What is Ricotta?

Recycling, when you come right down to it. It’s a type of cheese that’s classically made from the waste whey leftover from the manufacture of firmer cheeses. It can be made from cow’s milk, sheep’s milk…goat, buffalo, you get the picture. In Italy there are dozens of styles of ricotta. However what’s common to them all is the method by which they’re made.

You need not be familiar with the intricacies of cheese manufacturing — merely Little Miss Muffet — to know that the cheese making process yields two main components: curds and whey. The curds are what you get when you combine rennet (enzymes) with warm or hot milk or cream. The rennet causes the curd-making proteins known as caseins to draw together into clumps. In the process they trap a good deal

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Cannoli Shells Recipe

This recipe, like the one for the ricotta cream, is adapted from Grace Massa Langlois’ new book, Grace’s Sweet Life. The only difference is that I left out 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder in the dry ingredients, as I like a blonde pastry shell. Add it back if you prefer a shell with a hint of chocolate in it!

You’ll need a set of cannoli forms to make these, basically little stainless steel tubes that can be had very inexpensively at cooking supply stores. A pasta machine comes in handy for rolling the dough thin (the key to light cannoli shells) but isn’t essential. Likewise, an oval 3″ x 4 1/2″ cutter is ideal for getting the perfect dough shape, but not essential. A round cutter will also work well. Assemble:

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On Milk and Foam

Drat! I accidentally deleted an email from a Greek pastry student that contained an interesting question. That is: why will cold milk foam but warm milk won’t? The answer is butterfat again, even though milk doesn’t have near enough of it to form a foam that has any long-term stability. It’s still fat crystals (along with some miscellaneous proteins) that are helping to reinforce the bubble walls…temporarily. But butterfat crystals can only form in cool temperatures, so warm milk won’t foam nearly as well.

The worst thing about losing this email is that this particular Greek student offered to share some good recipes with me. So please do write back…because I’m greedy!

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Ricotta Cream

This recipe is adapted from Grace Massa Langlois’ new book, Grace’s Sweet Life. If you haven’t been to her blog of the same name, I highly recommend that you visit. It’s a treasure trove of Italian and Italian-inspired bakery. Ricotta cream can be used as a filling for all sorts of things, but is most commonly seen piped into cannoli. You’ll need:

1 lb. 6 ounces (3 cups) fresh ricotta cheese, drained overnight
6 ounces (1 1/3 cups) confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.75 ounces (1/3 cup) finely diced candied citron or orange peel (optional)
2.75 ounces (1/3 cup) miniature semisweet chocolate chips

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Ricotta Recipe

OK, so maybe I’m going a little nutty putting up a homemade ricotta recipe, but a.) not everyone outside of a major city can get fresh ricotta; b.) it’s amazingly easy, but, most importantly; c.) I’m a fermented dairy and/or cheese freak. You’ll need:

2 quarts whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

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Next Up: Cannoli

Here’s a Sicilian classic that’s long overdue. Back home in Chicago people still travel miles to their favorite Italian bakeries to get their favorite version. Of course that’s also true in New York and other cities with large southern Italian/Sicilian populations. But I can tell you that as will the kolaczki I’m going to be feeling the home town pressure this week. If I screw these up I’m going to hear about it!

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Remembering Day

Good morning Joe readers! I won’t be blogging today as it is Memorial Day, the day we here in the States devote to remembering those who’ve fought and died for our country. This day used to be a very big deal in our culture, but it isn’t so much anymore, and that’s a sad thing. These days, in which the Self is king, it’s fashionable to think of those who’ve died in wars as victims, not as heroes. But there’s a cure for that. Just browse a few Medal of Honor citations. You’ll find thousands of stories of people who put their lives at grave risk for the sake of others. That human beings are still capable of that sort of courage and selflessness is something else worth remembering in this, our cynical age.

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How does cream “whip”?

I knew that question was coming, reader Wolfe, thanks for pulling the trigger. It’s a good time to discuss this since we’re on the subject of butterfat globules and such. As you remember from the post below, the protein membranes that surround fat globules tend to break when you apply shear forces to them. That allows the butterfat molecules they contain to escape, which can be a good thing up to a point.

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Why can’t heavy cream be frozen?

A few questions to that effect have come in the last couple of days. The answer is that it can be frozen, it just isn’t as functional afterward. It can’t be whipped up very high, for instance. It also tends to separate a bit and often needs to be shaken up to re-establish the butterfat emulsion. But what exactly happens to cream in the freezer?

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