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Friday, August 27, 2010

Homemade, dairy free, gluten free, soy free ‘processed’ cheese

Two recipes in two days…I understand my blogging experience is still in its infancy, but even I know that is an unusual occurrence. I doubt this will happen regularly, although, I have quite a bit of catching up to do and will likely be posting two or three recipe’s a week for the next month or so. At minimum, I plan to maintain at least one recipe, idea, or food related conversation per week and look forward to insight my readers will offer over time.


That being said…onto today’s recipe.

Homemade, dairy free, gluten free, soy free ‘processed’ cheese

To quote the website where I obtained the basis for this recipe… “Say whaaa?”

A few days ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Heidi Kelly from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom, posted a picture on facebook of the end result from a recipe she had been working on that she felt wasn’t quite perfect (but looked absolutely delectable!); and asked “Shall I go ahead and share the recipe so you can try it and tweak it to your liking?” To which several of her readers (including me) responded with an overwhelming “YES!”

While her version included powdered rice milk and Daiya cheese (of which I presently have neither), I tweaked my version to include powdered goats milk and Manchego cheese (you will find we use Manchego a lot).

What I like most about this cheese is not only the smooth creamy texture, but the fact that it certainly provides a way to get more for your money. I put in 8 oz of Manchego and came out with 12 oz of creamy, Velveeta like cheesiness. (Yum!). I do believe my version came out firmer than Heidi’s, although the conversation on her page regarding vegan cheeses and the yumminess of Daiya sparked my interest well enough to hunt some down and purchase it…I hope to have this shipment in early next week so I can perfect a vegan version of this ‘processed’ cheese and promise to post as soon as I have that perfected as well.

Without further adieu, please enjoy the goat’s milk version below:



Ingredients:

• 8 oz Grated Manchego Cheese

• ½ cup VERY Hot Water

• 3 Tbs Powdered Goats Milk

• ½ tsp Unflavored Gelatin

Directions:

Line mini loaf pan with plastic wrap or parchment paper.

In a blender or food processor, put ½ cup VERY hot water, 3 Tbs. Powdered Goats Milk, ½ tsp gelatin. Whip until the gelatin is dissolved.

Quickly add 8 oz grated Manchego cheese and blend until well combined (it will look like cream cheese at this point). Pour into lined mini loaf pan.

Cover pan with more plastic wrap and chill overnight before unmolding. Keep cold and slice as needed. Enjoy!

After photographing the end result, I sliced a bit for each child and received varying results. Keili (my dairy free child), simply responded with “YUMMY!” Savannah and Shea reflected with “mmmmm, this is goooooood mommy!” Taylor said it tasted like American cheese, while Damian argued that it was just like a white Velveeta (which is ultimately what I was going for). Anyway you look at it, they all really liked what they tasted and anxiously asked for more. When I explained that I was saving the cheese for Keili’s mac and cheese lunch next week (I make her school lunches identical to what the cafeteria is serving, simply ‘tweaking’ each item to ensure they are ‘Keili safe’), there was a disappointed, yet harmonic ‘awe’ from all (I swear they rehearse).

Find the original recipe and inspiration for this post: here. Please add Heidi to your list of ‘blog’s to follow,’ she is absolutely great!

Thanks everyone!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea!! I am so happy for you Sunny! ;-) Your cheese looks scrumptious! :-D

xo,
Heidi

Casey said...

Hi, I followed you over from Heidi's blog. Can I ask where you get manchego cheese? I have only heard of it for the first time this week (saw it in my first copy of "Living Without" magazine) but I checked online and shipping prices are insane. I'm excited to have another cheese options for my kids and myself.

Thanks for posting this!

lorentide said...

your cousin Cassie told me about your blog, my entire family has Celiac (including me) and I also can't tolerate dairy (although I found out this week that raw cheese doesn't bother me!) I look forward to making this cheese recipe, I miss velveeta :) thanks for your posting!

Sunny B said...

I am still working on the formatting for this site, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to want to let me respond to each comment individually. Please forgive the mass response here; just know I appreciate each of you individually. :)

Heidi, thank you for the inspiration! I hope am still waiting on a shipment before I can perfect the vegan version of this recipe, though I will certainly let you know once I have it down!

:) Hi Casey! I am glad to see you here. We purchase our Manchego cheese at the local Sam's Club here in town; they do carry it at some of the larger chain supermarkets, although the price is often more than double what we find at the warehouse store. I know others who have successfully purchased Manchego at Sam's in California, Nevada and Georgia as well. Definitely a good place to start.

I actually discovered Manchego prior to moving to Texas at Trader Joe's, and should you be lucky enough to have one close by, I strongly suggest checking out their cheese section. Truly, Trader Joe's has one of the best store variety non-cow's milk cheese and deserts sections around. Please be cautious with their processed or sliced cheeses though, last I checked, even their brand-name 'veggie' cheese contains casein derived from cow's milk. If only manufactures’ would figure out this defies the purpose for the 'veggie' cheese in the first place!

Please check out my dairy-free, gluten free Creamy Green Chicken Enchilada Recipe as well. Undoubtedly you will LOVE it!

Aranae, so glad to have you here! Are you by chance Cassie’s friend who loves Rosa’s? :) If so, first, let me compliment you for your taste (I LOVE Rosa’s too!), second, welcome! I hope the ideas shared here will add to your repertoire and make your life easier! Check out the Creamy Green Chicken Enchilada Recipe and keep your eyes posted for the GF/DF Mac and Cheese recipe I will have posted later today (super YUM!).