Having made Camemberts for a few months, I decided to try my hand at a Blue Brie on 26th November. I used the hot water dip method to kill off the surface blue moulds, then sprayed PC on the outside before maturing. I made 4 cheeses of different sizes and aspect ratios to assess the variations. So far, I have only opened the 200g "camembert" shaped cheese, as this has the lowest aspect ratio and should have matured the fastest. The other cheeses are much thicker and will be ready in another week or so.
The results are spectacular!
The cheeese I opened has a very camembert appearance on the outside, lovely white mould, maybe not quite as white as my cams. Inside there are beautful patches of deep blue mould, nicely developed and surrounded by creamy yellow paste. The flavour is wonderful, lovely strong blue flavour, softened by the creamy brie paste which has a full, buttery flavour. The blue flavour lingers, melding with the creamy paste to create a lovely, mouthfilling experience.
One of my favourite Aussie Blue Bries is King Island Dairy Lighthouse Blue Brie, and I reckon my version compares pretty well.
Extremely happy with this cheese, my best so far, and looking forward to trying the rest of this batch.