Homemade Coffee Cheese (Kaffeost)

This Coffee Cheese recipe was passed on to me by Chris Kridakorn-Odbratt, who lives in the Jungles of Laos.

I am yet to try this out, but seeing I live in a city with a pretty big coffee culture, I would be crazy not to try this out pretty soon.  Chris sent through a couple of photos, so you can get an idea of what this cheese is all about!

Here is the recipe;

Homemade Coffee Cheese

Coffee cheese originally made from the milk warm, straight from a cow or reindeer and used in coffee as a kind of snack. Irresistible for a Northern Swede in general and a Tornedaling (border to Finland) in particular! At least if they belong to the middle-aged generation with a plus sign …

If you have no barn, or reindeer (as the best Coffee Cheese is made from), use whole milk or preferably raw milk…

Ingredients

• 2 liters of milk
• 60 ml heavy cream
• 2 tsp rennet (available at the pharmacy and in some stores)

Method

1. Pour the milk and cream in a 3-liter saucepan
2. Heat to lukewarm (37 degrees C)
3. Lift off the pan and mix in rennet. Let stand for about 30-40 minutes until the liquid has solidified ( curdled itself )
4. Stir gently with a slotted spoon while you heat up the liquid to lukewarm again .
5. Steer meanwhile the cheese from the edges toward the center of the pan .
6. When the cheese is gathered into a ball in the middle heat the whole thing up to the boiling point – but it should not boil ! Take the pan off the heat just before the whey boils.
7. Place the cheese in a fine mesh colander / strainer large / or in a cheese mold if you have one of those.
8. Press out as much whey as possible out of the cheese. Set a weight and leave for a few hours so the last whey is pressed out and the cheese gets dry .
9. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Press the cheese into a well greased casserole dish – cheese should be a maximum of 3 cm thick. Bake the cheese in center of oven until browned. The cheese can also be used without baking but I think it will be tastier to bake it.
10. If the edges become hard – wrap the warm cheese in aluminum foil afterwards so they soften.
11. When the cheese has cooled – cut into small cubes or strips, put a pile in the coffee cup and fill the cup with fresh coffee .
12. Stir and eat with a spoon …. enjoy the taste and the sound ….

If there is anything left – package well and freeze down or make dessert with warm cloudberries or raspberry coulis. The whey may be used as liquid to bake soft bread.

What do you think?  Who is going to try this and report back to the curd nerd community?