Homemade goat cheese is a delicious addition to salads, crepes, pizza and sandwiches. It is an easy cheese for beginners, based on a simple cultured cream cheese.

If this is your first time making cheese, read about how to make cheese at home for more details on each of the steps in this recipe.

Flavouring Soft Goat Cheese

Flavoured goat cheese is a delicious and impressive appetizer. Dried herbs can be mixed in with the salt for a Boursin style cheese. However, salting and flavouring goat cheese after draining will result in a soft spreading cheese, even if it has been pressed for 48 hours.

To make a firm log of goat cheese, sprinkle salt and other flavours on the surface of the cheese after draining. The cheese can either be rolled in the toppings, or the toppings can be added to the top of the cheese after it has been packed into a mason jar.

Here are a few popular flavour additions:

Fresh herbs like basil, chives and dill with a drizzle of olive oil
Olive tapenade
Roasted garlic with a drizzle of olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Blueberry or cherry jam

How to make goat cheese

Homemade soft goat cheese, like chevre and goat cream cheese, are easy to make and delicious. Adding flavours to goat cheese turns it into an impressive appetizer. See the top of the post for more information about how to flavour goat cheese.

Author: Emillie
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: Approx. 1 1/2 lbs
Category: Cheese
Method: Cultured
Cuisine: French

Scale

Ingredients

1 gallon whole goat’s milk
1/2 portion of mesophilic starter or chevre starter (see notes)
1/2 portion of rennet mixed in 1/4 cup of chlorine free water (see notes)
1 tbsp cheese salt (optional)

Instructions

Heat milk to 76F.
Add the rennet and the mesophilic culture at the same time. Stir thoroughly to ensure even mixing.
Maintain at 72F for 12 hours to set the curd.
After 12 hours, it will have formed a thick curd. Gently pour the entire batch into a strainer lined with butter muslin.
Hang in the butter muslin for 6-48 hours, until you have reached the desired thickness. Goat cheese can be a soft spreading cheese or a firm log.
After draining, add the salt and any flavourings. See notes above for more information and suggestions.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge and use within 1 month.

Notes

Only use half the amount of rennet that is normally used to set a gallon of milk. The exact amount will depend on whether you are using liquid rennet or a rennet tablet (affiliate links.) Follow the instructions on your rennet package or use 1 drop of liquid rennet.
Chevre is officially made with it’s own specific mesophilic culture. However, you can use 1/4 cup of milk kefir or mesophilic yogurt as the culture. For a mild tasting cheese, don’t add any culture.
The consistency will depend on how long the cheese drains for. Hang the cheese for 6 hours for a creamy spreading cheese or 48 hours to get a firmer crumbling cheese.

Keywords: chevre, goat cream cheese, soft cheese, easy, diy, homemade, flavoured, herb, garlic, fruit, olive