Cheesecake

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred my yoghurt turns out well. It is almost a relief, then, when it doesn't, because when it doesn't I don't feel like I am depriving myself of its silky perfection when I turn it into waffles or, in this case, cheese. After twelve hours hanging in cheesecloth from the paper towel dispenser I don't use, my yoghurt turned into a tangy, rich, somewhat rustic cream cheese. My first thought was to herb it and put it on bread. My next thought was to make cheesecake.

Although her recipes can be less than explicit, I always learn something from Paula Peck and her book, The Art of Fine Baking, has become one of my go-tos. When I saw that her crumb crust called for nuts I was sold all over again. She suggests either pecans or walnuts and I went with pecans, thinking they would match well with the ginger oat biscuits I decided to use for the crumbs.

I guess I have been in Vermont for a while now, because I didn't think twice before deciding to use granulated maple sugar instead of cane sugar as the sweetener. I don't know how much the maple flavor came through, but the cake was sweet (though not too) and the sugar came from just down the road, which is always a bonus.

Cheese Cake

adapted from Paula Peck

• 1 1/2 cups crumbs from snappy cookies or biscuits
• 1 cup pecans, ground or finely grated
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup (maple) sugar
• 20 oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. grated lemon rind
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sifted flour

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch spring-form pan.
• For the crumb crust: Combine cookie crumbs, ground nuts, and 2 Tbs. of the sugar. Add melted butter and mix until blended. Spread crumb mixture on the bottom of prepared pan and tamp it down firmly. Chill in refrigerator while you make the filling.
• For the filling: Mix together cream cheese, half the remaining sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon rind until well combined. Beat in the egg yolks.
• Whip the cream and set aside. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar, beating well after each addition. Once all the sugar has been added, beat the whites until they are very firm. Pour whipped cream over the stiffly beaten whites followed by the cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle the flour on top and fold all together gently.
• Pour filling into prepared pan and bake for one and a quarter hours, or until cake is a light golden brown. At this point turn the heat off, but leave the cake in the oven for 3-4 hours. Paula says, "Cake may crack slightly, but this is unimportant." Transfer cake to the refrigerator to chill before serving.

The ginger and pecan flavors were not obvious in the finished product, but I thought it would be pretty to decorate the cakes (I made two five-inch cakes from a half recipe, having only ten ounces of yoghurt cheese product) with pecan halves and crystalized ginger anyway. If you can find round, flat medallions of candied ginger, you can make nice ginger shapes with small cookie cutters.

I Had To Tell Somebody

I just made the most perfect batch of yoghurt of my yoghurt-making career to date. I was reading Pat Katz and she said that it really is worth heating your raw milk up to kill some of the bacteria in it so they don't interfere with the bacteria you introduce to your milk. So I did. And the result was silky, thick, creamy yoghurt. I also added a cup of raw cream that had started to sour to my quart of milk. I'm sure that helped on the creamy front. But, yum, it's all I can do not to eat the entire pint right now.

Less really is more: a cultural revolution

You might remember my posts on yoghurt and cultured butter. It is with great excitement that I revise my recipe for both.

I was at a dinner party the other night and somehow or other talk turned to making yoghurt. Someone asked if anybody had had success making it at home. I said that yes, I had and gave her my recipe. Another woman piped up with her views on yoghurt making, but soon the subject was exhausted and we moved on to other things. A few days later, however, the piper-upper showed me a recipe which would take my dairy culturing to a new level. It was from Sandor Katz's book, Wild Fermentation. It turns out that I have been overcrowding my bacteria. He suggests using only one tablespoon of starter yoghurt per quart of milk (I had been using 1/3 cup starter yoghurt per half gallon of milk--about two times too much). He says that the bacteria need room to do what they do and if too many bacteria are present they can't, resulting in runny yoghurt.

Unfortunately, my farmer's cows are running dry and I haven't been able to get milk for over a month, which means I haven't been able to make yoghurt. I did, however, apply the same ratio to making cultured butter with amazing results. I put one tablespoon yoghurt in one quart raw Jersey cream and let it culture for 24 hours in a warm (28-30 degrees Celsius) place. When I tried to pour it into the bowl of my KitchenAid the next day nothing happened. Not a single drop came out. The entire jar of cream had been transformed into this beautiful, thick, slightly sour substance. I had to scoop it out with a spoon. The butter I made from it is the best I've made so far (I expect the butter in Spring to be better, though, because the cows will be eating fresh grass) and the buttermilk actually looked and tasted like buttermilk.

I am completely convinced. More starter does not mean creamier yoghurt, quite the contrary. So, when you next make yoghurt or butter, respect the personal space of your bacteria and you would want your personal bubble respected.

Yoghurt

I've been getting milk from the farm for eight months. I've been making yoghurt from it for about seven and a half. When I started getting raw milk I was still buying yoghurt at the store. It soon dawned on me that I could make my own yoghurt. My thinking was that such delicious milk must be able to be transformed into delicious yoghurt. It turns out I was right, although it took me a little while to get consistently good results.

The first time I tried to make yoghurt I didn't have a thermometer, an incubator, or any experience. I had the thought, though, that it could be done. So it was that I heated a half-gallon of milk until it was warm to the touch, stirred in some store-bought yoghurt with active cultures, poured the mixture into canning jars and left them in the the half-bathroom with an electric heater overnight. The results were not spectacular. I ended up with slightly thick-ish sour milk. Surprisingly, I wasn't discouraged.

The next day I ordered myself a Yogourmet Multi II yoghurt maker. I think "maker" is a bit of an overstatement, though. I prefer to think of it as an incubator. In any case, it is a great little machine that keeps my milk and bacteria at the optimal temperature for turning milk into yoghurt. I also got myself a thermometer.

Seven months later, I have my process down.

First a note about starters. I used to order the Yogourmet starter culture, but find that using half a cup of store-bought yoghurt that has active cultures works just as well. It also allows you to somewhat control the texture of your yoghurt. I find that the finished product mimics the texture of the starter yoghurt. I use Butterworks whole milk yoghurt because it's local to Vermont. It also has a silky texture and a nice tang that translate well into the finished product. I can also recommend Seven Stars whole milk yoghurt, for all you Pennsylvanians. I tried using some of my own yoghurt as a starter, but found that it didn't work very well. The resulting yoghurt was grainier than I like, although the flavor was still good. I'm not sure why, but my thought is that the other bacteria in the raw milk took over, overpowering the 'intentional' bacteria from the store-bought yoghurt.

I start by putting a half-cup of the starter yoghurt into a Pyrex measuring pitcher. Knowing the jar in which I incubate my yoghurt doesn't fit quite a half-gallon of milk, before I heat the milk I decant some of it into this little crystal pitcher that came from my grandmother's house. (It holds the exact amount that doesn't fit in the jar.) I then heat the milk, stirring it constantly, until it reaches 110 degrees Fahrenheit. To keep the bacteria from getting too much of a fright, I ladle some of the hot milk into the starter yoghurt and stir it up, making sure there are no lumps. I then add the mixture to the pot and stir it in. I pour the milk into the jar, pop it into the Yogourmet, which I have filled to the line with warm water, plug her in, and wait at least eight hours. The whole process, including dishes takes less than ten minutes.

On the other end of the eight or so hours (it doesn't really seem to matter how long you leave it, whithin reason), I strain my yoghurt to make it a bit thicker. I put two pieces of cheesecloth in a colander and the colander in a bowl. I pour the warm yoghurt into the colander and let it sit until it reaches the desired thickness. If I want a runnier yoghurt I leave it for between 40 minutes and an hour, if I want it thicker I leave it longer. Reaching the thickness of Greek yoghurt takes quite a while, a couple hours or so. At this point the yoghurt is kind of lumpy so I tend to whisk it until it is smooth. Once smooth, I pour or ladle it into a quart jar and refrigerate it before using it for anything. I don't know how long it keeps because it's always gone within three days.

What I like about making yoghurt is that it takes almost none of your time and the result is amazing. I find my yoghurt to be far tastier than any store-bought yoghurt I've tried. It's just so rewarding to transform good milk into perfect yoghurt. Making yoghurt has become a routine for me--it's no longer a hassle, just a normal part of every-other day.