Farmer’s Cheese (Tvorog) recipe is made with just two ingredients which make the loveliest, white, unaged, ricotta-like cheese. You can eat it like you would greek yogurt for breakfast, or use it to make desserts and cheesecakes and these lovely syrniki pancakes (they’re the best!).
What isFarmer’s Cheese?
Farmer’s cheese is a fresh, unripened, cottage-cheese type of cheese that is made with milk and some sort of a bacterial starter. Sometimes rennet is added to help further thicken the mixture before heating and draining it, but that’s not common when making it at home.
Type of Bacterial Starters that make Farmer Cheese
The bacterial starter can be in a form of yogurt, buttermilk, greek yogurt, sour cream or actual kefir grains. Each type of starter will give you a different variation of flavor and amount of tang, while still producing a very similar farmer’s cheese flavor in the end.
How to eat Farmer’s Cheese?
- Drizzle some cheese with honey or some cherry sauce, then sprinkle with chia seeds.
- Top a buttered toast with a spoonful of cheese and a sprinkle with sea salt for a protein full breakfast.
- Add a spoonful of this homemade cheese to your omelet or scrambled eggs.
- Substitute ricotta cheese with this farmer’s cheese and make pancakes for breakfast.
- Or make the true Russian pancakes (Syrniki) with it for a protein packed breakfast.
- Use farmer’s cheese in place of ricotta cheese to make doughnuts.
- Combine this cheese with salt, egg yolk and herbs like dill and parsley and fill Piroshkior Perogies with it.
- Combine the cheese with some freshly made pasta, then add some heavy cream and sugar for a sweet dessert pasta recipe.
Method for How To Make Cheese
I used to use cheesecloth to collect the curds and allow the whey to drip off, but I have always hated the clean up afterward. Now I use paper towel lined sieve to achieve the same thing. Clean up is a breeze now as you just take the paper towel and throw it away. I can’t believe I didn’t come up with this sooner.
Tips on making the perfect Cheese
Over the years of making my own Homemade Cheese I have also found that when I heat the buttermilk, dump it straight into the cheesecloth and hang it, it takes forever for the whey to separate, because all the curds have broken up and mixed in with the whey.
Lately though, after I heat the buttermilk, I use a scoop colander (any other colander with large holes and a handle will work) to gently remove the curds, then I give it a shake to remove most of the whey and lastly I transfer the now whey-less curds to the paper towel-lined sieve, the cheese does not need more than an hour before all whey has dripped off. The cheese is then ready for consumption.
What is your favorite way of eating homemade Cheese?
There are many different ways to eat/use this cheese recipe. This homemade cheese is great to use as a filling, or just eaten as is. What do you eat Farmer’s cheese with?
Some great Farmers Cheese Recipes:
- Multi-Cooker Farmer’s Cheese– Cheese made in a Multi-Cooker.
- Farmer’s Cheese Crepes with Blueberry Sauce– A delicious way to use farmers cheese recipe.
- Apricot Cream Cheese Chimichangas – Crispy fried tortilla with warm jam and farmers cheese.
Keep reading on how to make cheese!
Homemade Fresh Farmer's Cheese
4.86 from 7 votes
Homemade Fresh Farmer’s Cheese (Tvorog) recipe made with buttermilk and milk. A simple how to make cheese recipe. This Farmers Cheese is served great with honey or used as a filling.
Author: Marina | Let the Baking Begin
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: Russian, Ukrainian
Keyword: farmers cheese
Calories: 245 kcal
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 hours
Total Time: 11 hours
Servings: 10 servings
Ingredients
Ingredients for Homemade Farmer's Fresh Cheese
- 1gallonwhole milk
- 1-2cupsDairy Gold Buttermilk or other buttermilk
Utensils:
- Large Heavy Bottom Pot
- Cheesecloth or Paper towels
- Food thermometer
- Sieve
US Customary - Metric
Instructions
*Read complete post before the recipe to get a better understanding of how and why you do what you need to do.
Pour 1 gallon of milk into a large heavy bottom pot and heat it to 100F. It should feel slightly hotter than warm. (Do not make it hot, or it will kill the buttermilk culture.) Remove from heat.
Shake the bottle with buttermilk, then pour 1-2 cups into the warm milk. Stir for about 1-2 minutes.
Cover with lid and allow to sit at room temperature, undisturbed for 12-24 hours depending on how warm it is. If the room temperature is below 70, place pot of warm milk in the oven with just the light on (NO heat).
Buttermilk is ready when it’s thick and you’re able to ‘cut’ it with a spoon, that means when taking a spoonful of buttermilk, it doesn’t run like milk but holds its shape. (When in doubt, leave it for full 24 hours.)
Cut the buttermilk into 1-inch squares with a long knife.
Insert a thermometer into one of the curds and start heating over very low heat. It will take about 15 minutes to reach to 120°F. This is what it will look like when it’s heated to 130°F.
Make sure the thermometer is inserted into the curd, not the whey. Whey around the curds might even start boiling because it’s of less density than the curds. When temperature inside the curd reaches 100°F, give a gentle stir with a large spoon and bring the hot curd from the bottom to the top. It only needs to be heated another 30°F-40°F degrees before you will need to drain it. You will see both cheese-like chunks and big curd chunks, that’s ok, that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Once the temperature inside the curd reaches 130-140, give it another gentle stir, to break up large curd chunks and to distribute the heat evenly.
Option 1
Carefully pour the heated curds to a different pot lined with a cheese-cloth, then gather the ends of the cheesecloth, tie them and hang over the kitchen cabinet door handle or some other device. Allow the whey to drip off, until droplets fall about 30 seconds apart. At this point, transfer the cheese with the cheesecloth to the refrigerator. It will harden up and it will be easier to remove the cheesecloth without ruining the cheese ‘ballthe
Recipe Notes
To make homemade buttermilk, do not heat like you would to make fresh cheese, but vigorously stir, transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Facts
Homemade Fresh Farmer's Cheese
Amount Per Serving
Calories 245Calories from Fat 117
% Daily Value*
Fat 13g20%
Saturated Fat 7g44%
Cholesterol 40mg13%
Sodium 187mg8%
Potassium 532mg15%
Carbohydrates 19g6%
Sugar 20g22%
Protein 12g24%
Vitamin A 655IU13%
Calcium 455mg46%
Iron 0.1mg1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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