Week Eight: Goat Brie Cheese

I loved the Goat Cheese in week seven so much, I thought I'd try it again. The goat cheese this week was the goat form of brie. So pretty much a hydrid of my two fave cheeses so far - goat and brie.

Goat's milk
MF 22%, Moisture 56%

Taste: Creamy, soft, a light taste. Slightly less salty than brie. A lot of moisture.

Texture: A soft cheese. Reminded me of brie cheese - however, this had a lower fat content and higher moisture content. The goat cheese was a bit softer than brie.

The very first taste test was on crackers. I didn't mind the cheese, it was a little too soft for me though. Kind of like undercooked scrambled eggs that are still a little runny. I think I'll keep goat and brie separated in the future ...

I decided to get a little crazy this week and attempt to make croissants. The ingredients went into the bread maker for a couple of hours. Then I rolled out the dough into two circles and cut them each into eight wedges.

Half got filled with dark 72% cocoa chocolate (we have a rather large stash of dark chocolate at home, so I ground some up in a food processor).

The other half got filled with the goat cheese.

All rolled up ...

And baked ...

Chocolate. Mmmm :-)

Cheese. yum.

The croissants weren't ready until midnight (didn't start up the breadmaker until 8 o' clock ...) but ofcourse I still had to do a taste test.

Well I really enjoyed both flavors, but I think I like the cheese one a little better. A lot of the goat cheese oozed out the sides of the croissants. On the inside, it blended into the dough and gave a nice light taste throughout the croissant. Next time I want to try the recipe with a cheese that has a higher fat content and lower moisture content - like a gruyere - to get a different melting effect.

Also made some multgrain bread in the breadmaker earlier on in the week. I put some Frank's Red Hot on it and some goat cheese.

Followed by eggs and homemade salsa. It tasted wayyyyyy better than it looks.

Okay this dish has nothing to do with cheese. It just looked really nice. And it tasted even better =D

Week Seven: Goat Cheese

This was my first time buying goat cheese. My brother brought over a block of the stuff a few months ago but my mum and I were afraid to try it, so it got chucked out. However, I've recently been paying closer attention to restaurant menus when I go out, and I realised that I eat goat cheese pretty often, and it's one of my favorite elements in a dish ... I usually just think to myself 'the cheese in this is really good' ... but I never actually checked what the cheese was. So at the end of this week I realised I really enjoy it in salads and sandwiches ... and pretty much any dish ... and I'll confess to eating it straight out of the container :-D

Goat's Milk

MF 20%, Moisture 60%

Taste: Very creamy and light. A nice refreshing taste :-)

Texture: Light and fluffy, like a whipped cream cheese. Spreads well.

I ate the goat cheese everyday ... loved it that much!!

Wrap one: Goat cheese, Gardein beefless strips, grated carrot, pickles, artichokes ... I thought about taking a picture of this ... after it was wrapped up and half eaten :-). It was a heavy wrap that tasted great in the beginning, but got to be a little much in the end. I think I will avoid the artichoke and pickle next time - or at least go a little lighter on them. I'm not used to putting that sort of stuff in my meals a I think I was a little heavy handed. Also, the beefless strips aren't bad. I'm not an experienced tofu taste tester though. They definitely had that 'I'm pretending to be meat' taste. They weren't bad, but weren't great either. I prefer real beef strips and probably wouldn't buy these again.

Wrap two: Goat cheese, lettuce, Gardein beefless strips. Urgh, okay the beefless strips ruined this wrap :-(. I had one more portion of beefless strips left after this wrap and I chucked it. I really didn't like the fake beef flavoring today ... the beefless strips tasted different than yesterday ... a lot less tolerable

Mmmm the meal below was really good! Stir fried veggies and rotisserie roast on one side. On the other, goat cheese on a homemade chili cheese loaf (I used aged cheddar in the loaf ... aaaand I did it in the breadmaker :-), not by hand).
So I know the presentation isn't that great (looks like an airplane meal) ... but what do you expect with a brown bag lunch?!

Here's a picture of the loaf (half eaten...)

To celebrate Saint Patrick's day we had a green pizza party. Here's my green pizza dough (just added green food coloring to a regular dough recipe). I also added aged cheddar into the dough.

And then I topped it off with pesto and goat cheese and leftover chicken. yummmmm

Week Six: Danish Blue Cheese

Week Six: Danish Blue Cheese

To be honest, I've never bought blue cheese before. I find people either hate it or love it, and because of that I've always shied away from the stuff. Well, I took the plunge and bought some today. There were a few choices with varying milkfat and moisture contents. I ended up going for the traditional crumbled.

Cow's Milk
MF 27%, Moisture 47%

Taste: So I tried a crumble on its own for my first taste test ... I actually really enjoyed it. Wow it had a strong cheesy flavor, but also a second distinct taste that I couldn't quite put my finger on - I'm assuming its source is the blue veins. This was also the first time it occurred to me that blue cheese is often an ingredient in buffalo chicken wraps, which I love. I recognized the flavor right away. Well, it was really creamy and yummy, and I'm glad I'm giving it a try!

Texture: Soft and creamy, but can hold its shape.

I decided to make a pizza - half BBQ chicken with mozza, half buffalo chicken with mozza and blue cheese. I tried to make my own dough - some how I managed to really screw it up :-( I had pressed the dough between two pieces of wax paper. Well, anyway, the dough is a slightly wetter and stickier type, and it definitely soaked into the wax paper and disintegrated it. My mum managed to salvage some of the dough so I made a mini mozza cheese pizza with it. I ended up using premade crust for the chicken pizza. You can see the mostly eaten chicken pizza below. It was pretty yummy! I was a little heavy handed with the blue cheese - less is definitely more with that stuff!!


I tried the blue cheese in a wrap the next day - again, a little too heavy handed. This stuff definitely has an overpowering flavor!

Okay, one more try with the blue cheese - with steak :-) I've learned my lesson - go easy on the blue!! It was pretty good. But in the end, I think blue cheese is great for a treat once in a while. Three times in one week was a little much for me.


Also baked some cookies this week - I've tried this particular recipe once before. Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies from Carrots n' Cake (http://carrotsncake.com/2009/01/chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.html). I had a bunch of leftover canned pumpkin that needed to be used up and these cookies are delicious. I prefer them over the blondies that I made last week. Also, I used milk chocolate chips instead of raisins :-)

Week Five: Cantenaar

Week Five: Cantenaar

This is my first time trying this cheese. It's made from Cow's Milk, and is a low fat cheese.

17% MF, 43% Moisture

Taste: I'll be honest, I really didn't like this cheese. It had that processed taste, kind of like Kraft singles, except that it was harder and it had an acidic taste as well. I tried it on crackers and wasn't impressed.

I also put it in my vegetarian burrito. The other flavors in the burrito overpowered it so I didn't mind it in there (basically because I couldn't taste it). But in the end, I'll probably be chucking out the cheese. I don't know, maybe I got a bad slab ... or maybe that's what I get for trying low fat cheese?

Texture: On the harder side. I expected it to be a little softer than it was since it has the same moisture content as gouda. But it's more like gruyere.

Note: The burrito contains vegetarian chili, veggie ground round, and Cantenaar ... Simple and yummy!!

I also tried a new recipe this week ... I got it from http://carrotsncake.com/2009/04/peanut-butter-blondies.html ... Peanut Butter Blondies (I used almond butter instead of peanut butter). Anyway, they didn't taste like blondies ... they weren't as sweet. However, they were still delicious :-). Really good and moist the next day because of the canned squash. They tasted healthy and hearty!

Week Four: Gruyere

Week Four: Gruyere

Cow's Milk
32% MF, 36% Moisture

Taste: A little less salty. A hard cheese with a strong taste.

Texture: Hard, not too crumbly though.

Week Three: Double Cream Brie

Week Three: Double Cream Brie

30% MF, 50% Moisture
Cow's milk

Taste: Rich and creamy, a distinctive earthy flavor
Texture: Very soft and buttery, like a thick spread

Favorite way to eat it: This is one of my favorite types of cheese. Tastes great on crackers or in a sandwich with a cured meat (eg: bacon, salami, etc)
I tried it in an egg salad wrap but its distinctive taste just didn't mesh too well.

Week Two: Dill Havarti

Week Two: Dill Havarti

MF 30%, Moisture 45%

Cows milk

Taste: Mild, smooth and creamy. Not sure how I feel about the dill though.

Texture: Slightly soft, smooth (4)

Recommended? Yes