Everyone daydreams of escape. I knew a restaurant owner and bartender who would search online for photos of beautiful boats for sale after particularly rough Saturday night service, dreaming of a nautical getaway. Likewise, my friend and I worked at The Wine and Cheese Place in high school, and as we cleaned the cheese boards and meat slicers at the end of business, we talked about one day owning a goat farm and making delicious cheese.
St. Louis doesn’t exactly have rolling verdant pastures for my fantasy goats to roam, but thanks to goat milk’s wide availability, I can still fulfill my daydreams of making herbed goat cheese. DIY goat cheese and crackers is a simple project that can be accomplished leisurely over two days or in a few hours with a bottle of rosé to sip while you work.
Since it’s a soft cheese, fresh chevre only requires a few hours refrigeration and just two ingredients: goat milk and lemon juice. No complicated rennet tabs, no aging or hunting for raw product – just a carton of goat milk and a few lemons from your local grocery produces rich, creamy cheese that can be flavored with any combination of fresh herbs, salt or peppercorns. Just make sure to squeeze any remaining liquid (whey) from the cheese curds, or your final product will look more like melted ice cream.
Admittedly, this cracker recipe has a close relationship with a cookie. If you are like me and often contemplate reducing sugar and butter in recipes to make things “healthier,” resist the impulse with these treats. You’ll end up with sad, bitter biscuits even the birds will scorn.
(Get crackin’ on homemade crackers. Try this recipe for Rosemary-Parmesan Crackers, this one for Pimento Cheese Crackers, and for the healthy among us, a recipe for Veggie Flax Crackers.) The rich sweetness of the wheat and butter in these whole-wheat crackers pairs perfectly with the lemony tang of fresh goat cheese.
The Shopping List* 1 quart goat milk
Juice of 2 to 3 lemons
5 cloves roasted garlic (DIY here)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup wheat bran
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
½ tsp. baking soda
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold butter
*This list assumes you have kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour at hand in your kitchen. If not, you will need to purchase those items, too. The Gameplan Day 1: Start the goat cheese. Prepare the cracker dough.
Day 2: Flavor the goat cheese. Bake the crackers.
Herbed Goat Cheese Makes 1 cup
1 quart goat milk
Juice of 3 lemons
5 cloves roasted garlic (DIY here)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme, minced
¾ tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Day 1: Prepare an ice water batch in a large metal bowl and set aside.
• In a nonreactive 5-quart saucepan, gently warm the goat milk over medium heat until it reaches 180 degrees and small bubbles start to form on the sides of the pot. Remove from heat and pour the milk into a small metal bowl.
• Stir in two-thirds of the lemon juice. Place the smaller bowl into the ice bath and refrigerate until small white particles form in a pale yellow liquid, 20 to 30 minutes (If nothing happens, add the remaining one-third of the lemon juice and refrigerate until curds form.).
• Remove the small bowl from the ice bath and discard the cold water. Line a fine-mesh sieve with cheesecloth and place it over the large bowl.
• Pour the curdled milk through the sieve to separate the curds, making sure the bottom of the sieve does not touch the liquid (whey) in the bowl. Refrigerate at least 1½ hours or overnight.
• Day 2: Gather the ends of the cheesecloth together and gently squeeze the remaining whey from the curds. (Reserve 1 cup whey for the Whole-Wheat Crackers recipe.) Discard the remaining whey.
• Scrape the soft white curds into a mixing bowl. Add the roasted garlic, chives, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly and season to taste. Cheese will keep, covered, in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Whole-Wheat Crackers 24 to 30 crackers
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup wheat bran
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. baking soda
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold butter, cut into 1/3-inch cubes
1 cup reserved cold whey, milk or water
All-purpose flour, for dusting
• Day 1: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and baking soda until just mixed. Add the butter and pulse until a coarse mixture forms and the butter is the size of small peas.
• With the machine running, pour the whey into the mixture until a moist dough just comes together. Form the dough into a 2-inch-thick disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 20 minutes or overnight.
• Day 2: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
• Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the chilled dough to 3/8-inch thick. Use a 1½-to-2-inch glass or pastry mold to cut out circles and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until the crackers are firm and the bottoms are golden-brown. Let the crackers cool completely on the hot baking sheet to crisp. Crackers will keep in an airtight container up to 1 week.
-photos by Michelle Volansky
This article appears in April 2015.