Queso Fresco with Chipotle Pepper

For my fourth attempt at cheese making I chose to make a Queso Fresco based on another recipe from cheesemaking.com.  This was another simple recipe that doesn't require aging (which I'm still not equipped to do).

Queso Fresco means "Fresh Cheese" in Spanish - it is meant to be eaten fresh.  I've seen it in the supermarket before but haven't had it.  I chose it because it will broaden my horizons somewhat by including a pressing with an increasing amount of weight along with the use of peppers.

Like last time, I'll be using raw milk from a local dairy.  For the pepper, I found some dried chipotle at a local supermarket (Wegmans).  The peppers have a really nice flavor and are very spicy.  They're really dry - I debated whether to do something to try to re-hydrate but I'm assuming the remaining whey in the cheese will do that for me.

I've been happy with the other cheeses I've attempted - I expect the same from this one.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal Raw Milk
• 1 packet of Mesophilic Culture
• 1/4 tsp of Liquid Animal Rennet
• 1 oz Kosher Salt
• 1 Finely chopped Dried Chipotle Pepper

Process/Notes:

• 9/11/16 - Cheesemaking day:
• Left the milk on the counter for a couple hrs to warm up a bit
• Heated the milk to 90 F on the stove in a 5 gal pot - overshot a bit to 92 F
• Sprinkled the culture on the surface.  Let it hydrade for a couple min before stirring in
• Let the culture work for 45 min
• Diluted the rennet in 1/4 a cup of tap water.  Added to the milk and stirred for 30s
• Let set for 40 min - temp was 90 F by the end
• Had a nice clean break by the end of that time
• Cut the curd into a half inch grid
• Set sit for 5 min to allow the whey to come up through the cut lines and separate the curd
• Put on low heat to get to 95 F for the cooking phase
• Stirred the curd every 5 min or so.  Started gently.  The curd broke into 1/4 in pieces which shrunk and got firmer through the cooking time.  This is an important step but I'm still not quite sure I'm getting things to the right level of cooking.
• Scooped the curds in the a cheesecloth lined colander
• Chopped up the chipotle pepper
• Let drain for 30 min - stirred a few times to help the whey drain out
• Stirred in the pepper

• Stirred in the salt a little bit at a time - it seems like an awful lot of salt but the recommendation is ~3% by weight which is about 1 oz assuming I got 2 lbs of cheese (which I didn't actually measure - doh).
• Bundled up the curd and pushed it into the cylindrical form.  I folded up the cheese cloth at the top and then added the follower and put a half gal of water on top to press which is about 4 lbs (this step was specified as 30 min with 3-5 lb).  Had quite a bit of whey drip out to start but it slowed quickly.

• Pressed on one side with this weight for 15 min then unwrapped, flipped the cheese, and pressed on the other side for 15 more min.  It was pretty unstable.  It fell and spilled the water once but I eventually found the equilibrium that allowed it to stay up

• The next step was to be 60 min at 8-12 lb.  I half filled two gal jugs for about 10 lbs.  I put a box on top with the water in it to press.  The cheese wasn't all that flat and it was very difficult to balance.  It fell a couple times and spilled water.  I flipped after 20 min or so and then gave it another 20 min on the other side before it tipped again.
• The next step was to have been 4-6 hrs with 25 lbs of weight.  Given my difficulty with the previous attempts to press I opted to quit here.  I put the cheese in a zip lock freezer back an put it into the fridge for the night before trying it
• 9/12/16 - Tried the cheese the next afternoon
• 10/15/16 - I had gone through about 90% of this cheese.  It started to get quite a bit more funky over the last couple weeks and wasn't as good.  Today it had started to form some mold so I decided to throw it away.

Impressions:

• The wheel of cheese is a bit lumpy and uneven - not very attractive really.
• It is a salty cheese that gets along very well with the smoky and spicy peppers.  The peppers hydrated nicely in the salty whey - you can't tell that they were dry when I mixed them in.  It is as tasty as I'd hoped it would be.
• The cheese is pretty firm and has a smooth texture.  It has some voids that probably would have been pressed out with the 25 lb weight.  Still pretty moist as well.
• When I cut it and leave pieces on the cutting board at room temperature they start to weep why after a few min.
• I've been eating the cheese for about a week now and have gone through half of it.  No real signs of it falling off so far.
• Mostly been eating it plan.  Had some on flat bread last night - graded pretty well and melted okay.  The spicy peppers added a really nice dimension.

Lessons Learned:

1. Pressing the cheese by balancing water bottles on top wasn't ideal.  Having to get 25 lbs of weight this way was just too difficult.  I plan on making more cheeses that require pressing so I think I'm going to invest in a cheese press.  It's not a real complex machine so I may just try to build my own.
2. Dried peppers seemed to do just fine without being hydrated 

No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

We are in the process of moving so I haven't felt up to the time commitment required for brewing a beer recently.  I've been watching some videos of bread making and it looks like it, like cheesemaking, has a lot in common with making a beer. 

I always find it interesting delving into a world that I hadn't paid much attention to previously.  From my brief glimpses into bread making it had seemed that there was a fairly complex process associated with making a dough, letting it ferment, shaping, and then baking it.  I imagined that an improperly fermented and burnt product would be the result unless great care was taken.  After taking a closer look it seems like there are some simple steps that a beginner can take to produce a nice bread with not a lot of effort.

There is a fairly new technique called the "No Knead" method the greatly simplifies the process of making dough which seems like it's been pretty revolutionary for bread making.  It involves, as the name implies, minimal mixing of ingredients followed by long period of fermentation at room temperature.  Here is the New York Times Article where the concept was first presented.  It seems simple enough for me to have a reasonable chance for success.

The bread is baked in a Dutch Oven which apparently helps retain the amount of moisture professional bakeries achieve through fancy steam injection.  The original no knead recipe calls for putting the bread into a pre-heated Dutch Oven.  A clever trick that the many people who've made this recipe before me came up with is to line a bowl with parchment paper, put the bread in the bowl, and then transfer the dough to the heated Dutch Oven like in a cradle.  Pretty smart - I'm going to try this way.

The whole process, which mostly consisting of waiting, takes a good 24 hrs or so.  It seems like the steps could easily fit in my normal work day schedule.  If I like this I might have to start making my own bread regularly.

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Flour (I wasn't super careful with this)
• 1.25 tsp Salt (I used kosher salt)
• 0.25 tsp Dry Bread Yeast
• 1 2/3 Cup tap water (I used tap water at about room temp)

Process Details:

• 9/10/16:
• Measured out Flour, Salt, Yeast, and water and added them to a metal bowl
• Mixed the ingredients together.  Started out looking like there was too much water then seemed like there wasn't enough but after 3 min of stirring with a wood spoon it smoothed out where all the ingredients seemed well mixed

• Covered with plastic wrap and placed on top of the fridge to ferment.  This was at about 8:00 PM
• 9/11/16:
• 19 hrs later dough had more than doubled in size.  It filled the kitchen with a nice flowery smell as it fermented.  I poured the dough onto a well flowered cutting board.  Was still very sticky.  Used a spatula to scrape it all out.  Sprinkled flour on top of the dough and then folded it up in each side to make a square.  Then shaped it into a ball.  Had to sprinkle more flour on it along the way to prevent sticking.

• Moved the dough ball to a floured parchment paper lined bowl and covered with a paper towel.  Let set for 5 hrs or so.  I had intended to only leave it for 2 hrs but got destracted.
• Tried to cut the top for expansion but the knife stuck pretty badly.
• Heated the Dutch oven for about 10 min in a 450 F oven
• Added the dough - didn't hold it's shape too well.  Sprinkled the top with flour

• Put in the oven for 30 min
• Removed the lid and let it bake for 25 more min
• Removed it from the dutch oven and took off the parchment paper
• Let rest over night with foil wrapping.  The bread was crackling a little bit as it cooled
• 9/12/16:
• Tried some bread the next morning
• Ate over half of it.
• 9/13/16:
• Quality starting to fall off a bit but still very nice
• 9/16/16 -  Baked up another loaf:
• This time I measured water and flour by weight:
• 430g of Flour
• 345g of Water
• The dough wasn't any less sticky with these measurements unfortunately
• Let it ferment for 18 hr
• Only had 1.5 hrs to let it rise after shaping
• Cooked it at 515 F for 30 min with the lid and 20 min with the lid off
• The bread was a bit overcooked

• 9/18/16 - Baked up another loaf.  Measured based on weight again.  This time I cooked it at 475 F for 30 min with the lid on and 20 min with the lid off.  This produced a really nice crust.  Before baking I drizzled on some olive oil and a bit of salt which were also nice additions.
• 10/2/16 - I've baked up this bread 5 or 6 more times.  I used Rye Flour for about 1/3 of the batch for a couple which makes a nicely flavored bread - although the texture is a bit different.  Also tried putting various spices on the top the bread while it bakes.  Sill like the original the best I'd say.  I'm going to play around with the ratio of flour to water a bit in the next several loaves.

Impressions:

• Really nice chewy bread.  I really like the bread at Tired Hands brewery and I think this bread is very much like it.
• Flavor was quite nice as well - I'd put it against store quality bread.
• It was fun but a bit more frustrating that I thought it would be.  I expect it will feel more natural as I try again.
• 515 F is too hot in my oven

Lessons Learned:

1. I ended up making two loves for this first round.  With the first I tried to put the bread in a cold Dutch oven with olive oil to prevent sticking.  It stuck so badly that I had to tear it apart to clean the pot.  The parchment paper method worked well with no sticking
2. The dough didn't hold it's shape well or allow me slice the top due to it's level of stickiness.  I believe this was because I was pretty caviler with my measurements of the flour and water.  I've done some further reading and found that 1.5 cups of water seems to be a good alternate amount (recipe recommended 1 5/8).  People also said the "cups" measure should be interpreted as "firmly packed cups'.  I used 1 2/3 cups of water and did not make sure to firmly pack the flour.  Weight seems to be a better method of measuring out ingredients.  I will try that next time.