Lavender goats cheese

Ingredients 1 tbsp lavender, 1 litre goats milk, 7 drops vegetarian rennet,

Preparation: 20 minutes, plus overnight.

If you have never made your own cheese... why not? It's super easy to make goats cheese and it's SO YUMMY. I love fresh goats cheese rolled in lavender to flavour it for cooking, but the flavour is so much better if you actually incorporate the lavender into the cheese. 


1) You need blood temperature goats milk (37 degrees) for cheese. If you have access to fresh goats milk 1 - I hate you 2 - this stage is not necessary.
I warmed my milk and lavender in a pan very slowly using a meat thermometer, but rule of thumb is if you put your thumb in and can't feel any change in temperature, it's OK. 

2) Stir through the vegetarian rennet, then leave in the pan for about 15 minutes to allow the curds and whey to separate.

3) Cut up the curd into small chunks, then transfer to a sieve lined with muslin. Tie the ends of the muslin together with a bit of string so that the curd is enclosed, then set the sieve over a bowl and leave overnight.

The whey will drain away, leaving soft goats cheese in the bundle of muslin. I roll mine into little balls, but you can keep this in a block in the fridge like any other cheese.