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Homemade cheese without milk

Homemade cheese without milk

Light, simple, appetizing, and made from everyday ingredients! Cheese you make at home is tastier and better for you than the store-bought kind — it's completely natural, with no additives. Making cheese at home is no trouble at all. In this recipe it's cooked from cottage cheese, with no milk at all.

katushafin

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Cottage cheese

500

Eggs

Butter

Baking soda

0.5

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 47 % 14 g

Fats 53 % 16 g

Carbohydrates 0 % 0 g

200 kcal

GI: 0 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make homemade cheese without milk? Gather your ingredients. Use full-fat farmer's-style cottage cheese — the cheese may not set up properly with the store-bought low-fat kind. Use good-quality butter with no additives.
Step 2:

In a separate bowl, combine the cottage cheese, egg, salt, and baking soda. I worked it with my hands to break up all the lumps in the cottage cheese. You can also blitz the mixture with an immersion blender.
Step 3:

Set up a water bath on the stove. Take a large pot, fill it halfway with water, and set it over the heat. Once the water boils, set a bowl on top, sized so its rim rests on the pot's edges. Lower the heat. Your water bath is ready. Put the butter in the bowl and melt it.
Step 4:

Add the cottage cheese mixture to the butter and stir.
Step 5:

Stirring constantly, cook the mixture until the cottage cheese has fully melted. It should turn smooth and pourable. I stirred with a whisk.
Step 6:

Once that happens, keep cooking the cheese. It takes a good while — at least 30 minutes — and you'll need to stir it now and then.
Step 7:

If you cook the cheese for 30 minutes, it'll come out soft, much like a processed cheese spread. For a firm cheese, cook it 45–50 minutes. The mixture will cook down nicely and thicken, as you can see in the photo. Keep an eye on the water level in the pot and top it up if it boils away.
Step 8:

Pour the cheese into the container you'll store it in and let it cool at room temperature. Enameled, glass, or plastic containers and bowls all work. Then cover the container with a lid and put it in the fridge. The cheese will be ready in two hours.
Step 9:

I left the cheese overnight and slipped it out of the bowl easily in the morning. Properly made cheese slices cleanly and doesn't stick to the knife. It's delicious on its own, with fresh bread and butter. Enjoy!

I wouldn't take on a big batch of cottage cheese at once. 500 grams is just right to start with — it'll give you about 250 grams of finished cheese. You don't have to hover over it the whole time; I just stayed nearby, stirring with a whisk now and then. The key is to make sure the water in the pot doesn't boil dry. The first time, I happened to cook the cheese for only half an hour, and the next day I had a spreadable cheese rather than a firm one. I put it back over the water bath and cooked it another half hour or so. It came out nearly firm — I couldn't slice it thin, but I did eat the sandwich! The takeaway: for firm cheese, cook it about an hour, maybe more. Or use a drier cottage cheese. Remember that homemade foods keep for less time. Store the finished cheese in a covered container in the fridge.
Always wash eggs before using them, since even a shell that looks clean can carry harmful bacteria. A food-safe wash and a brush work best.
Wondering whether you can swap baking powder for baking soda, how to add each one correctly for fluffy results, how to avoid an unpleasant soda aftertaste, and more? Read the article "Baking powder or baking soda — which is better?"
How can you tell if an egg is fresh? Crack it into a separate dish. First, there should be no off smell. The white of a fresh egg will be clear and clean. The yolk shouldn't spread out — it should be shiny, domed, and uniform.