Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

If you didn’t read the title of this post, I’m sure you would be scratching your head right now wondering, “What the heck is that?” referring to the picture above.

But assuming you did read the title, you know it’s homemade cheese. What makes it heavenly is fresh lavender.

I should have taken the time to pretty up the presentation before eating it, but I didn’t so you get what you get in the photo department. But believe me when I say that this easy-to-make cheese would make a gorgeous and flavorful addition to your next party, should you take the time to make it beautiful, that is.

Making this cream cheese is one of my happiest discoveries of the last year. It’s so simple to do that I pretty much guarantee that once you make it, you’ll never buy the packaged stuff again.

Easy Peasy Homemade Lavender Cream Cheese

Ingredients

1 quart of organic whole milk

5 tablespoons organic lemon juice

Salt (to taste)

4 tablespoons organic lavender (more or less)

Supplies:

Pot

Spoon

Cheesecloth

Colander

Bowl

rubber band

string

How to:

1. Slowly bring milk to a boil, stirring so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

2. Once you see bubbles forming, immediately remove from heat.

3. Slowly add in lemon juice, continuing to stir in one direction. You will see the curds separating from the whey (yes, as in Little Miss Muffet fame) known as curdling.

4. Line the colander with cheesecloth. Actually I couldn’t find cheesecloth in the house so I just used a cotton napkin which worked fine, and place the colander in a bowl.

5. Pour the curdled milk into the cheesecloth, lifting to allow some of the liquid to pass through the colander and into the bowl.

6. Once the initial whey has dripped off, take the four corners of the cheesecloth and tie them together or use a rubber band to close the “package.”

7. Use the string to tie your package (over the bowl) to a cabinet pull to allow more liquid to drain. Depending on how dry you’d like the cheese, you can suspend it for 1/2-1 hour.

8. Untie and squeeze the package if you want to get out more liquid. (This really is a personal preference.)

9. Scrape cheese into a bowl add salt to taste and lavender. (A note on lavender. I use fresh culinary lavender from my garden. If you use lavender, be sure it has not been sprayed. You can purchase organic culinary lavender from Purple Haze Lavender.

If you have a mold, press the cheese into it for a much prettier presentation than mine!

This cheese should last three or four days in the fridge.

What to do with the whey? I stuck mine in the freezer to use in soup.

Try the recipe and let me know what you think!

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.