Homedid Baby Cheese

And no I don't mean cheese made *from* babies. I mean cheese made *for* babies.

Disclaimer: I take absolutely no credit for this idea. My friend Lynn has this blog (http://thekitchenismycanvas.blogspot.com/2011/05/yogurt-cheese.html) and it's awesome. I got the idea from her. So, starting off, there's your source material.

That being said when I read this I immediately thought that this stuff would be good for my baby. Few reasons. Namely: A.) she likes yogurt. B.) She likes cheese. C.) She's porky and shouldn't eat that much cheese.

But, I digress.

Here we go peeps! Homedid yogurt cheese! Pictorial guide!

You will need: a colander, a bowl, (measuring cup and spoon are optional, but I found them handy), paper towels and the yogurt. Oh, and a fridge, but I sort of assume you have one of those.

So, firstly, you want to put your colander in your bowl (to catch any run off) and then line it with two or three layers of paper towels. Then, grab your yogurt.



I used non-fat for the...well...non-fat aspect. Now I didn't want to make the whole tub because I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. So I measured out two cups into my colander, thusly.



Now, here's what is going to happen folks: the whey is going to drain away from the solid of yogurt. So your paper towels are going to get wet. And it's going to melt/drain down into that bowl. The only downside is that your paper towels are going to get soaking wet. And you are going to have to change them. Now, maybe Lynn has some awesome pixie voodoo that I do not possess. Because me? I TOTALLY spilled my yogurt all over my own self and got left with one paper towel that looked like this:



So if you figure out a better way...go ahead and let me know. I just scraped it off back into the colander with the rest.

And at this point, it's probably a good idea to check in with your assistant.



Yeah, she's doing fine. Obviously.

Okay, so once you've changed out your paper towels about three times and let it drain for round abouts half an hour, you want to wrap it up in dry towels and toss the whole mess into the fridge.



And you're going to let it sit about 12 hours, or overnight. So just walk away and do some other fun stuff. Like make crayons.



So the next morning I yanked it out of the fridge and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had solidified to more or less the same consistency of cream cheese. Which is pretty much what we were going for. Add and little salt and BOOM!

YOGURT CHEESE!!



And as it was breakfast, I spread it on some of the baby's rice crackers and this is what happened:



All in all I have to agree with the Lynn, the taste is great. Plus the non-fat/protein breakdown compared to cream cheese is pretty badass. Add in the fact that you can EASILY flavor this stuff with chives, garlic you name it. And do you know how expensive that stuff is in the stores? Don't ask! Price for this? $2 for four cups. Can't beat THAT with a stick.

As far as ease, well the paper towel change was a bit of pain in the ass, but other than that it WAS pretty simple. Andy by the third change I had a system. I'm definitely going to be making the other two cups in the very near future.

And baby's enjoyment? Well, I'll leave you with this:



Enjoy folks!!