Soft Goats Cheese
I’m trying to get slightly more adventurous with my cheese making, so this week I tackled a soft goat’s cheese. Goat’s cheese is my favourite cheese with the soft creamy variety being my preference. This recipe will give you a soft creamy cheese. It is firm enough to be turned out of the mould, but the consistency is extremely soft, being almost like whipped goat’s cheese. I served it on top of roast vegetables with salsa verde.
Ingredients
2 L Goats Milk – Full Fat (I managed to buy this at Waitrose)
1 Teaspoon Citric Acid
1 Teaspoon of Fresh Herbs – I used chives and tarragon
1 Teaspoon Salt
Equipment
Cheese Cloth
Cooking Thermometer
1 x Plastic Cheese Moulds - 200g capacity
Colander
This Recipe makes about 150 g of Goats Cheese
1. Boil 50 ml of water and allow it to cool to room temperature.
2. Add the citric acid and stir until dissolved.
3. Add the goat’s milk to a large pot and stir in the water/citric acid mixture.
4. Heat the milk over a low heat. Using the thermometer, heat the milk to 82 degrees. Stir the mixture in a back to front motion every few minutes to avoid the mixture catching. You will see curds being to appear.
5. Once the milk gets to 82 degrees (don’t let it boil), turn off the heat and cover. Leave the mixture for another 30 minutes to let more curds form.
6. Place the cheese cloth inside a colander over the sink. Pore the mixture (careful, it will still be hot) into the cheese cloth, allowing the liquid to drain off and the curds to stay in the cloth. Leave to drain for at least 30 minutes.
7. Stir in the salt and herbs
8. Gather up each corner and using some string, tie the cheesecloth around the milk mixture. Hang the cheesecloth over a bowl and let the cheese to continue to drain. You can give it a bit of a squeeze to help remove the liquid. Hang for an hour.
9. Remove the cheese from the cheese cloth and spoon it into the cheese mould.
10. Place the cheese mould in the fridge, over a dish that will catch extra liquid.
11. Leave them to set for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Once the cheese has set you can turn them out of their moulds and transfer them to a Tupperware container to keep for up to a week.
