Cheeeeese!

I am feeling really accomplished. I have made 2 things from scratch in the last 2 days that I never even thought about making myself before. Yesterday it was tortillas. Today it was mozzarella. That's right, don't act like you aren't impressed. Both turned out super good too, which certainly stacks the odds against me for the next thing I attempt.

The tortillas were easy. I followed a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, with a few tweaks:
4 cups white bread flour (King Arthur strongly recommended)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup shortening (I used vegetable shortening, supposedly lard is even better)
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
all-purpose flour as needed for rolling

Ummm...golf ball sized? I don't even know if I've ever even held a golf ball...

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flours and salt. Rub in the shortening by hand until there are no large chunks (this may take a while). Make a well in the center, and pour in the boiling water. Mix with a fork until all of the water is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2. Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours (mine sat for an hour). 
3. Heat a griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. Fry one at a time. Place on the griddle until you see a bubble on the top then flip the tortilla over. Let it cook for about 30 seconds, then flip and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next tortilla while you wait for that one to cook (I had about 4 lined up to go, I can't sit still). Repeat until all of the balls have been cooked. Tortillas can be refrigerated or frozen.

These ended up being kinda small, about the size of my stretched out hand. I will make them larger next time, but they work well for most things. The important thing is that they taste great. I was using some pretty old flour that I had stored in the freezer and it still tasted great!

Oh yeah, and they weren't round at all.

I made burritos out of them for dinner and lunch today. And lunch tomorrow. The recipe said this yielded 18 tortillas and I think I got about double that. I guess my attempt at golf balls was waaaay off. Luckily they freeze well so that's where a bunch of them ended up.


On to the cheese! 
My little packet of cheese supplies came in the mail today. I ordered from New England Cheesemaking Supply the Mozzarella and Riccota starter kit. It comes with a little thermometer, citric acid, rennet tablets (non-animal sources), cheesecloth, and cheese salt, as well as an instruction booklet with lots of great little tips. This is enough to process 30 gallons of milk!

I promptly walked over to my closest convenience store and bought myself a gallon of whole milk. The kit works with all kinds of milks, but they say the more fat in the milk, the better the cheese will taste (duh!). As long as the milk is NOT ultra-pasteurized. I just got some Hood milk. I am going to try to find a local source soon. Anyway, the directions were very clear and I got great results.

The curd after I cut through it with a knife.

The whole process was way easier and quicker than I would ever have thought. About an hour from start to finish, including some heating, pulling, and cooling. And this was my first attempt!

The strained curds, pre-stretching. They don't taste like much yet (I tasted).

The only part that I didn't really enjoy was pulling the curd after heating it up to 135 degrees F. Ouch! I will need to buy some rubber gloves for this part. Not that it wasn't worth the momentary suffering!

A somewhat blurry photo of the balls of mozzarella I made cooling in some ice water.

This was what I choose to do with it next: A homemade tortilla (from yesterday), some homemade pesto (courtesy of my mom who bought the basil at the farmer's market in Vermont), and my homemade cheese! Holy good!

A little slice of homemade heaven :)

 I am feeling really proud of myself right now. I can't wait to do it again!


Also, I kept some of the whey because it is very high in protein. The recipe book came with some recipes that use the whey but I am looking for good ideas, so if you've got some, let me know! I am thinking of using it to soak my overnight oats in...I'll let you know how it goes.