Page, but the recipe I used was almost the exact same, Ricki's 30 Minute Mozzarella from 'CheeseMaking.com'.

My first Mozzarella. It kind of worked out.
Tastes alright, but the texture isn't right.

Ingredients:
Milk:

• Quantity: 1/2 Gallon
• Brand: Cub 2% Reduced Fat Milk.
• Notes: It says it's pasteurized, I don't know if it was ultra pasteurized. Grade A, Homogenized.

Other Ingredients:

• 1/8 tsp. Organic Vegetable Rennet. Double Strength Plus, Gluten Free, Non-GMO 
• 3/4 tsp. Citric Acid

Steps & Notes:

1. Mix in Citric Acid: Added to Milk.
2. Heat Milk: It is supposed to be heated to 90°F, however, I wasn't paying attention and it was heated to over 100°. 
   
3. Add Rennet: Added rennet that was mixed in about 1/8c. water before I started heating the milk.
4. Let sit: It is recommended that it sits for 5 minutes. I let it sit longer because it didn't seem to have set up yet. I think I should have let it sit longer though.  It wasn't as firm as the picture.
5. Cut the Curd: Cut the curd in 1 inch squares.
6. Cook a little Longer: Reheated the cut curd to 106°F while slowly stirring.
7. Strained the Whey: Scooped the curds out of the whey
8. Microwaved curd: I microwaved the curd to get a little more whey out. This is where I knew it wasn't going so well. The curd was grainy and not as smooth.
9. Kneaded Curds: The best I could, I kneaded the curd a bit, then microwaved it again.
10. Microwaved curd: I microwaved again, but I think I did it a little long. It was really hot and blob-like melted cheese, but not the 'taffy' texture the directions described. When pulled on or 'stretched' it would break, a clean break, nothing stretchy. It was really sticky, but could be wiped up easily.
11. Added Salt: Added salt to taste.
12. Formed the Cheese: Made the cheese ball as it cooled.

Results:

• Taste: Okay. It has a good fresh taste, but it isn't anything amazing. I need to work out how much salt to add.
• Look: It looks okay. It isn't shiny and wet looking like in pictures I've seen and descriptions I've read.
• Texture: Dryish. It also seems a little grainy. I think it should be wetter tasting. 

Possible Improvements:

• Watch the temperature more closely on the initial warming of the milk.
• Prepare Rennet right before adding it to the milk, instead of before I start warming the milk. A difference of maybe 15 or 20 minutes.
• Let the milk set longer after adding the rennet.
• Be more careful when stirring curds while heating.
• When reheating in the microwave, do shorter times and use different bowls. I feel like it might have overheated it/cooked it too much.

Singing Hills Goat Dairy

We went to the Mill City Museum Farmers Market yesterday. It was great fun. I liked all the foods they had there; chocolate, bread, jam, and honey. There were even a few cheese vendors I was able to talk too. It helps me realize how much of an amateur I am and how little I still know about all of this cheese business. We got some herb feta from Lynne Reeck and Kate Wall of 'Singing Hills Goat Dairy'. It was delicious.

Lynne Reeck and Kate Well.  I borrowed this
 photo from the blog Sweet and Savory Kitchens

Our first Garden

Hydrangea - One of Sharon's

Favorite Flowers

We always talk about how much we want a garden in our future home. This year we decided we should start learning on a smaller scale so we are further along the learning curve when we have a place to do a larger gardening project.

As we pulled up to the gardening store I suddenly felt extremely unprepared. All we had thought about was what we thought we could grow. I had no idea what we needed, if we should start with seeds or with something that was already growing, how big the pots should be, what could grow in a pot, etc...

Herbs: Rosemary, Cilantro, and Basil

We were blessed to run into a cheerful lady that held our hands through some of the bigger decisions. We're starting simple. We're trying a tomato plant and some herbs and we got stuff so we can hang them all on our porch when it gets warmer. It's the first year and I hope we can keep at least one plant alive through the summer.

Wish us luck.

We are trying the 'Topsy Turvey' Tomato planter where you

hang it upside down. We didn't want any of our plants to be

in Ira's reach.

Preparing for Rennet Cheese

I'm starting to feel comfortable with yogurt, despite the fact that I haven't gotten to a point where I can replicate good results consistently. I'm feeling ready to move on to the next stage, soft fresh cheeses. That means I will need some more supplies, so last night I looked around online and ordered some rennet from Cheesemaking.com. I wanted to get the tablets since we will probably me moving a couple times in the next year and they are supposedly better in various conditions and lasts longer if frozen. However, the store was out, so I went with the Organic, No HMO, vegitable liquid rennet. It appears it doesn't matter if you use animal derived and plant derived, especially on fresh cheeses. From what I've read the hard cheeses that age for over 6 months do better with animal vs. Vegetable rennet.

I'm looking forward to starting on these simple cheeses. It looks like Neufchatel and Mozzarella will be first up, stay posted for more.