Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ricotta cheese is the best.  Unless you’ve been using the kind at the grocery store.  Ugg.  Please stop using that immediately, and give this a try!  If you don’t like it, you can go back to the store bought kind, and I won’t say a word!  To me, the store bought brands tend to be watery and grainy.  Nothing like homemade ricotta.

When I was a kid, we used to drive up to Colorado to visit my grandparents and stop at a goat farm on the way to pick up fresh goat cheese ricotta.  Which is the bees knees.  It’s so good, creamy and tangy –  and amazing slathered on a slice of toasted bread with a layer of jam on top.  It’s equally delicious mixed with herbs, cheese, and eggs to make a cheese filling for lasagna and ravioli.

After my grandmother passed away, our visits to Colorado have been fewer.  So I make my own cow’s milk ricotta (that’s amazing in it’s own right), and it’s so simple to do.  I think it has all the amazing qualities of the goat’s milk ricotta, it’s just not as tangy.

I like to serve this banana bread topped with homemade ricotta and fresh strawberries (shown above), but I never say no to toast with jam and ricotta either!  Both make for an amazing breakfast.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese Adapted from Ina Garten

4 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar (I like to use Prosecco vinegar)

Place a large sieve across a large bowl, and line it with cheesecloth (that has been dampened with water) – make sure to cut enough cheesecloth to hang over the bowl (it needs to be able to cover the top of the cheese in the sieve).

In a medium size stainless steel pot, add the milk, heavy cream, and salt.  Stir together, and cook on medium heat on the stove.  Continue to stir occasionally, until the milk mixture comes to a full boil.  Then pour in the white wine vinegar and stir.  Continue to boil the mixture for about 1 minute.

The milk should separate making very tiny curds.  Pour the milk mixture through the cheesecloth (set over a large bowl).  Pour out the whey mixture that collects in the bottom of your bowl, as needed (so it doesn’t overflow).  Let the cheese drain at room temperature for about 30 – 45 minutes.  Then, if you prefer a thicker ricotta, cover the top of the cheese with the overhanging cheesecloth and store the bowl (with sieve) in the refrigerator overnight to allow the cheese to continue draining.  This is how I prefer mine!  The next day, unmold the cheese and pack in a covered container to store in the refrigerator.

If you prefer a wetter, runnier cheese, feel free to spoon the cheese out of the sieve anytime after 30 – 45 minutes (once it reaches your desired consistency) and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.

It’ll last stored this way in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.  Makes about 2 cups.  Recipe doubles easily!

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Thanksgiving is next week!  It’s time to talk about some rolls.  I just love everything about sweet dinner rolls.  The smell, the soft puffiness, the way they bounce out of the baking pan.  And I love the taste of them.  I could eat like three.  But I can’t.  So I won’t.  I’ll just admire them from afar.

These rolls are best served the day they are made, but they’re still good the next day.  You can also place them in a freezer bag and freeze them for up to a month.

Now I know there are a ton of directions below.  Do not let that dissuade you from trying these out – just read through first, and get ready to make these over and over again for your family!

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls Adapted from Bakeaholic Mama

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2/3 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup melted, unsalted butter

1/4 honey

3 eggs, room temperature (if eggs are cold, place the eggs in a bowl of hot tap water to warm up, then crack as usual)

1 Tablespoon coarse kosher salt

5 to 6 cups bread flour

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yeast, water, and sugar.  Let set for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until foamy.

Add the melted butter and whisk to combine.  Then add the pineapple juice, coconut milk, honey, eggs, and salt.  Whisk together until combined.

Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, and stir until the dough gets hard to stir in the bowl.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead the dough – adding more flour as needed, until the dough is slightly sticky and smooth.

Set the dough in a large bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap, or let the dough rise in a dough rising bucket with the lid just sitting on top.

Let the dough sit at room temperature until doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a couple of times.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces – roughly 4.3 to 4.6 ounces each (this will just depend on how much flour you end up using).  Use your kitchen scale for this task!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with nonstick spray.  Form each section of dough into a ball (see below for tutorial), and place on the pan – there is enough room across for three rows of (four) rolls (see below).

Place a damp dish towel over the pan of rolls and let rise for about an hour, or until doubled.

Gently brush dough with egg wash.  2 egg yolks + 2 Tablespoons heavy cream – strained through a sieve (that way it’s nice and smooth).

Save any leftover egg wash in a covered container in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Bake the rolls for 25 minutes.  They should be golden brown and fluffy.  Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.  Then carefully lift them out, or flip them over onto the counter (like me).  These are best enjoyed the day you make them, or the following day.

They also freeze beautifully and can be reheated wrapped in foil at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until soft and warm.

Form each roll into a ball, and stretch it into a fat disc.

Next, push up through the center of the dough with one hand, while using the other to pull down the edges around it.

While the top will look smooth, the bottom will look like a big wad of collected dough (because that’s what it is!).

The top is smooth, and ready to be placed in the greased 9×13 inch baking pan.

After the dough has risen they look so beautiful and puffy!

Perfectly browned and delicious!

Salted Caramel

Confession time.  I don’t really like caramel – gasp!  I know.  Crazy, right?!  But my kids love to dip their apples, top their ice cream, and drizzle it over a nice slice of apple pie.

It also helps that this caramel is the best caramel that I’ve ever had – and that’s saying a lot!  So maybe I do like caramel after all.  🙂

Salted Caramel Adapted from Baked Explorations

1 cup heavy cream

2 scant teaspoons Maldon salt

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

4 Tablespoons corn syrup

1/2 cup sour cream

In a large glass measuring cup, add the heavy cream and salt.  Microwave for 30 seconds on high.  Whisk with a fork, and microwave for another 30 seconds if needed.  It should be steamy and foamy, whisk to dissolve salt; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and corn syrup – stir to combine.  Wash the sugar crystals off the sides of the pot using a pastry brush dipped in water.

Cook the mixture over high heat (about a 5-6 on a gas burner) for about 15 minutes without stirring.  Towards the end of the cooking time keep an eye on the caramel, as it can go from clear to yellow to burned in a matter of seconds.

This sugar syrup is almost ready – see the color difference?!

This is what it should look like!  Take the syrup off the burner and let it set for 1 minute.  After one minute.  Carefully whisk in the warm heavy cream mixture – it will foam up like crazy (be careful, the steam can burn – consider wearing an oven mitt to protect your whisking hand or use a long-handled whisk).  The foam actually made it to the top of this pot – so be careful!!

Once the mixture is smooth (it’ll seem like caramel water), whisk in the sour cream until combined.  Then pour the caramel into a heat-proof container (preferably a glass jar) and let it cool to room temperature.  The caramel will thicken as it cools.  Store covered for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

Rolling Out Cut-Out Cookie Dough

I was talking to my sister (Hi Lisa!) today about sugar cookies.  Specifically, what makes them so challenging.  I decided it would have to be the fact that they’re so hard to cut out and remove from the counter intact.  I don’t know if others have suffered from this problem?  Perhaps it’s only me.

Anyway, a few years ago I bought this book, and it was literally the start of my sugar cookie baking/decorating hobby.  I discovered this great tip (in the book) for loosening cut-out cookie dough from the counter to ensure that you don’t end up with smooshed (and/or broken) sugar cookies, and I’ve been using it ever since.

Here’s a brief, badly photographed, left-handed (which I’m not) tutorial.

Roll out your cookie dough on a lightly floured surface, and using this spatula, gently move it up and down under the dough to loosen it from your counter.

Next just use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes, then lift them with your spatula and place on your parchment-lined baking sheet to chill or bake.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Making Homemade Vanilla Extract

This is my vanilla extract.  The larger bottle is vodka (1.75 Liters to be exact) with approximately 45-50 vanilla beans steeping.  And in the long run it’s more economical (and better tasting) to make my own.  I go through 2 of these bottles a year!  Yikes!

So let’s get to making our vanilla extract!  This is 1/2 pound of Madagascar vanilla beans that I purchased from Beanilla*, aren’t they gorgeous?!  They’re nice and oily – not dry like some you might find in your local grocery store.

I cut directly down the center of the each vanilla bean for two reasons.  First, I like to see flecks of vanilla seed in my vanilla extract, and second, because a lot of the flavor of the vanilla bean is actually inside the bean.

Next, I drop them directly into my vodka bottle (after removing the plastic guard first) and when the last bean is in, I screw the cap back on and shake well.  Let your vanilla sit for at least 3 months (preferably more) in a cool place, such as your pantry, before using.

I always keep two of these large bottles of vanilla extract in my pantry – one using Madagascar vanilla beans, the other using Bourbon vanilla beans.  I write with sharpie on the top of the caps (“M” for Madagascar and “B” for Bourbon) to make distinguishing them easier.

That way, when I’ve completely drained one bottle I can pull the other one from my pantry and use it, while starting the whole process over again.  You can still use the “old” vanilla beans for making vanilla sugar (just gently pat the beans dry and add them to your sugar container).

You can also make your own vanilla bean paste (seen here) by scraping any seeds that are remaining inside each bean and mixing them with corn syrup until desired consistency – store in a small plastic container with a lid in your pantry.  I personally haven’t tried making my own paste, but I plan on it when I’ve drained my next batch of beans to see if it’ll work with “used” beans – I’m all about repurposing!

This smaller jar is simply some good bourbon with vanilla beans halfed (with the half-side facing down) in order to “plump” the vanilla beans.  This method was mentioned in a cookbook called Sarabeth’s Bakery, and she does this in order to scrap the vanilla seeds out and use them in her baked goods.

No worries, I also plan on using the vanilla-flavored bourbon when I’ve used all my “plumped” beans, and at this rate it should be nice and strong because I don’t scrape out vanilla bean seeds often!

*This is where I purchase my vanilla beans from and I’ve had great experiences with them over the years.  I haven’t been paid (or compensated in any form) for this endorsement – feel free to use whomever you deem worthy!

Freezing Strawberries

Do you ever freeze strawberries?  I do this often in the summer, when the strawberries are so ripe that you can smell them in the produce section even before you see them!

I stock up, and freeze some for smoothies, milkshakes, and strawberry topping.  It’s really easy and convenient, and in the winter I can pull them out of the freeze for a little taste of summer.

All you need to do is wash them, pat them dry, cut off any bad parts and hull them.  Then place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and freeze them for a few hours.

Then place them in a plastic freezer bag (or vacuum seal them – I do this if they’re not going to be used for a few months) and place in the freezer.  Super easy!

Freezing Buttermilk

This is what I did today – I measured buttermilk into freezer containers so I wouldn’t have to pour it down the drain.  And I had lots of buttermilk to freeze since I buy a new 1/2 gallon every two weeks “just in case” I need it for any baking recipes that I might want to try on the fly.  Hopefully this will save me from buying buttermilk for awhile!

And if you’re like me and wonder how long your foods will last past their expiration dates, look no further!  You can head over to Still Tasty* and find out.

*As published in Food Network Magazine

Stay tuned – next I’m posting the chocolate chip cookie recipe that earned my daughter a round of applause from her class!

Gingerbread Playdough

This playdough is so much fun, and I adore gingerbread.  So when I saw it posted here, I just knew I had to try it.  Lucky for me, my daughter’s birthday was coming up and I thought it would be the perfect party favor (and it was)!

Click here for the tutorial and recipe.

In the original post, glass jars were used to gift these – which were so cute.  But I’m dealing with little kids, so I opted for those twist top plastic tubs.  I just printed out some cardstock and used my handy scalloped punch and taped them to the lids.  Then I adhered a small cookie cutter to the top using glue dots.  Super easy.

*I bought the 1 1/2 cup tubs, and I was able to portion off 1 batch of playdough into threes.