I MADE CHEESE! Mozzarella to be exact.
I followed these instructions
and because my ingredients weren’t exactly the same as the authors I’ll leave some mozzarella notes. Its much more simple than I could have imagined… to think I went to culinary school and I was afraid of making mozzarella… It was easy, really easy.
Ingredients
1/2 gallon of raw milk (unpasturized, non-homogenized)
1tsp citric acid powder disolved in 1/4 cup water (I found citric acid at a home beer brewing and wine making supply store $5/lb)
15 drops concentrated liquid rennet mixed with 1 Tbsp water (found next to the raw milk at the store)
1 scant tsp salt
Thermometer – mine was in celsius and one of those mercury kind…
strainer or cheesecloth
I followed the instructions loosely and I still got fantastic cheese. Right now I’m in the process of making ricotta with the whey… And also writing this is the only thing really stopping me from eating all that cheese.
Crispy Blackbean Tacos recipe from Bon Appetite magazine… takes 25 minutes (estimated)!
I use it, Joy the Baker uses it, Alton Brown uses it. It’s really just the best recipe I know out there… for us chewy chocolate chip cookie lovers.
This is Joy the Baker’s post on it
This is Alton Browns Chewy Recipe from the Good Eats episode : Chips for Sister Marsha (Youtube link)& Part Two
also featured in the episode
The Thin (Crispy) Cookie
The Puffy Cookie
I use the chewy recipe and add the variation of using browned butter instead of just melted butter (gives the cookies a toffee kind of flavor). To make browned butter melt the butter in a saucepan, keep the heat on until the butter starts to turn a hazelnut color. Turn off the heat and place the saucepan on a wet cloth (or a bowl of water) just to stop the butter from overcooking and burning.
I like to add things like walnuts and cranberries and nix the chocolate chips for a change.
Joy the Baker (Love her and her blog– shes awesome) shows you how to make a basic Caesar Salad from scratch. yum!