Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball Recipe: Ballin for Thanksgiving

Some find cheeseballs too kitsch, like beehive hairdos or cone shaped bras. Others, picturing the tinted bright orange and preservative-packed cheeseball their aunt served during the holidays, think of a cheeseball as a unsavory concoction best only served next to smoke-flavored salami from Cracker Barrel. As for me, I think kitsch has a holy place in heaven's decor, sixties relics are pretty awesome, and preservatives, well... they're only there if you let them be.

Let the cheeseball in. This pumpkin cheeseball is the only dessert you'll need for Thanksgiving.

I created this cheeseball in honor of my friend Stephanie, who when I was telling her I was striving to create the perfect ball for Thanksgiving, said "pumpkin." I said "cheesecake" and the rest was history.

Introducing the pumpkin cheesecake cheeseball.

I'm not sure if you know, but one really has to test a cheeseball recipe. Tasting, tasting, mixing, tasting, adjusting the pumpkin ratio so the ball is perfectly soft yet doesn't fall apart, going back and forth from white to brown sugar to form the perfect texture, slicing off pieces of cultured butter to make sure it tastes fresh enough, and sampling the pecans after roasting. Then you have to test it again while serving and photographing.

Things I discovered during crafting this recipe is that too much pumpkin makes an unappetizing cheesecake blob, that ground pecans make a fabulous cheeseball thickener and also act as an impromptu cheesecake base, and that gingersnaps love pumpkin cheesecake balls. Note that you will need to grind pecans and chill the ball overnight. 

Serve this cheeseball for dessert, with gingersnaps or almond crisps, and a strong old fashioned in an etched high ball glass.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball

makes 2 cheeseballs.

4 ounces cultured butter, room temperature

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cups white sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 2/3 cup toasted pecans

In a large mixing bowl or in a mixer with a paddle, cream the butter. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Add half the cream cheese, mix until blended, and scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Then add the remaining cream cheese and sugar and blend again. Add the pumpkin and spices to the bowl, mix for five seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue mixing until smooth.

Grind one cup of pecans in a food processor until they become the consistency of polenta. If you don't have a food processor, divide the pecans into batches and finely chop. Don't use a blender or over-process them, or you'll create pecan butter.

Add the ground pecans to the pumpkin cream cheese mixture and mix with a wooden spoon. Divide into two roughly spherical shapes, wrap in parchment, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning the balls will be firm enough so that you can shape them into spheres. Create balls, and before serving, press the outside with the remaining pecans.

Note: If you wait to roll the ball in toasted nuts, this ball also freezes well. If you leave the pumpkin out, and add a splash of run or brandy, kabam!, you've got yourself an eggnog cheeseball for December!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was first posted in 2015 but stands as one of my favorite holiday recipes, ever. 

Burrata Comes to You: My New Mobile Cheesemaking Classes

As the sun beams through the moody sky outside after this week's early rains, I sit inside smiling, thinking of the upcoming holidays, and big changes. This week I have something I'm overjoyed to share with you. It involves cheesemaking classes in the Bay Area, me, and, you.

I'm launching a mobile cheesemaking class business.

Just in time for the holidays. Though my list of to-dos for launching are long and big changes often evoke fear, the feeling of calm and happiness washing over me assures me I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. Honestly, I feel pretty blissful.

Starting a cheesemaking class business is something I’ve been thinking about since I got back from the Comté region of Jura years ago, when driving around the British Isles, and while visiting artisan cheesemakers from California to Rhode Island. Simply, the cheese and the cheesemakers got under my skin.

When in England and Ireland making cheese, I fell in love with the way the curd feels on your fingers as you scoop it into wheels. The way mozzarella gently gives when you stretch it, pasta filata style. The way buttermilk transforms milk into fluffy fromage blanc, and the way homemade ricotta transforms even the simplest of dishes.

And I’d be honored to share this with you. 

Stretchy mozzarella. Cream-filled burrata. Soft fromage blanc.

Fluffy ricotta. Crumbly snow-white chevre. 

I will travel to your home or Bay Area business to teach you how to stretch mozzarella, make fresh cheeses like creamy burrata or homemade ricotta. Cheesemaking classes ares fun, delicious, perfect for holidays, team building, or parties with friends or family around your kitchen.

A few example classes

Burrata by Hand: Creamy decadence from start to finish

Fresh Cheeses & the Kitchen: Making and cooking with fromage blanc and ricotta

Cheese Lover Gifts: Making chevre, truffles, and candied walnuts for the holidays

Stretch & Sip: Stretch mozzarella curds, and a fresh cheese and wine pairing

And yes, if you’re more wine than cheesemaking-inclined, I'd happily travel with my cheese and wine pairing classes to your next team building event or gathering too.

Expect to see more blog posts and some lovely changes on this site as I refresh a little and hang out more with others. I'm sorry I haven't been writing as much on the blog- I've been preparing to launch! I hope you find it as exciting as I do. Thank you so much for reading and your support. I feel very blessed as I move forward into this new venture.

If you'd like to reach me for questions or discuss booking, please contact me at kirstin@itsnotyouitsbrie.com.

Wisconsin in Fall: Rush Creek's Raw-Milk Return, and, Limburger.

When I recently got invited to join a tour visiting some of my favorite Wisconsin cheesemakers this October with 2015's top ten Cheesemonger Invitational competitors, I did two things. First, I thought about how it would be an amazing way to celebrate American Cheese Month. Second, I packed my bags on the spot, all the way from the east coast. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board had an extra spot on the tour for a media person/writer, and since Heritage Radio was on board from the east coast, maybe I'd like to join them from California. They told this Bay Area girl that the leaves would be changing into beautiful midwest oranges and reds, the crew on the bus would be fun cheese geeks from all over the country, and the cheesemakers would be Uplands, Chalet Cheese Limburger, Roelli, Roth, and Hooks. So, you know, I said yes.

I started prepping my cheese curd game immediately, packed my bags another time for emphasis, and hoped the CMI competitors wouldn't test my cheese wrapping skills before allowing me on the tour bus, because then I would not be allowed on the tour bus.

This is a photo tour of our trip.

First place we hit up was Roelli's Cheese, where Chris Roelli (below) makes Dunbarton Blue and Red Rock. The sign above is where the Roelli family announces when they have "fresh and squeaky" cheese curds ready. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, folks.

One of the cool things about cheese curds, besides how awesome they taste fried, is that selling them can provide a little financial cushion for cheesemakers like Chris so they focus on creating and maintaining artisan wheels that require a lot of time and labor without worry.

Dunbarton Blue is the only blue-cheddar in the country (world?). It is amazing and I sneakily slipped it into the Cheddar chapter of my book. I think...

After Roelli's we hit up Hooks, who makes such blue cheese faves as Tilston Point, Hook's, and Ewe-Calve-to-be-Kidding-Me. Though this blue cheese maven didn't start using Penicillium roqueforti (the blue cheese mold) until 97, he was making cheddars, swiss and colby since the seventies. This is also the man who makes THE twenty year-old cheddar (and donates much of the earnings to a local non-profit).

Ever wonder how blue cheese gets blue? The blue mold is added to the milk in the beginning of the process. After the wheels are formed, they're set on the platform of this delicate device, that looks a little like a cheese torture, and pierced, allowing oxygen to circulate within the wheel. Oxygen + Penicillium roqueforti = Blue color. More veining? More piercing.

So you don't feel like I'm being unfair to my traveling group, here is a photo of me in a hair net, too (in the Jura, drinking raw whey cream).

Next we headed to Uplands, where cheesemaker Andy Hatch charmed the hell out of us, took us into the fields, and sampled us with different ages of Pleasant Ridge and the new batch of Rush Creek. Yes, my friends, Rush Creek is back.

Then we moved on to Chalet Cheese, the home of the country's only remaining Limburger producer (read more about Chalet in my book). And yes I did capitalize Limburger. It's that good.

Myron Olson earned the last given Master Limburger Cheesemaker award in 1976. He manages the Chalet Cheese Co-op. Rosy cheeked, kind, and full of sweet jokes, he's exactly who you want making your Limburger. He serves it to guests of the plant with Ritz, mustard, and strawberry jam, and it's awesome.

Limburger is what Limburger Master Cheesemaker Myron Olson calls a smear-ripened cheese (anywhere else but Wisconsin calls this style washed-rind). As the soft cheese ages, it's rubbed down with a salt-water brine that contains healthy microflora bacteria from the plant's inception in the 1900's. It's what gives Limburger strong, funky scent, but sweet flavor.

We were served Limburger of various ages. Each Chalet brick has an "eat by" guide on it to assist in choosing the proper consumption for your tastes. My favorite were the youngest and oldest.

Our tour ended at Roth, where we sampled cheeses they were experimenting with, toured the make room and were fed delicious Swiss wine and fondue made with Roth's "Gruyere."

I came home from the tour with a deliciously full stomach (otherwise known as a cheese baby) and heart that was pleased with making amazing new friends and reconnecting with old ones- It would be hard to imagine being with stuck on a bus all day with such an awesome group of near strangers. And cheesemakers, thank you for so warmly welcoming us to your make rooms and farms. WMMB, thank you for sharing so much.

Hidden Spring's Brenda on Following the Curd & Washing Vats on Toes

Brenda Jensen's path from earning an MBA and working as an operational manager in the packaging industry to waking up at light break every morning to check on 550 sheep and cut curds in a steamy make room may seem surprising to some. It certainly was to the Jensens who now make the award-winning cheeses of Hidden Springs.

When Brenda and her husband first bought fifty dairy sheep in the middle of Wisconsin Amish country, their plan was to launch a creamery. Dean and Brenda would milk the sheep and then hire someone to make cheese, they thought. Brenda would keep her full-time, well-paying job that likely had a retirement plan. But then the couple decided to take a class and visit local sheep’s milk cheesemaker Mary Falk at Love Tree to learn more about the ins and outs of their future business. This shook things up.

Brenda fell in love. With everything. With the feel of the curds on her fingers, the scent of the make room, the texture of sheep's milk, the mix of artistry and science. She might have even liked the hair net she was required to wear.

“My feet didn’t touch the ground for days,” she says laughing, “I was in love. I told Dean, ‘I think I found the cheesemaker. I think it’s me!’

“I still get goosebumps when I smell warm milk,” she says.

Though Brenda couldn't be stopped after she walked her boots through the sanitizer into a make room for the first time, she ran into a few glitches along the way. At forty-four years old, she was a newbie. And she was a petite (yet strong) woman often training at cheese plants with men who grew up next to cheese vats.

She admits being a female cheesemaker sometimes made her have to work harder. One cheesemaker at a location where she trained didn’t let her cut the curd until her third shift on the job. But even though she had to stand back and watch and clean a lot in the beginning, she says, she noticed she was treated differently after the first year.

“They started looking at me like, ‘Huh, maybe she is really going to make cheese.”

That she did. Brenda quit her job, trained for her cheesemaking license, and translated her inspiration into eight different cheeses at Hidden Springs. My favorite of her vibrant cheeses are Timber Coulee, Bohemian Blue, Ocooch Mountain, and her mixed cow and sheep’s milk wheel, Meadow Melody, which I profile in my book (awesome with cherry conserve or confit).

Brenda now knows she can pick up the phone any time and receive support. She sites her biggest influences after Falk among Wisconsin’s and even the country’s food and cheese best- the team at Uplands (especially Mike Gingrich who helped her in her early years), goat cheesemaker Ann Tapham, Willi Lehner of Bleu Mont, Ari Weinsweig of Zingerman’s, Ranee May, Jeanne Carpenter, and Kate Arding of Talbott and Arding.

Beyond professional guidance, she can also call any of her five children to bring over one of her twelve grandchildren if she needs using the power hose in the make room.

“They like to say they made cheese with grandma,” Brenda Says, “they also like to ride the carts around the farm.”

When asked if she had any advice for aspiring cheesemakers who are starting out who may or may not have their children or grandchildren to help them, Brenda said she did especially for people of her stature (raising my hand right here).

Think long and hard about your milk buckets and vats and do so creatively. For example, the standard milk pails are so heavy, she had to roll hers the first time she used them. She suggests going with gravity flow tanks and smaller buckets.

“My toes don’t reach the ground when I’m washing the vat- something to think about when buying one!” she says, laughing.

Either way, this is one whip-smart and ambitious grandmother with an MBA that won't let an inch or two stop her.

LaClare's Katie On Cheese Love & Flipping Curds at Nine Months

After sharing a drink or two with my friends at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board at the last American Cheese Society Conference, we decided to collaborate on a project (this is how most things get done at ACS). I’d get to pitch a topic. My pick? The female cheesemakers of Wisconsin. I’d tell the stories of my choice of four of my favorite women cheesemakers in a series of blog posts. I loved interviewing these ladies, what they’re doing, and thank them for their time. This is the third of the series, focusing on Katie Fuhrmann of LaClare.

Katie Fuhrmann of LaClare Cheese and I first met at the Sonoma Cheese Conference about three years ago. We were sitting across from each other at an outdoor patio after the sessions had wrapped up, beer in hands, and we both looked up and met each other’s eyes. I was super impressed after just trying Katie's Evalon for the first time at a sample panel, knew she was just opening her new and first creamery at the age of twenty-eight, and really wanted to meet her. Having the intention of befriending the brunette Wisconsin curd magician and being so very smooth as I am, I turned to her and said...

“I, ah, I like your cheese.”

I think she was very impressed (could have been her Midwestern politeness). We became quick cheese friends.

When LaClare's clothbound Standard Market Chandoka won runner-up Best in Show at the American Cheese Society Awards I, like many in the cheese world who continuously root for the talented and sweet cheesemaker, were very happy. The cheesemaker, however, was very surprised (and the very modest company has not yet even updated their website to reflect the victory).

Today’s LaClare's most widely available cheeses are Chandoka, Evalon, and Martone. Chandoka, featured above, is a goat and cow’s milk hybrid made in the style of a New Zealand cheddar with sweet lemony notes and fluffy consistency  (note to cheese geeks New Zealand Cheddar makers simply stack the cheddar slabs on one another rather than flipping them over as is done with English Cheddar). Her Evalon is a subtle, lightly caramel-like goat’s milk gouda. Her Maratone, below, is a fresh and light goat and cow’s milk hybrid shaped into a tiny, cheese-plate friendly mound covered with ash.

How does one that is twenty-eight go on to start winning Best in Show awards two years after launching her own creamery?

Skills and gumption it seems. Katie was always ambitious when it came to the LaClare family farm. Knowing that she wanted to contribute to the family, she started making her own soap on it at sixteen. Then, in 2008 when the family started shipping off their goat’s milk to a creamery to be made into cheese, Katie took note.

She said, “It hit me like a ton of bricks.”

Katie, who wanted to involved in the farm life but didn’t want to have to milk the family’s goats twice a day or clean out their pins, thought cheese was the perfect answer.

She started learning how to make cheese under Nathan Deahny at Saxon Creamery, who at that time was making cheese with LaClare’s milk. The mentorship relationship was ideal and within years Katie was applying for her license, moved her cheesemaking to Cedar Grove (another Bob Wills inspired maker) and then to Willow Creek. Other cheesemakers she’s cut curds next to during her learning process have been Bruce Workman of Edelweiss, Chris Roelli of Roelli Cheeese, Bob Wills, and Jon & Dave Metzig. Cheesemaking in Wisconsin is apparently supportive.

“There’s a sense of community and respect, no competition. Just, 'Hey nice job at that cheese you made',” says Katie. “We all want to represent Wisconsin and that it was built being a dairy state.”

Besides the makers she worked next to, Katie also sites the last “Women in Wisconsin Cheese” focus, Marieke, among her biggest influences. Sure, for her talent and prowess (both make some of the country’s most respected gouda styles), but thoughts of Marieke in particular crossed her mind when she was recently making cheese and over nine months pregnant. Marieke made cheese almost all the way through when she was pregnant with her own five children, and so did Katie. As it became harder to shuffle curds around the vat, Katie told herself, “If Marieke can do it, I can do it.”

“I used a stool to reach into the big vat because my pregnant belly didn’t fit over it anymore,” says Katie, laughing, “you just twist and turn and make it work.”

Katie worked up until the day she gave birth, saying she had plans to start the day's cheese, then go into the hospital. As it was, Katie went straight in.

But her brother still teased her about missing the day.

"He told me since Charlie was born at 8:30 am, I could be back in time for the audit!," which was scheduled at 9am.

Word is, she took the entire day off.

The posts were sponsored, and edited only by me.

Women Cheesemakers of Wisconsin: Marieke's Gouda Love.

After sharing a drink or two with my friends at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board at the last American Cheese Society Conference, we decided to collaborate on a project (this is how most things get done at ACS). I’d get to pitch a topic. My pick? The female cheesemakers of Wisconsin. I’d tell the stories of my choice of four of my favorite women cheesemakers in a series of blog posts. I loved interviewing these ladies, what they're doing, and thank them for their time. This is the second of the series, focusing on Marieke Penterman of Holland's Family Cheese. There are three things that immediately stand out about gouda cheesemaker Marieke Penterman of Hollands Family Cheese. First, her passion for milk and cheese. Second, her devotion to her family. Third, that she’s suuuper nice- she smiled and waved hello to approximately fifty-three people during our interview at the American Cheese Society conference. And fourth, she might consider mixing up her dance moves when accepting cheese awards in the future.

Said Marieke, “I don’t want people to get bored.”

I laughed. Nine years after launching her cheesemaking career and over a hundred awards later, she’s in no danger of disenchanting. Still, I suggested salsa.

Marieke grew up on a farm in Holland with a herd of fifty cows and loved working with the animals. Though she’s always seemed destined for cheese, when she first launched her dairy in 2005, she just wanted to milk cows. But within months of experiencing the ebb and flow of fluid milk prices and urging from her mother, she decided to sign up for cheesemaking classes. They worked out. And with influences like Uplands Cheese and Joe Widmer of Widmer’s Cheese down the road, Marieke says, there was plenty of inspiration nearby.

Nine years later, Marieke still lights up when talking about milk’s “fascinating” transformation in the make room.

“I like to feel the curd, how vulnerable it is, how soft,” she says, “milk is amazing- delicious, nutritious….” She says, gazing into the distance as she goes on to list all the things milk can become. Ice cream, fromage blanc, butter, yogurt, cream, … (and about five other products I didn’t write fast enough to catch).

Holland’s Family Cheese might start making some of her beloved milk incarnations, since they opened a new dairy, shop, and visitor center a year ago that has more space. First though, Marieke’s priority is teaching more people about cheesemaking, since she says, “we can’t blame people for don’t understanding if we don’t give them the opportunity.”

Tours in the new dairy lead visitors throughout all steps of the process from making and aging, to packing and selling. The creamery also has windows so guests can watch the cheesemakers add rennet, cut curds, and press wheels.

But education at Holland’s Cheese doesn’t stop with the visitors. Among Marieke’s top priorities are involving her five children in the life of the creamery. If guests look carefully, they might catch a glimpse of one of Marieke’s children gently practicing folding cheese paper over a young gouda wedge between doodling with Crayons (like I did when visiting for my book). Or, spot the desks Marieke put next to the creamery so her children could do their homework. More than one of her children sat in their strollers as babies while watching her and her husband make cheese.

Wisconsin female cheesemakers I interviewed for this series with young children cited Marieke’s incorporating her children into her dairy life in addition to her good business sense as inspirational. Seems like it goes both ways.

“The young and new cheesemakers inspire me,” Marieke says, “They make me want to do better.”

According to Marieke, Master Cheesemaker Pam Hodgson of Satori cheese has been nudging her to start the classes to become a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, which would make her the third woman to earn the honor after Pam. If her shining eyes were telling, I don't think she'd take much more nudging to make the move in a year or three down the road.

 Full disclosure, the WMMB sponsored my project. Written only about cheesemakers whose wheels I love, these posts are edited only by me.

Women of Wisconsin Cheese: The Annas of Landmark Creamery

After sharing a drink or two with my friends at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board at the last American Cheese Society Conference, we decided to collaborate on a project (this is how most things get done at ACS). I’d get to pitch a topic. My pick? The female cheesemakers of Wisconsin. I’d tell the stories of four of my favorite cheesemakers in a series of four posts over a couple weeks. I loved interviewing these ladies and thank them for their time. This is the first of the series, focusing on Landmark Creamery.

In a state like Wisconsin where third-generation dairy farmers are as common as twenty-degree days and aspiring cheesemakers train for more than two hundred hours to earn their license, it can take a lot for newbies to establish themselves. So when Bob Willis of Cedar Grove told the Annas of Landmark Creamery they could use his Milwaukee Clock Shadow space when his other cheesemakers were off or home sleeping, they jumped on it.

Anna Landmark would drive the two hours from her home in Albany in the afternoon, make the cheese, hoop the curds, then wash up and head home. Then Thomas Bates would arrive, (also from Albany) make sure the curds were draining right, flip the wheels, and wash up again, sometimes not getting home until two or three in the morning.

“We’d pass each other on the highway,” said Landmark, who was also pregnant during much of her Shadow Clock tenure. Both women have children at home.

“We decided we were too old to take naps at truck stops,” said Thomas Bates, nodding.

Now the two are making cheese at Cedar Grove closer to their Albany homes and though happily are a little less sleep deprived, are just as impassioned.

Landmark Creamery makes three cheeses. Tall Grass (pictured at top) is their citrusy, mushroomy, grassy semi-firm wheel made from local sheep and cow’s milk. Petite Nuage is their tiny ten-ounce fluffy, white sheep’s milk cheese button. Anabasque (pictured below) is their brown buttery, lively, aged semi-firm French Pyrenees sheep’s milk inspiration. Not even two years old, Landmark’s cheeses have grazed restaurant plates as close as Estrellon in Madison to Manresa in Santa Cruz.

Landmark runs the cheese vat and Tomas Bates directs orders and marketing. The two met at a Green County Women in Sustainable Agriculture potluck and became close friends while their children were in the same class at school. When they both discovered that they wanted to start a food business and equally adored cheese, their fate was sealed. Landmark winning a Cheese Originals Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship to help fund getting her license was another boost.

The two first decided on sheep’s milk because they knew the animals would happily and sustainably graze on the grass around the region’s cows, and they thought their children would like to play with them. When they found out they could buy grass fed milk from the state’s only pastured and grass-fed cow’s milk co-op, they added that to the vat, creating their first mixed milk cheese.

With great milk, cheesemaker Bob Wills’s mentoring, and cheesemakers like Holland Farm’s Marieke Peterson, Brenda Jenson of Hidden Springs, Diana Murphy of Dream Farm, and Anne Topham of Fantome Farm that Landmark cited as influences, the two have no lack of inspiration.

Aapparently the Annas themsleves inspire too. Tomas Bates’s son is considering his next career move.

“My seven year old son said he’d take over the business when we’re done, that's if he doesn't want to be a tree trimmer," she says, laughing.

The posts were sponsored, and edited only by me.