Le Fromage!

It's amazing what can happen in a day! Bread rises, cheese solidifies, the world outside gets a foot of snow... 

Herewith, then, are the results of my cheese making first-go-round of experimenting. 

The last time we checked in with Fromage Blanc it was sitting on the table until 530am (or whenever I woke up). At 1030am I opened the lid to the pot and saw the above - the liquid had turned to exactly the consistency of yogurt. 

I ladled the yogurt/curds into three butter muslins small medium and large, tied up the tops and hung them for 6-9 hours. 

The resulting product was a spreadable, tart cheese somewhat like creme fraiche (but less salty) or marscapone (but less sweet). I thought it was nice on bread with a little apple butter or apricot preserves. We had a dinner party Sunday night and Jim stirred some together with smoked salmon, onion and capers for an appetizer served with bread which was quite nice. 

After ladling the curds of the other cheese (queso blanco), I was left with about 6-8 cups of whey, which looks like yellow, slightly murky water. I learned that it can be used as a liquid substitute in bread recipes, so Jim whipped up a double batch of the Jim Lahey/Sullivan Street/Mike Gonzales bread. 

Pretty, pretty whey bread. We thought it was super moist and had a milky flavor. The outside crust was still really crisp, and the crumb was the same stretchy, chewy delicious inside we've come to expect with this recipe. 

Upper left is the queso blanco - looks a lot like cauliflower and tastes bland, but has a nice texture that takes on whatever flavors are added to it - in this case some olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. It's a cooking cheese like paneer - maybe we'll try it in bread next time?