homemade ritz and ricotta cheese.....cheeses #1

Today we made some homemade ricotta and Ritz crackers. I will make both of these again because they are pretty easy to accomplish. I have some notes for myself now concerning both of these recipes.

Lets start with the ricotta. Which I got from here. I have to give this blog some credit for their recipes and the ease of understanding instructions. I love quiet a few things from here.

Makes about 1 generous cup of ricotta
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream (see Note above about using less)
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• Pour the milk, cream and salt into a 3-quart nonreactive saucepan. Attach a candy or deep-fry thermometer.
• Heat the milk to 190°F, stirring it occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom.
• Remove from heat and add the lemon juice, then stir it once or twice, gently and slowly.
• Let the pot sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.
• Line a colander with a few layers of cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl (to catch the whey).
• Pour the curds and whey into the colander and let the curds strain for at least an hour.
•  At an hour, you’ll have a tender, spreadable ricotta. At two hours, it will be spreadable but a bit firmer, almost like cream cheese. (It will firm as it cools, so do not judge its final texture by what you have in your cheesecloth.)
• Discard the whey, or, if you’re one of those crafty people who use it for other things, of course, save it.
• Eat the ricotta right away or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Today, I did not have whole milk and with Kevin at work all day I didn't want to take the kids to the store. I used 1/2cup cream and 3 1/2 cups 2%. The ricotta worked like a charm and now that I have confidence I will make sure to have the right ingredients next time because while it tastes good and is so going on pizzas tomorrow I would have liked it to be creamier. There was just not enough fat with 2% to achieve that. I would like to make it like this those to make some manicotti soon though.
Side note, I WILL NEVER THROW AWAY MY WHEY AGAIN!!!! This is an amazing site to let you know where to use up that left over whey.

Next up was the Ritz crackers. I will make the dough with store brand butter that firms up better and not my expensive real cream butter next time. It was a bit sticky. I will also roll them out in a few smaller batches and as thin thin thin as I can. They taste really yummy and I have eaten quiet a few with the ricotta I made spread on top with roasted garlic. YUMMY! I love this blog! I am so also going to make her graham cracker recipe later this month with these homemade marshmallows ( I also love this blog).

This recipe is made in a food processor. If you cut the recipe in half, you can fit it in a mini food processor.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp + another 1/2 tsp salt for topping
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter + 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt in the food processor.
3. Pulse to combine.
4. Add cold butter a few small pats at a time, and pulse to combine.
5. Add vegetable oil. Pulse to combine.
6. Add water a little bit at a time. Pulse to combine after each addition. The dough should start to form a ball.
7. Roll dough out as thin as you can. Mine ended up being all different thicknesses. Don't sweat it. They are homemade! If you are really concerned, Jeffrey had luck using a pasta maker to make the dough all one thickness - great idea!
8. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough out. You can make them "Ritz" shaped or any shape that you like.
9. Bake the crackers on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet for ten minutes or until the crackers just begin to brown.
10. While the crackers are baking, melt the remaining butter and mix in the remaining salt (Some people said that the crackers weren't salty enough. Add more or less salt to your taste.)

As soon as you remove the crackers from the oven, brush them with the salty butter.

Final products together. The ricotta was mixed with freshly roasted garlic and some Italian herbs.