Farm School of the Domestic Arts
It is spring and a whole new year of cheese making is about to begin. The goats have had their kids and the new flow of milk is starting to come into the cheese room.
For me it is a celebration, like New Years, to taste the rich new milk, smell the rich tangy whey, and take a drink and toast the year ahead.
Here is a pictorial of the cheese- making process
There is everything to love about crackers that combine cheese and walnuts here at Quillisascut Farm. These two cracker recipes, Quillisascut Blue Cheese and Walnut and Quillisascut Viejo Walnut, share those sentiments. 
The blue cheese recipe is a savory shortbread that melts in your mouth. This is a modified recipe from All recipes
Blue Cheese Walnut Cracker
1/2 cup unsalted butter
*8 ounces Quillisascut blue cheese
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 egg white plus 1 Tablespoon water (whisk together for egg wash)
1 cup chopped walnuts
Salt for topping
If your walnuts are in large pieces, place them in the food processor and process until they are finely chopped. Remove from processor and set aside.
Put butter, blue cheese, flour, salt and pepper in food processor bowl and process until combined. Roll in quarter sized log and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Brush on egg wash and roll in walnuts. Slice thin, place on parchment lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until they have a little color. Remove and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
* for a milder version try replacing the blue cheese with a Quillisascut Farmer Cheese
The next recipe is a thick and crunchy style cracker that features Quillisascut Viejo cheese, with walnuts incorporated in the dough.
Walnut Viejo Cheese Crackers
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups shredded Quillisascut Viejo cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup of water
Mix together all the dry ingredients, then pour in the water and stir until incorporated.
Let rest for 15 minutes
Roll out on a floured surface to your preferred thickness. Cut into small 1 inch rounds, use a cute small cookie cutter or simple squares. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until firm.
Cool on wire rack, store in a air tight container.
Next time I am going to try substituting 1/2 cup of our walnut flour in both of these cracker recipes, to replace that amount of wheat flour.
Share with friends!
My friend Evelyn and I had been talking about getting together and making mozzarella for months, and it finally happened!
She was struggling with getting her stretchy cheese technique together ever since reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal Vegetable Miracle.
Our goats are not giving any milk right now so Evelyn picked up some Spokane Family Farms whole non-homogenized cows milk, brought it out to Q farm and we got to work. Or maybe we should call it play, there is something joyful about stretching mozzarella and getting to eat it the same day.
If you want to try out the recipe that Evelyn and I used you can find it here thanks to Jessica Dally. We used two gallons of milk and the cheese turned out fantastic.
One of the tricks in making any type of cheese is being gentle with the curds. It is tempting to over work them at the time of stretching, so be quick, stretch them into the size of ball you wish and drop them in ice cold water.
Evelyn is planning on using her cheese in a special recipe that calls for mozzarella and eggplant. I think we will probably eat ours sliced and topped with Kalamata olives, salt and a drizzle of olive oil.
Or do do you say Calamata? Either way let me know how this Mozzarella recipe works for you.
