John's Cheese #055 - Chocolate American Neufchâtel #1

[Cheese Head]

Updated records & pictures above again today at 49 days age!

I'm a slow eater of this and my family hasn't helped much so sadly still half left. I had some last weekend at 42 days age, was still good, went to have some on toast this morning, found mold on quarter of the cheese, white skum on free whey and white>blue fuzzy mold on some of cheese, so junked it.

[MrsKK]

That's too bad!  I froze most of mine up, as I will probably only use it for baking up into cheesecake.

[Brie]

Yes, unfortunate, John--but those soft cheeses really need to be eaten within a week or two, tops. On another note--I love your new pic--tanning, are you?

[Cheese Head]

Yep, Cheese Head Cow, and Canada won the Gold in both Womens and Mens Hockey in Olympics ;D.

My new avatar posted below as I'll probably change it again sometime ::).

[Sailor Con Queso]

Darn good overtime match too. Eatting all that Poutine finally paid off. :o

[Cheese Head]

Yep, sudden death overtime for Olympic gold is crazy, US could just have easily won it, American goaly was superb throughout the game, Crosby's winning goal was beautiful, he's the next Gretsky.

And yes I also noticed there were quite a few French Canadian sounding names on the Canadian Team!

[padams]

Is it very tangy smelling?  I made some, and it is draining now, but to me (and mind you, my nose is not very reliable) it smells like chocolate milk vomit.  My 12 yr old smelled it and didn't say anything, except that it smelled like chocolate quick.  And HE"S picky!! 

I tasted some of the curd, and it's definatly chocolatly, but more like sour cream in flavor?

[Tomer1]

Im having a go with this, using 2L of 3% coco drink ,some CaCl2 just in case ,1 drop of veg rennet and a tiny pinch of probat 222 which is simmiler to aromatic b and flora danica in terms of composition.

[Cheese Head]

Ha, so you're joining the crazy chocolate cream cheese clan, it's not that bad!

[smilingcalico]

Been thinking of this.  I'm not a purist per se, but I love the natural flavors of cheese and bacteria.  I could easily see a chocolate aged gouda though.  Someone did request it, but I still hesitate.

[Tomer1]

Its not really enjoyable by it self because of the acidic tang it has so I froze it with an intent of making a cake out of it,
Any good recipes?

[MrsKK]

Here is a thread started by Tea with an excellent cheesecake recipe.  If you wanted to, you could just use your chocolate Neuf, rather than having it be marbled.

[Tomer1]

Tried it, Apreantly my cheese is alot more moist then the cream cheese required so the base got sogy which is a shame since you really need that layer of texture in cheesecakes, also I had to bake it for 30 minutes longer then the recipe calls for untill it set.
Its a great cake ,the acidity of the lactic cheese really cuts through the sweetness giving it an interesting flavour and the texture is great ,very airy. I was expecting a dense NY cheese cake since there was no seperation of eggs ,beating of egg whites and folding it into the mixture like most airly cakes require.

[iratherfly]

I am very late to this thread but just wanted to point out a chocolate cheese that I began making a few months ago. Unlike yours John, mine is a bloomy rind and it has taken a lot of work to get right. On one hand I want the rind to bloom and give me this great aged texture. On the other hand, I cannot put any salt in it which works against the rind the cheese pathogen control practices so it was a tough balancing act.

At this point the rind is perfect, the texture is perfect (like a fluffy cheesecake). The flavor needs more work. It is intense chocolate but is almost feels like liquor-filled chocolate and the tang of the cheese acidity doesn't yet match the sweetness I want from the cheese. I have enlisted the help of a chocolatier (these guys are as crazy about what they do as we are apparently). As it turns out-the lipolysis of the butterfat also renders on the cocoa butter and the acidity of the cheese ferments the chocolate too fast.  There is a fix for this (lots of bacterial swich-a-roos and change in temperature schedule and aging regiment) but I expect this to take at least 4-6 more batches until this is where I want it to be...  Here she is:

[Sailor Con Queso]

IRF - Beautiful and technically interesting cheese.