The plant-based cheesemaking sector is rapidly growing and evolving, which is why we are so excited for the release of the second edition of The Art of Plant-Based Cheesemaking: How to Craft Real, Cultured, Non-Dairy Cheese. With new methods and recipes, this book takes vegan cheesemaking to a new level.
Today on the blog, we take an excerpt from The Art of Plant-Based Cheesemaking, where Karen McAthy shares her recipe for Mozzarella-Style Cheese.
Excerpt from the book The Art of Plant-Based Cheesemaking
Mozzarella is a mild flavored cheese, which, in traditional cheesemaking, is due to the short culturing time frame and thus, relatively low acidity. Mozzarella, like most short cultured, or fresh, cheeses, relies very much on the quality of the milk for its flavor. Balls of fresh mozzarella, rather than the shreds found in bags, tend to pool and settle when they melt, versus the dramatic stretchiness that is often associated with the shredded mozzarella.
Plant-based mozza alternatives usually focus on the so-called meltability or stretchiness of a mozzarella. Most of the commercially available plant-based mozza alternatives are attempting to replicate the shredded mozza often found in bags in grocery stores. This style of mozza (dairy or plant-based) does not reflect fresh mozzarella sold in soft balls either vacuum sealed or in brine. The recipe below is intended to be made into balls of mozza or bocconcini (of whatever size you like).
Mozzarella-Style Cheese
Ingredients
- Heavy cast sauce pot
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Metal whisk
- Silicone or wooden spoon
- Container for holding the setting fluid (Ensure this is large enough for the amount of cheeze you want to set, and keep in mind that as you add cheeze to the setting fluid, it will displace the fluid, causing the level to rise.)
- Bamboo mat or wooden board