Riccotta be kidding me?

On my last post I talked about how to make mozzarella cheese, and when doing so to save the whey left over from making it. Today I want to cover how to use that whey to make ricotta. If you don’t know what ricotta is, it is a soft cheese that is predominantly used in making lasagna especially in commercialized operations.  Since ricotta is a byproduct of making mozzarella it means that it is a cheap efficient way to complete your meal without breaking your budget.

After making your mozzarella you let your whey sit in the same pot you made your cheese, overnight for about 12 to 24 hours so that it can develop its needed acidity. The next day it will probably be bubbling a little bit. It somewhat smells like a sourdough starter or beer bread dough at this point.

 FERMENTED WHEY

Warm your whey over a good fire, while stirring so that it doesn’t stick and burn, until it is near boiling (220 degrees Fahrenheit.) Don’t let it boil over. It will be sticking to your spoon at this point too.

RICOTTA IN THE MAKING

Remove your cooked whey from the heat and allow it to sit undisturbed until it is comfortable to touch. This will take a few hours.  Whatever you do, DO NOT stir up your curds. The curds need to be scooped out with a slotted spoon or strainer and placed into a fine mesh cloth to drain.  A tea towel or any solid cotton material will work fine as long as you boil it prior to using so you don’t get any bacteria or off flavors into your cheese. Let your curds drain for a few hours or you can let it drain in the refrigerator overnight. After it is sufficiently drained you can put your cheese into whatever container you like and use it within a week of making. If you do not plan to use it within a week ricotta does freeze very well.  And the leftover liquid is great to give livestock.

We give it to our pig and she goes nuts. Nothing on the homestead has to go to waste and ricotta is a great lesson to that point. I challenge you to use something you would normally throw out this week. Take those veggie scraps and make stock or throw that parmesan rind into some soup. You could even save bones that you cut out of your steak to make delicious brown gravy or take those bread heals and make bread crumbs.  There are endless possibilities to what you can do in your own kitchen to be more ecologically efficient

Let's shred some light on mozzerella

In preparation for having our own milk producers on our small homestead I decided to try something that would use a substantial amount of milk. Since most milk producing animals will produce anywhere from one quart to seven gallons of milk a day we needed to use a lot.  So I tried my hand at cheese, and I say try apprehensively, since I was scared I would screw it up to say the least.  It took me two times to get acceptable results. The first time was almost a complete flop, I only got about a quarter cup of cheese and it tasted so much like citric acid we couldn’t eat it plain. I added some Italian seasoning to it and decided that even though it was a flop, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be fixed and we could use it in lasagna or some homemade pizza.  After researching I found out that the rennet I had chosen to use was not actually good for making cheese, but was for making yogurt (we use it to make homemade ice cream on occasion) and custards, even though it had recipes on the inside of the box for making mozzarella and cheddar.

The rennet was too weak to form a proper curd, so what did I do. Well I extremely stubborn and it’s a good thing in this case. I took the rennet and multiplied the amount in the recipe, so instead of using half a tablet I used two whole tablets and voila I got the cheese I was looking for. It didn’t taste like citric acid albeit a little dry it was still an acceptable cheese.  So let me give you the rundown on how I did it and maybe you can too.  Go ahead grab the thermometer you know you want to.

First I started off with one gallon of whole raw milk, 1 ¼ teaspoon citric acid dissolved into ½ cup cool water, and 4 (junket) rennet tablets dissolve into ¼ cup cool water. Now if you are using a different brand of rennet this recipe will not give the exact same results as different brands of rennet contain varying amounts of enzymes.

First the milk must be warmed in a stainless steel pot to 88 degrees. Then the citric acid and rennet mixtures are added to the milk. Make sure to stir it really well and then let it sit for 1-2 hours without touching it. Waiting is probably the hardest part about making cheese. When it is done you will get what is called a clean break. This is what happens when the cheese has gelled enough that when you stick your finger into it and pull up the cheese does not stick to your finger. If it still like cottage cheese it’s not done let it sit until it forms a solid mass.

When the curd is ready you can use a sharp knife to cut it into ½ in cubes or try anyways, mine was rather hard to cut so I ended up making chunks rather than cubes.  Warm the curds and whey over a low heat while stirring until it reaches 108 degrees and keep it at this temperature for 35 minutes. I turned my fire off and on while keeping the pot lid on to keep mine at the same temperature for this long.

Now you can drain your whey, don’t just pour it down the drain though save it and you can make ricotta too.

Break you curds up and mix in 1 teaspoon of salt, I used canning salt since I don’t keep cheese salt on hand from what I read it is similar. Just don’t use iodized salt.

If you want you could stop here and it would be cheese but if you want that mozzarella stretchiness then you will have to heat it up some more. You can use a microwave or a double boiler whichever you prefer.  But it needs to be heated and stretched and folded until you get a smooth elastic cheese so that you can shape it into a ball.  It makes for a very interesting one person game of hot potato with a ball of cheese.  When you get it to the consistency that you like then you simply store the cheese in a covered container of salted water.  About 1/3 cup of salt to one quart of water is good. Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and then you can use it within about a week or shred it for freezing to use later.  It comes out to about a pound of mozzerella cheese to a gallon of milk, plus what you will get if you make ricotta also which I will cover in another post.

English muffins (thanks to the Rusty Plow homestead)

(can be gluten and dairy free, see below for subsitutions)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of milk
• 3 TBSP butter
• 3 TBSP of honey
• 1 cup of warm water (105-110 degrees)
• 1/4 oz of yeast
• 2 TBSP cornmeal
• 5 cups + extra for sprinkling all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

(To make gluten free, use a mix of rice flour instead of the ap flour, and use soy milk in place of the milk)

Directions
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, mix lightly and set aside for ten minutes to foam lightly.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter and honey until the butter is melted. Let cool lightly.
Combine the yeast mixture and milk mixtures gently.

In a large bowl, sift 3 cups of flour. Stir in the milk and yeast. Sift the remaining flour and salt. Stir until cohesive.

Flour and marble slab well and knead the dough for 3 minutes or til lightly elastic. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cover two cookie sheet with parchment and lightly sprinkle with cornmeal.
Flour the marble slab lightly and roll the dough out until it's a 1/2 inch thick. Air on the side of too thick okay.

Cut out circles (don't twirl your cutter, just cut). Gently place on the cookie sheets, sprinkle the tops with cornmeal

 and cover with a dry, light cloth. Let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes or til nearly doubled in size. It's more like 2/3. 45 minutes will definitely do though.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on medium low, don't grease it.
Gently place a muffin in your hand and shake lightly to remove some of the corn meal.
Gentleness is key in all of the handling. Place into the pan and repeat til the pan is full.
 Don't let them touch each other. Keep the heat on low. Cook for 8 minutes per side or until browned well,
 flip and cook again. Let cool lightly on a wire rack. Split and top with butter and honey, or with egg and sausage whichever your choosing.

Cinnamon Rolls worth its weight in dough

This recipe is supposedly originated at a certain mouse dominated corporation that will remain nameless. Regardless of it's origin it is a new favorite of mine for sure. The recipe caught my eye when I seen that it had something not generally associated with cinnamon rolls, vanilla pudding mix. I thought how weird? But tried it and it is the softest tastiest homemade cinnamon rolls I have come across, and they will definitely make you rethink purchasing those cans of pre-made rolls in the cold section. So start preheating that oven this time of the year is the perfect time to get baking for the family.

Cinnamon Rolls

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 box (small box) instant vanilla pudding
• 2 cups milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 cups (all purpose) flour

Mix yeast, water and sugar together and let sit for a few minutes or until it starts to bubble. While it is sitting mix together your milk and butter in a saucepan and warm just until all the butter is melted then turn off heat and slowly stir in the two eggs. Mix yeast mixture and milk mixture together with the box of vanilla pudding and then add salt and flour all at once.  once it is thoroughly mixed cover with seran wrap and a towel and let sit until doubled in volume and then punch down dough. Let rise again, and then punch down dough and roll out on floured surface. This recipe makes 16 giant cinnamon rolls so when you roll the dough out it will be huge. Here is a picture of how mine looked when it was rolled out.

 

 

Filling:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (melted)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon

Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. After butter is melted brush onto dough  and then sprinkle the sugar mixture onto the dough like in the picture above (you don't have to use all the butter I do not and it turns out great, I use some of the melted butter to brush the pans with so that the dough does not stick.)

 

After you are done putting the sugar over your dough, you simple start on the long side and start rolling the dough into a giant log. Make sure that you brush the flour off as you go along so that your dough will stick together. When you are done rolling and you have you super sized cinna-log, you can start cutting it into rolls. A serrated knife works best for cutting these 2 inch thick rolls. 

 

Now it is time for them to rise again but this time in the pan, when they are doubled put them into your oven at 350 for about twenty minutes or until golden on top. While the rolls are in the oven you can work on your frosting.

 

Before rising (roughly half sheet size pan)

After rising

 

 

Frosting:

 

• 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar

 

Simply mix all the ingredients together with a whisk attachment , the longer you beat the mixture the whiter and fluffier the frosting. If you find your frosting a little on the thick side you can add a tablespoon or so of milk but I like the frosting thick so it does not soak into the rolls too much. Make sure to apply the frosting liberally because it makes plenty. This recipe does not freezes fine but I will say that in my experience with it the yeast flavor in the dough is enhanced by freezing somehow so take this into consideration if you do decide to make these as a freezer meal. You can also freeze the frosting rather well in ziplocs or in vacuum bags like I did.  Happy HOMEsteading.