The next step in creating the perfect pizza is fresh mozzarella. Generally the cheese considered the ultimate cheese for pizza is Mozzarella made from buffalo milk. Now that’s buffalo and not the great American Bison. You can often find it in high end retailers or here on Amazon.

Another alternative is to ‘settle’ for a good fresh Mozzarella made from cow’s milk which is what we do. These days it can be found in most supermarkets (though its not that hard stuff you are probably used to). It is often sold floating in water in the deli section here in America. Also, Costco currently sales a great product for a good price that is hard to beat. Another option that we love it to make our own.

This recipe is a simple 30 minute recipe. I got it at cheesemaking.com, which is a great site for beginning cheese makers. This recipe is rather fail proof (though the site contains an entire page on things to watch out for) as cheese making goes. We tend to use a slower method that involves a live culture and a lot more time but it also requires some specialized equipment (cultures, PH testers, etc) so I won’t post it here. This is a lot of fun and a great activity to do with kids, though watch out, the stretching at the end is hot and needs to be done by adults!

The first step with any cheese is to get your hands on some good milk.

As in this post, I use the excellent milk from Twin Brook Creamery. I also bought some citric acid from a local brewing store (though I think many super markets carry it) or you can buy it here.

Ingredients

1 – Gallon Whole Milk

1 1/2 tsp. – Citric Acid (Diluted in 1 cup filtered water)

1/4 tablet (tsp.) – Rennet (Diluted in 1/4 cup filtered water)

1 Tbsp. – Kosher Salt (or cheese making salt) – Optional

Add citric acid to milk then slowly heat milk to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Do this slowly! Do not overheat or heat too quickly. Remove from heat and add the rennet solution. Rennet is what forms the curd, separating the curd from the whey. Cover and wait 5 minutes. Take a long knife and cut the curds into 1 inch squares.

Now it is time to cook the curd, which means heating it. Return the curd to the very low heat and slowly heat to 105 degrees.

Continue to stir slowly for several minutes. During this time the curds will shrink (lose moisture). The longer you cook the curds, the drier the end product (you want very soft cheese for Napolitano pizza!).

At this point it is time to scoop the curds from the whey (I find it gentler rather than trying to pour them all through a cheesecloth in this case). Once you’ve removed all of the curds, press and tip the curds slightly to remove any whey that has come along. If you plan on adding salt, do it now. Now add the curds to a microwave proof bowl and heat on 100% power for 1 minute (based on a 1000Mw standard microwave). Pour off any whey, knead the curds slightly like you would bread dough and return to the microwave for 30 second bursts. Continue to repeat until its 135 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point it will be very hot and ready to knead. I think for a very soft dough it should almost not be kneaded at all. The best is to just knead it enough to for a simple surface the plunge in cold water. As you can see in the picture below, it is not as smooth as the images on cheesemaking.com. That is because I haven’t have kneaded it as long. It will keep it softer and gentler on the pizza. Enjoy!