home made mozzarella.

We get two gallons of fresh from the cow milk from a local farmer each week. We often make our own yogurt, yogurt cheese, and cream cheese, and sometimes butter. We have been wanting to delve deeper into cheesemaking, but just haven't done too much yet. After seeing a quick segment on a PBS gardening show about making mozzarella, I decided it looked like a fun and easy project to do with the boys.

Yesterday we looked up a recipe, and discovered that we had all of the ingredients needed already! This is so easy to make and the cheese is so good. Other than the time we waited for milk or whey to heat up, this took almost no time at all and was very simple to do.

::making fresh mozzarella at home::
*This recipe is adapted from the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll


ingredients::
2 tsp citric acid
1 gallon raw or whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
1/4 tsp liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup water (we use the vegetable rennet from here)
1 Tbsp sea salt
candy thermometer to check liquid temps


directions::

Pour the milk into a large pot, put on the stove on low/med-med heat. Add citric acid to the milk and mix well. Stir in the diluted rennet with an up and down motion, continue heating until the temperature reaches 105ºF. Turn off the heat and let the curd set for 5-10 minutes.

Scoop out the curds with a slotted spoon (or strain them with a fine mesh strainer) and put them into a large heat resistant bowl. Press the curds gently with your hands, pouring off as much whey as possible into a bowl. Reserve the whey.


Pour the whey back into the pot and heat it to at least 175ºF degrees. Add salt to the whey and stir.

Ladle the hot whey over the curd in the bowl (just to cover) knead the curd with 2 wooden spoons until the curd is smooth and pliable.

The internal temperature of the curd needs to reach around 165 degrees to become pliable and stretchy. If the curd breaks, it needs to be reheated (by pouring more hot whey over the top). If you want to add any dried or fresh herbs, do now. I added a teaspoon of an herb mix I put together which included ground pepper, dried garlic, and an italian herb mix.


Pick the curd up with your hands and quickly squeeze into a ball, tucking the ends under to make smooth. Go fast, will set immediately.

Eat immediately while warm, or if you want to store it for later, place your balls of mozzarella into a bowl of very cold water (you can add more salt if you want, to help intensify the cheese flavor). Let sit a few minutes. Wrap and store in the fridge! Eat within a day or so.

Yield: 3/4 - 1 pound

pizza.

I like recipes that my boys can make. They love to measure, pour, knead and bake. I particularly like recipes that use metric measurements and not only the US cups...not only is it more accurate for baking, but we can pull out the scale and the boys can set the scale to the correct measurement (g/oz) and then weigh each item themselves. They are learning about ounces and cups and grams and milliliters and pounds. They are learning the relative measurements and understanding the relationships between 250 grams of flour vs. 2 cups of flour. They are looking at the scale and comparing quantities on the recipe to the scale readout. Perfect.

Today we made pizza. We have been loving the recipes from the book "Baking Bread with Children" by Warren Lee Cohen. This pizza recipe fit the bill. It was quick and easy, and it had measurements listed in all of the above. The boys did all of the measuring, kneading and rolling. We only tweaked the recipe a bit using our favorite flours for pizza. Turned out great!


::pizza::

250g (2 cups) strong 00 Italian pizza flour (or strong white bread flour)
250g (2 cups) whole wheat pastry flour (recipe calls for 'plain' or pastry flour, I used whole wheat pastry)
15 ml (1 Tbsp) honey
10ml (2 tsp) sea salt
10ml (2 tsp) good yeast
300 ml (10 oz = about 1 1/4 cups) warm water (body temp or so)
45 ml (3 Tbsp) olive oil

pizza sauce, cheese and toppings.

In large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the honey. Let it sit in a warm spot for about 10 minutes until it is bubbly and smells yeasty.

Add the salt, olive oil, and then slowly add in the flour. The dough will start to come together - it should still be slightly sticky to touch. You can use your hands for this part, or use a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook just to incorporate it.

Sprinkle some flour on your counter and hand knead the dough for about 10 minutes.


Oil a bowl with olive oil. Put the kneaded dough (ball) into the bowl and cover it with a moist towel - put in a warm spot. Let it rise for 1.5 - 2 hours until double in size.

Pull the dough out of the bowl and cut into two pieces (or 4 pieces if you want little individual pizzas).

Roll or stretch into a round or whatever shape you want and put onto a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina flour (to keep from sticking) ...

Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.

Put on the sauce, toppings and cheese. Let the prepped pizzas sit and rise for 15 minutes while the oven pre-heats.

Bake for 7-15 minutes or so, depending on how thinly you rolled your dough...bake until golden and cheese bubbly.

Let cool a bit before slicing.



ingredient tip:

00 pizza flour is a high gluten finely ground flour. It is usually called Italian Tipo "00" flour. It looks like baby powder - it is a finer ground than normal flour, is high gluten, and it will give your dough an incredible super-smooth texture. I find it at the local Italian deli. I liked this recipe using the '00' flour mixed with the whole wheat white flour. It was a great texture and was still a light crust with the whole grain bonus. It is really good - my kids will eat it, and they are picky about pizza dough!

homemade marshmallows.

We had family over last night and wanted to sit outside with a fire. The boys of course wanted to make s'mores, but I am not thrilled with regular marshmallows. So, we made our own! They are easy to make, this makes a big batch, and they have a really nice flavor. The boys helped with just about everything, and were so proud to share their creation with all of the kids on our block last night as they joined us to roast marshmallows over the fire!

::homemade marshmallows::

.75-oz unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups turbinado sugar
2/3 cups organic light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
organic confectioners' sugar

Line a 9" x 9" pan with plastic wrap and lightly brush it with oil (I used coconut oil).

In your mixer/kitchen aid with the whisk attachment, put the gelatin in the bowl and add 1/2 cup cold water - stir a bit, let soak for about 10 minutes.

In a small pan, combine the corn syrup, sugar and 1/4 cup water - bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute.

Pour the boiling mixture into your gelatin bowl and turn on the mixer to high. Add the salt and let it beat for 12 minutes on high. When the 12 minutes is up, add the vanilla and beat together. Add any color you would like too - we added some blue.


Using an oiled spatula, scoop the marshmallow into the pan (quickly!!) and smooth. Put another piece of oiled plastic wrap over the top and smooth out.

Let it sit for a few hours until set. We put ours in the fridge to speed it up a bit.

Once it is firm...put confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Take the marshmallow from the pan and remove plastic wrap. Cut into small blocks using a knife or scissors. Lightly roll each piece into the sugar (so it won't stick to everything). Store and eat!



This recipe is adapted from the Martha Stewart marshmallow recipe - we just used all organic ingredients, added color, and tweaked it a bit.



ingredients tip:
Look for a good quality gelatin, or try Agar-Agar, a plant based thickener similar to gelatin for cooking uses. If you use Agar, you will need to boil the water/agar mixture before using (while gelatin uses cold water soak).

Fresh Pasta.

Today we decided to make fresh pasta to go with the home made tomato sauce we cooked this morning. Think pasta from scratch is too hard? Hey - a two year old can make it! :) And boy did he have fun.


He helped measure and stir, but I did the kneading.

His big brother did come in to help with the pasta cranking, because what 4 year old could stay away? But this little guy did most of the work.

It turned out great - mmm. I'll post the recipe soon!

Pasta Sauce.

We decided to make some fresh pasta sauce today to use the last of our Roma Tomatoes. The boys rinsed them and then helped scoop out the gloop after I cut them into 1/2. We scattered diced leeks and whole fresh garlic on a baking pan, and then place the scooped halves skin up on the pan. We sprinkled over some of the dried herbs from our garden and some sea salt.


They baked for about 45 minutes on 325.


The smell was awesome. They came out when nice and roasted.


We put everything into the cuisinart for a whiz before going into a pot. We added just a little bit of red wine and some more of our dried garden herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary).


We let it just sit and simmer for a few hours and get nice and dark and thick. What is next? Well, we need some pasta to go with it!

Applesauce.

I have two amazing little helpers. We went to a park this morning to play with some friends (hi guys!), and then after lunch we got rolling.

They peeled & cored (crank crank crank), taking turns and cheering each other on.

They smushed (crank crank crank) with the food mill - it can't be too chunky, they said.


The house filled with an amazing aroma. They added cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup.


Delicious!!

We didn't make too much today (5 qts) - just enough for them to do most of it and have a great time without it being *too much*. They had a blast.

I might make more. Definitely not as much as this marathon applesauce goddess, though!

Smoothies.

Smoothies are a favorite in this house. It is nice both boys like them, as they are at the ages where texture and smell issues seem to plague their veggie and fruit consumption. It is FUN because they get to make their own - and we use big loud appliances, after all. They both really enjoy picking and choosing their ingredients -- juiced veggies, fresh yogurt, frozen fruits...the result is always delicious (and packed with stuff they won't eat in its' original form).

Today, A juiced carrots for the liquid base. He then added home made vanilla yogurt, frozen strawberries & blueberries, and a few frozen peaches. We added a little liquid supplement (CLO) too, to make it extra good, and whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzed it right up.

Today A was pretty nervous about tasting the smoothie - he juiced both orange AND white (gasp) carrots. But of course he eventually did a "taste test", loved it, and yes, this photo below is of him, all smoothie goofy & dribbled. He was yelling "white carrots are NOT disgusting" while I snapped a shot.


Making smoothies is definitely one of the favorite kitchen activities - and we try to make it a ritual/activity which we do at least once or twice a week. YUM!