Home-made soft moulded cheese

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Home-made soft moulded cheese
Electus
Home made Soft Moulded cheese sprinkled with Pimentón de La Vera
Servings:Makes around 750 g of soft cheese
Ready in:3 hours + 48 hours + maturation period
Prep. time:3 hours plus 48 hours
Cook time:20 minutes
Difficulty:Average difficulty
Home made Soft Moulded cheese with peppercorns

My first effort at making a moulded cheese.

Ingredients

Ingredients

Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩‍🍳 method for this recipe


Mise en place

Method

  1. Using a double boiler, slowly heat the milk to 30° C.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in the DVI culture.
  3. Allow to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, mix the rennet with four times its volume of boiled and cooled water.
  5. Add the diluted rennet to the milk and stir.
  6. Leave in a warm place until the curd has set - this could take up to 24 hours. If you can prod it without any milk being left on your finger, then it is set.
  7. Drain through a boiled cheese cloth until the cheese has the consistency of cream cheese.
  8. Ladle into a soft cheese mould and stand on a cheese mat in an earthenware baking dish and tilt slightly to allow the remaining whey to drain. The cheese will gradually shrink inside the mould over several hours.
  9. Turn the cheese over onto a second cheese mat and leave overnight.
  10. It should now be firm enough to remove from the mould and be salted. Also sprinkle any flavourings over it or roll it gently in them.
  11. Place it in a small bowl or dish and wrap the whole thing loosely in tin foil.
  12. Put it into the fridge for a few hours and it is ready to eat.
  13. To allow it to develop more flavour, it can be left for up to three days before consumption.

Variations

The cheese can be left plain but you can roll it in herbs, black pepper, smoked paprika or anything you like. I sprinkled mine with Pimentón de La Vera.

My second batch of soft cheese was made with crushed black pepper. When ladling the curds into moulds, sprinkle layers of peppercorns between each ladling. Finally, roll the cheese in a mixture of more peppercorns and flakes of sea salt.

Chef's notes

I used vegetarian rennet, but you can use animal rennet if you wish, in which case use only three drops.