Baked Goat Cheese Balls
If you want to up your cheese board game to a whole other level, you should try my baked goat cheese balls. This finger-food like goat cheese snacks can be made ahead and kept in the freezer until you are ready to bake them right before serving. They are warm, deliciously creamy, and not-so surprisingly addictive.
Learn About Goat Cheese Goat Cheese Tips
Goat cheese is being used in the kitchens of some of the most famous restaurant in the U.S., as Americans have enthusiastically embraced the taste of goat cheese in their favorite dishes, including pizza, ravioli, sauces, and appetizers. Fresh goat cheese also pairs wonderfully with the local wines and microbrews. Everyday, more and more people discover the delights of goat cheese, thus continuing the demand for it.
Goat cheese can be found in many varieties, packed in various shapes and sizes, and varying in texture and taste. Fresh goat cheese should look moist. Reject if air-bloated, moldy, or leaking whey.
Fresh artisan goat cheeses are not usually aged, so they are fresh and creamy looking with a fairly mild, salty flavor. To store, you need to protect the cheese from air with the original wrappings, plastic wrap, or wax paper. Remove from refrigerator one hour before serving. Discard any cheese that develops an off-odor, strange colors, or more than a touch of mold.
For longer storage, freeze your goat cheese. The cheese can be frozen in small packages . As long as the cheese is in good condition and tightly wrapped, its flavor, texture, and moisture content will remain unchanged. Thaw goat cheese slowly. Leave it undisturbed in the refrigerator for a period of 24 to 48 hours. Whatever you do, let the cheese warm to at least to room temperature before serving to maximize the flavor.
To purchase Goat Cheese, check out whats Cooking Americas Cooking Store.
Ingredients You Need And Variations
- Fresh goats milk: Its best to use full-fat goats milk , avoiding anything ultra-pasteurized, as it wont curdle the same way. You can use raw goats milk if youre able to source some.
- Citric acid and water: This is what I decided to use as my curdling agent because I have it in my kitchen after lots of DIY-ing. However, if youre new to cheesemaking and want options that you probably already have in the house , then check out the FAQ section for more information.
- Cheese salt : This is a non-iodized salt perfect for cheese as the lack of iodine means that it wont inhibit the needed cultures/bacteria within the cheese. You can use sea salt as well, but only add after the cheese had curdled and drained.
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Why Does Goat Cheese Taste Like Vomit
A really short fatty acid is called butyric acid and that is the hallmark of so-called rancid flavor, which is found in cheeses like provolone and feta. A not-so-consumer-friendly term for this is baby vomit aroma. Medium length fatty acids are partly responsible for goat-like flavor found in goat cheeses.
Goat Cheese Crostini With Watermelon
You can use any type of beet, or substitute chopped tomato or more watermelon. Juicy produce adds a nice balance to the tangy flavor of the goat cheese, without becoming runny or mushy. These mini crostini make for the perfect appetizer for a crowd, or a fun summertime snack.
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How To Choose The Right Goat Cheese
In most grocery stores youll see goat cheese labelled as soft chèvre, which is more of an umbrella term for French goat cheese. This is what I used for my pasta, and it turned out fantastic! You can also get more specific and hit up your local cheese shop. Look for these soft varieties:
- Blue goat cheese
- Humboldt Fog
What Does Goat Cheese Taste Like
Flavour: Goat cheese is famously tart. Fresh goat cheese is tangy and earthy and is intense on the palate. Milk from goats has shorter fatty acid chains called capric acid, giving the milk a more flavoursome and distinctive taste
The classic flavours of goat cheese tend to linger on the tongue, which complements the other ingredients they are typically paired with.
Texture: Goat cheese is mostly creamy, soft and at room temperature, is very spreadable. Aged goat cheese is firmer but never gets to the point of becoming a hard cheese. Its texture is less smooth and a bit more crumbly, perfect for sprinkling over a recipe.
Nothing quite beats spreading silky goat cheese on warm bread and seasoned with some cracked black pepper. Dont forget to lick the spoon too!
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+ Creamy & Tangy Goat Cheese Recipes
Goat Cheese Recipes made easy: In need of creative recipes using goat cheese? Ive got you covered. Perfectly crumbly for salads, soft enough to spread on a cracker, and deliciously creamy to brighten up an otherwise simple dish, goat cheese is one of the most versatile cheeses out there. And I am here on a mission today with my top 12 goat cheese recipes to prove that.
If you are a lover of goat cheese, I think youll agree that it is one of those magical ingredients that immediately elevates any dish. Simply crumble a log of goat cheese over a salad or bake it in a ramekin and voila, just like that you are in for a treat for a luxurious dish with almost no effort.
Over the years of sharing my favorite recipes on this blog, goat cheese has been one of my favorite ingredients that I have used in many salads, meat dishes, appetizers, and breakfast recipes.
In todays post, I want to talk about creative ways you can use this humble ingredient in your daily cooking along with some of the goat cheese recipes I shared on my blog throughout the years.
But before that lets go back to basics and answer a few questions about goat cheese.
Raspberry Goat Cheese Cheesecake
Capping off this list is a unique dessert you dont want to miss.
Cheesecake is usually made from cream cheese, but for this recipe, youll kick things up a notch with a trio of cheeses.
Using a blend of goat cheese, cream cheese, and mascarpone, this cheesecake means serious business.
The swirls of sweet and tart raspberry add that lovely punch of fruity flavor.
The crust has a little bit of honey in it, which compliments really well with the filling.
Its creamy, dreamy, and everything you want a cheesecake to be.
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Can’t Be Beet Tart With Goat Cheese
This is the dessert you cook when you want to make a big impression. Everything about it, from the ginger kick in the crust to the sweet earthiness of the beets in the filling to the rich goat cheese in the topping, comes together in beautiful harmony. Be sure to use an 11-inch tart pan to accommodate the filling a 10-inch pie plate will work in a pinch. Look for buttermilk powder on the baking or with the powdered milk.
Goat Cheese And Cremini Oatmeal
For a savory start to your morning, try one of our favorite combinationscremini mushrooms, creamy goat cheese, and chopped fresh thyme. Creminis, more mature than your basic white mushroom yet still younger than a portobello, are the ultimate counterpart to soft goat cheese in this bowl of oats. If you can’t find cremini, however, your favorite mushroom variety will do. Thyme adds a fragrant, herbaceous aroma that makes this dish super fresh.
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Poached Scrambled Eggs With Goat Cheese Sauce
Chef Daniel Patterson conceived of this unconventional method for making eggs: He beats the eggs, cooks them quickly in a vortex of boiling water, then immediately drains them. The result is super-creamy, perfectly scrambled eggs topped with goat cheese sauce, the dish becomes a kind of reverse omelet. If you’re scrambling just one egg, the cooking time will be 20 seconds. For four eggs, the time increases to 40 seconds.
Poppy, known for simple, seasonal dishes from chef Jerry Traunfeld, keeps a molecular gastronomist in the pastry station. Dana Cree uses techniques she picked up at the Fat Duck in the U.K. and New York City’s WD-50. “I learned to divorce flavors from their original textures to create something new,” she says.
Can You Eat Goats Cheese Cold
For semi-hard cheeses, wrap in parchment or wax paper and then in foil or plastic wrap to prevent from drying out. Its best to store any cheese in the vegetable crisper, where the temperature is cold and stable. Always serve goat cheese at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge 30 minutes or so before serving.
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Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwiches With Fig And Honey
These grilled cheese sandwiches are equally good for breakfast or dinner. Mixing honey with the goat cheese makes it easier to spread over the cinnamon-raisin bread plus it adds a delectable sweetness that won’t overpower the palate. This warm, ooey-gooey goodness is exactly what you’re in the mood for.
Keep An Eye On The Texture
When making goat cheese you need to be aware of the fact that the curds and whey will not separate in the same manner as they do with whole milk. The texture of goat cheese will not contain the larger curds like ricotta.
Yes, the recipe for ricotta will be forthcoming soon. In order to improve the separation I use two types of acids: lemon juice and vinegar. You should make sure that you have a double or triple layer of fine cheese cloth so the tiny solids don’t go through.
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Herbed Goat Cheese Bruschetta
During the holiday season, when there is leftover cranberry sauce, this goat cheese bruschetta is what I make. Simply roast butternut squash in the oven. While it is roasting spread a generous amount of goat cheese and cranberry sauce on a toast. Then top it off with the roasted squash and sliced almonds. Finally, finish it off with a drizzle of honey.
This makes an incredible goat cheese appetizer/ finger food that you can also serve on crackers.
Pork Chops With Herbed Goat Cheese Butter And Green Beans
Fresh thyme and lemon juice brighten this easy weeknight dinner. Kid-friendly and super quick, this can be your new go-to pork dinner. Clocking in at only $10.79 per serving, this dinner keeps in mind both your health and your wallet. You’ll most likely have leftover goat cheese, but lucky for you, there’s plenty of healthy, delicious ways that you can make use of what you didn’t get to.
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Humboldt Fog From Cypress Grove Chevre
Where it’s from: U.S.Aroma: Yogurt with a whiff of moldFlavor: Sour cream and citrusTexture: Crumbly cakeProducer: Cypress Grove
Many a cheese counter suggests that this cheese takes its name from the superior weed grown in Humboldt County, California. That’s not actually the case, but the cheese’s origins are trippy and wonderful enough that the idea is apt. Cypress Grove founder Mary Keehn dreamt of Humboldt Fog on a 1980s plane ride home from France, imagining it in painstaking detail, from its tall, cakey shape to the wavering line of blue-grey vegetable ash, included as an homage to the French mountain cheese Morbier. Folks new to the cheese think it’s blue mold, as in “blue cheese,” but the ash is merely decorative, and a daily acknowledgement of the French cheesemaking tradition that so moved one American woman.
Humboldt Fog isn’t sticky and silky like Brie, but you look at it and imagine a Brie in Wonderland that swallowed a growth potion. Unlike fresh goat cheese, Humboldt Fog is dusted in vegetable ash and inoculated with P.candidum to develop that edible white skin. Its flavor is saltier and less acidic than Brie, without the animal notes. Instead, you get a flaky cheesecake texture and buttermilk tang with pronounced citrus fruit. The brightness of lemon shining through all that fog.
Baked Goat Cheese Dip
This melted goat cheese dip recipe is one of my go-to dishes that I take to potlucks, holiday parties during the winter months and picnics during the summer months.
Made with whipping a combination of goat, parmesan and cream cheese, it is one of the easiest appetizers you can make. Serve it warm with crackers, fruits, honey, and/or vegetables, and accept compliments.
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Goat Cheese Salad With Arugula & Apple
Here’s a goat cheese recipe that takes little effort but delivers massive flavor: Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Apples! Its simple and comes together quickly, but my does it deliver! The crunch of the apples, creamy goat cheese, and fluffy arugula are the ideal pair for the creamy balsamic dressing. You won’t be able to stop eating it.
Chicken & Sweet Potato Harvest Bowls
This harvest salad is essentially autumn in a bowl: apple slices, roasted sweet potatoes, and chicken rest on a bed of kale and brown rice, topped with sliced almonds and goat cheese.
Its all drizzled with a creamy balsamic mustard vinaigrette thats easy to make at home, with just 4 ingredients!
Even though this bowl screams fall, its delicious all year round Ive been known to enjoy it in summer, too, just sayin. You can always leave off the sweet potatoes to make it more of a light, summery meal!
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Enjoy The Benefits Of Goat Milk With These Simple Recipes
Reading Time: 7minutes
Getting started making goat cheese? Try these recipes first!
If youve never made cheese, start with the quick & easy cheeses that need minimal equipment and ingredients and are ready to eat fairly quickly. Once youve mastered a few easy cheeses, you may want to move to pressed and aged cheeses. These vary in complexity and aging time Ive included a few relatively simple and quick options. Well look at some more complicated pressed and aged cheeses in a future article.
Quick & Easy Cheeses: A Great Place to Start
Chévre: Soft Fresh Goat Cheese
* You can substitute 1-2 tbsp cultured buttermilk or homemade sour cream for the mesophilic culture, if desired.
Feta: Dry Salted, Brined, or Marinated
Recipe #1: Dry Salted Feta
Cottage Cheese
Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta
This 20-minute creamy penne pasta is so tangy and creamy, sweet from the tomatoes and lightly peppery from the fresh basil. The secret to the creaminess is that goat cheese, which brings a body to the sauce thats almost like a vodka sauce. Combined with chewy penne, its out of this world! And best of all, you barely have to think to make it.
Got an Instant Pot? Make this pasta using our Creamy Instant Pot Pasta recipe.
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Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates
A great trick for entertaining? Goat cheese stuffed dates! These beauties are incredibly easy to make, and the flavor of this simple pairing is outrageous. Theres the sweet caramel chewiness of Medjool dates. Pair that with tangy, fluffy goat cheese, and the sweet-savory combo is out of this world. It also works as a quick snack or side for a healthy lunch, and involves no cooking at all.
How To Slice Basil
The best way to slice basil for both texture and aesthetic is to chop it chiffonade. Stack your basil leaves, starting with the largest on the top up to the smallest. Roll the leaves tightly lengthwise. Starting from the pointy end, cut 1/4 slices all the way down the roll.
Use your fingers to lightly fluff the rolls and break them apart. Now you have perfect basil that can be mixed into the pasta and used as a garnish!
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Add A Cup Of Crumbled Goat Cheese Into Vegetable Pasta
This is another recipe without a recipe. I make it when I need to put dinner on the table quick. Simply put, I cook some pasta. When that is cooking, I saute some veggies in a little bit of oil in a large pan. Then add in the cooked pasta into the sauteed vegetables. Stir in some sun-dried tomatoes and a cup of crumbled goat cheese.
Does Goat Cheese Taste Like Feta
Taste and Texture The taste of goat cheese has been likened to cream cheese and is considered to be saltier than feta. It is also worth noting that goat cheese does develop a deeper flavor when it ages. In terms of texture, feta cheese tends to be chunky, while goat cheese takes on a crumbly or chalky feel.
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