HOMEMADE SOFT CREAM CHEESE

Making you're own fresh clean cream cheese at home is really quite simple and very rewarding, this is a really fresh gorgeously creamy cheese that we have enjoyed in many dishes and on it's own, this is a keeper recipe and I was most pleased with myself for a few reasons, first another culinary notch to my belt and one more product that I will never have to purchase again full filling our self sufficient life even further along with the knowledge that this cheese is as pure and clean as can be. 

How Do I Get Fresh Milk?

 I only collect milk direct from our local (ish) Jersey milk farmer, I will admit it some miles (20 miles) from home but I make a special journey and as a family we get to wander around the farm with our son and see all the cows, chickens, goats, pigs geese lamas etc so it is dual purpose visit, well ok ok thats how I sell it to myself..  The pay off...Gorgeous fresh cream cheese!!!

Making Time A Lot Of  Waiting 24hrs Twice / Hands on Time 5 minutes

Equipment: Thermometer / Saucepan / Tea Towel / Muslin / Skewer

Ingredients

(makes 450g)

2 tbsp pre-made starter culture

(recipe to make your own below)

4.5 ltrs whole un homogenised milk

4 drops vegetarian rennet

Sea salt

1 bunch fresh chives chopped

1.     First bring the whole milk to 90 C / 194 F remove from the heat and cool rapidly by placing the hot saucepan in the sink filled with cold water and bring the temperature down to 22 C / 72 F.

2.     Then add the starter culture and the rennet, cover the saucepan and leave at room temperature for 24hrs to allow the curds to form.

3.     Next strain through a cheese muslin cloth, tie up the corners on a skewer over a colander in the sink and leave to drain for a further 20 hours

4.    Remove the cheese from the cloth and flatten out, sprinkle with sea salt and chives, at this point you can add any flavours you like, garlic, black pepper, pineapple, walnuts, basil etc...  Massage in your seasoning to fully incorporate.  

5.     Store in a mason or kilner air tight jar in the fridge and use within 4 weeks.  The older the cream cheese gets the stronger the flavour will be.

MAKING A CHEESE STARTER CULTURE

1 sachet freeze dried cheese starter, 1 litre milk, thermometer, glass jug 1.5 ltr, saucepan, cling film and 2 ice cube trays.

HANDS ON COOKING TIME

10 minutes hands on time several times over 48 hours.

Waxing Time:  20 minutes on day three.

STARTER CULTURE

This is your first and a once only job and will give you approx 20 batches of starter that can be kept in the freezer until needed by filling two ice cube trays and then sealing the frozen cubes in a zip lock food bag.

Ingredients

1 ltr un homogenised milk

1 pack freeze dried cheese starter

MAKING THE STARTER CULTURE

Bring the litre of milk up to 85 C, just under boiling and hold at this temperature for 10 minutes, remove from the heat and cool rapidly by standing the saucepan in cold running water in the sink until the temperature is down to 20 C, sprinkle the freeze dried cheese culture into the milk and whisk vigorously, this is important and is to ensure that the powder is thoroughly mixed into the warm milk.

Sterilise a glass jug in the oven at 180 C for 5 minutes and then leave to cool, pour in the starter culture and cover with cling film, leave in a warm area 20 C - 22 C for 24 hours to incubate, your starter is ready when it smell wonderfully sharp and clean.  Pour in to ice cube trays and freeze, then store the ice cubes in zip lock food bags in the freezer.  Two ice cubes are enough culture for 1 gallon / 4.5 ltr of milk.