Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I Skyr! You Skyr! We All Skyr... Oh, Nevermind. It doesn't work.

I know my foodie friends are familiar with creme fraiche, but for the uninitiated, imagine the most creamy, luxurious dairy product possible. It's cultured cream and I love the stuff, but it's expensive to buy, nevermind hell on your arteries.

I make a cheater's version that approximates the real thing: pour a pint of heavy cream into a container (I like to use glass) and stir in a few tablespoons plain yogurt. I like a tangier creme fraiche, so I use more yogurt. Cover the container and let it sit out overnight at room temperature until it is thick and luxurious and makes you want to roll around in it. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, once it sets, stick it in the fridge and it's yours to use with fresh strawberries, in omelets, on fresh-baked bread, straight from the fridge with a spoon...

Ahem.

Anyway, aware of the trans-fat-palooza creme fraiche offers, earlier this week I tried to make a healthier, or at least less evil, version, using fat-free yogurt, half and half and reduced fat milk (as an aside, I always use fat-free yogurt, as it's all I ever have on hand). It wouldn't set, so after 24 hours at room temperature, I stuck it in a 175F oven for a couple hours. It got thick and delicious, but a day later, after resting in the fridge, the top also turned green and black. I scraped that off and have been eating it without dire consequences, but it's not as creamy or delicious.

My semi-failed experiment got me thinking about my favorite food: skyr. It's an Icelandic thing, and essentially, it tastes like creme fraiche only it's really low in fat. All the goodness, none of the guilt. I eat embarrassing amounts of it whenver I visit that wonderful little pile of rocks and sheep in the North Atlantic.

As neither my budget nor work schedule will allow a trip to Leif Eriksen International Airport anytime soon, I did some research and decided I'm going to make my own damn skyr.

Step one: get my hands on some rennet. I ordered two kinds from a Vermont cheesemaking company, both animal-based and vegan, because quite frankly when I think about what traditional animal-based rennet is, I get a little grossed out. And I'm thinking, since I've got the rennet, I might as well explore cheesemaking, which quite frankly is a little like a crystal meth addict deciding to set up a home lab.

So look for posts in the coming weeks about adventures in skyr- and cheese-making!

Unless, of course, I succumb to the bacteria rampant in my low-rent, low-fat creme semi-fraiche.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey Gemma, thanks for the creme fraiche recipe. i'll have to try it. we used it frequently when i lived in france, but my true love is clotted cream. i can get by with the easier to find mascarpone though. on toast with a bit of honey...mmmm...

i am now officially a tester for recipes at the JS. I just made a blitz torte. it's growing on me. the torte. always loved baking, but it's tough to stick to a recipe. i like to interact with them. :)

Tommy said...

Interesting. I've been wanting to try my hand at cheese lately myself, just picked up Ricki Carroll's book. I'm basically reading it cover to cover, then I'll decide on a recipe to jump into (probably some sort of young goat cheese). Good luck with your skyr.

The Pastry Pirate said...

Zeina - always delicious to hear from you... I agree that clotted cream is the Platonic Ideal of a dairy product and it's not that hard to make your own. Similar to creme fraiche, it involves a long period of low heat. I think I remember reading something crazy like "on a low burner for 48 hours." I never tried it because I also think it requires raw milk (not pasteurized) which I can never find.

Tommy - good luck with your own fromage adventure. I make panir all the time, so I can't claim this is my very first foray into cheese, but I can't wait to work with rennet. Let me know how it goes for you!