Meringue Cookies & Cheese-Making

Adding mixture.

Making Meringue Cookies

In class on the 6th, it was each group's job to make a batch of meringue cookies as well as to form the previously made cheese curds into a log-like shape and season them with various ingredients.  First, the preparation began for the meringue cookies.  In order to properly make the cookies, 2 egg whites were needed and continuously blended with an electric beater as other ingredients were added, including: sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla.  

Whipping mixture until fluffy.

Each group proceeded to whip the mixture until it became fluffy.  Once the whipping was complete, the chocolate chips were added and blended into the mixture.

My group's "giant" meringue cookie...turned
out pretty well actually!!

Finally, the mixture was placed in dollops on a piece of parchment paper in preparation for baking, where the cookies were baked for about 25 minutes at 300 degrees, and maybe longer if the cookies were larger than other groups' batches.  The cookies were taken out of the oven once a visible browning began to be noticeable on each cookie.  The result of the baking was a fluffy cookie with small browned peaks in their upper layer.

ENJOY!!

One of the better resulting cheeses.

Cheese-Making Results

Upon completion of the meringue cookies, each group was required to choose a cheese curd to work with.  The groups working with cheese today were not the same groups as those who initially made the cheese, but each was attempted to be rolled and seasoned.  When the cheese was made on the fourth of January, each group was able to choose which type of milk to use for their cheese, such as, skim, whole, soy, or goat milk.  The cheese to the right was made from whole milk, and turned out fairly well.  Each group was instructed to roll the cheese curds out into a log-like structure and season the cheese with herbs, salt, pepper, etc., depending on what the group preferred.  Many of the cheese fell apart when rolled, which made the task a little more difficult, but a few of the cheeses actually turned out tasting at least somewhat like cheese!!