Making Homemade Goat Milk Ricotta Cheese

Happy Autumn Everyone!

This week officially brought in a new season and it is feeling more and more like fall everyday. I pray your summer months were blessed and that you were able to enjoy the bounty of summer vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and beauty!

To welcome in the new season, I am going to share a recipe with you today that I have been making the last few months.

I don't know about you but one of my weaknesses is a good homemade soft cheese.

Since I usually stay away from dairy products, cheese is a food I typically do not indulge in, and if so, it's fairly rare.

When I do feel the need to have cheese or make it for a party or dinner guests, I find that using raw goat milk suits me very well and tastes out of this world amazingly delicious!

Raw goat milk is the closest milk to human breast milkand is much easier to digest than cow milk. It is naturally homogenized and is much less mucus forming than regular dairy. It;s lower in lactose and casein than cow milk, and the lactose and casein it does contain, is much easier to digest and break down.

Thankfully we have several farms in Lancaster County, PA that sell good quality grass fed raw goat milk. You can make this cheese with any milk though. Cow milk will also work just as well too.

The pictures below are of my process for making this delicious cheese. This process is so easy-1 gallon of milk will yield about 25 ounces of cheese.

Let me give you the quick process:

1. Pour milk into large stockpot, add 2 TBSP good quality salt (Himilayan, Real Salt, Celtic are all good), heat milk slowly, stirring the entire time to prevent scorching the milk

2. Let milk get to the temperature of about 210 F (about there or right before milk boils)-you will need a thermometer for this

3. Take milk off heat once it has arrived at this temperature and add 6-7 TBSP of freshly squeezed lemon juice to hot milk, stir very gently and slowly only one time around the stockpot (stirring too much or quickly can prevent the hot milk from forming into curds), let the stockpot sit still for at least 15-20 minutes

4. Check the milk after letting it sit, the curds should be well separated from the whey after adding the lemon juice

5. Pour slowly through a clean cotton muslin cloth or cheesecloth and let the whey drip from the cheese-let sit to drain until the cheese is the consistency you prefer

That's it! Store cheese in a glass container in fridge and enjoy!

Use it to top your salads, use in lasagna as your ricotta cheese, use on sandwiches, wraps, on top of baked potatoes, or any other way that you prefer...it's so yummy!

Have an amazing weekend and much Love and Blessings to you!