How To Make Yogurt Cheese II

The most amazing thing is making cheese. I never thought I would ever try it. When I had goats, the thought of goat milk anything was too disgusting to comprehend. Now, I regret not having a goat. I am also looking for a source of milk, which will be hard, since it's winter and people are drying up their does. Anyway, here are some pictures of the cheesecake I made using mostly yogurt I made and surprisingly it turned out pretty good, I'll post the recipe when I'm done.
Last night I had to make a mad dash to Walmart to get cheesecloth, the cheesecloth I found would not hold a butterfly in place, much less cheese, so I improvised and found some flower sack dish towels, 6 for $5. This is what the yogurt looks like after putting it in the strainer with the cloth.

I doubled them up and poured the yogurt into the strainer, this time I trebled the cloth. I also bought a new strainer, because my jelly colander did not have it's legs any more, I wish I knew what happened to them, another thing you wish you had after throwing it out.

You can see after about ten hours the cheese is starting to form. It has a pull on the cloth and has sunk about an inch. It's not done yet, but it's well on it's way. I can't wait to try flavoring it and using it on bagels. A few more hours and it should be ready to refrigerate and serve. There is quite a bit of loss of cheese, but that can't be helped. So far there have been about two cups of whey drain off.

The whey looks a bit watery, but you can see the fat globules still in the liquid. this can be pulled with lemon juice, but I think I'll give it to the cats again. I know I must have one cat which isn't a freak. I figured out that my cats are not finicky, but are royalty waiting for the food tester to tell them it's safe to eat. Handful will not eat anything that hasn't been on someones plate unless it comes from a can. She would live happily as an inside cat if I'd let her. She was named Handful because she fit in the palm of my hand for over 8 months. I had to bottle feed her, because she was so small. She sure has spunk, for one so little, even at almost two, she is the size of a six month old kitten.

The cheesecake turned out pretty good, it cooked well and very few cracks. I was surprised at how well it did. The last two cheesecakes I made flopped, because I misread the recipe and added 8 oz more cream cheese than the recipe and did not compromise with the cooking temp or time. Both times the cake slid off the plate, the cats really love cheesecake, that's for sure. After an hour in the oven and three in the fridge, this is what my cheesecake looks like, I added a bit of whipped cream around the edges to make it more aesthetically pleasing.


Here it is all cut up, it was lovely and cut really well. It did not break or anything. With as runny as the batter was, I was surprised when it held up as well as it did. Now to the recipe. I used the "Creamy Citrus Cheesecake" recipe and pretty much doubled the recipe for a 10 in spring form pan.

I made yogurt cheese from a half gallon of home made yogurt. It took 24 hours to get cream cheese consistency.

Modified Creamy Citrus Cheesecake
Ingredients:

2 packages of cinnamon graham crackers crushed (not sure how many that is, but two of those little wrapped plastic packages from the box)
4 T margarine, melted
6 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
6 teaspoon vanilla, divided
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese softened
yogurt cheese from half gallon of yogurt, dripped for 24 hours (estimation of 3 cups)
1 cup plain, lemon, or vanilla yogurt, divided
4 T powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325* F.


2. In a bowl combine graham cracker crumbs and margarine, press into bottom of 10 in spring form pan, bake 6 minutes, chill.


3. In blender, combine eggs, granulated sugar, 4 tsp vanilla, and juice, cut cream cheese into chunks, add to mixture and process until smooth, slightly pulse in yogurt cheese. (you don't want to chop up the cheese too fine)


4. Pour into crust.


5. Bake at 325* for 70-80 minutes or until set.


6. Combine remaining yogurt, vanilla, and powdered sugar, spread over hot cheesecake,


7. Loosen side of pan, cool on wire rack, chill before serving.