Christmas Cheese Plate

So what you see below is another round of Cheese enjoyed over this past Christmas break. From back to front, left to right, the cheeses shown in the picture are Lincolnshire cheddar, white stilton with mango, white stilton with ginger, Brillat Savarin, Tuxford & Tebbutt cheddar, Benedictin Blue, and Valencay.

The piece of Tuxford cheddar, with the black rind, was from the past offerings. The Lincolnshire cheddar had a light coloured pate, with a soft taste, and a mild bite. This cheese would rate 2 wheels out of 5, for simple eats, and decent flavour. However, nothing remarkable.

I must admit that I really enjoyed the Benedictin, made at St- Benoit Du Lac Abbey. It’s a Canadian blue that I found to be really crisp, though a little bit salty. I liked the texture on its own or with a cracker. The rind was sufficient, and not overwhelmingly salty. It seemed like a younger cheese, more refreshing than some of the other blues. Clearer mold taste, with a less spicy finish. Quite a catch and the price was decent as well. I’d give this cheese a 4 out of 5 wheels, for a clean taste, soft texture, and local manufacturing. Montreal is afterall only 5 hours away. It doesn’t taste as complex, but certainly deserving on any platter.

The Brillat Savarin is a triple cream cheese. Yes, another fatty, but also scrumptious spreadable cheese. It matched well with both fruits and crackers, though I liked it with a little piece of bread. On it’s own, the rind has an intense mushroom flavour, but I also found it to leave a not so pleasant after taste. It smelled almost like peroxide. The pate was very smooth, and it helped offset the rind’s chemical taste. I did like this cheese, but I think I’ll hang onto a piece of Pierre Robert instead. So overall rating, 3 wheels our of five for this triple cream.

The mango stilton and the ginger stilton were quite interesting, in that they both tasted more like a creamy cheesecake. The mango and the ginger pieces are very tasty, with more flavour in thin slices. It’s quite good as a sweet bite afer dinner, but not something in any serious volume. Unfortunately, this cheese won’t rate highly for me, since after a few bites, I was ready to move onto the next cheese. I’m giving both these cheeses 2 out of 5 wheels. It’s good for a few bites, but unfortunately not much more.

The Valencay goat cheese was a hit once again. The ash rind matched well with the pate, mellowing out the sharpness. Without the rind, the pate was a little acidic, and the goat scent was strong. The shape of the cheese is quite unique, and provides a nice change from the usual pie shape. The pate is very smooth, and quite fragrant as it warmed to room temperature. Overall this cheese deserves a 3.5 out of 5 wheels. It has a good texture, perhaps a little dry for some, but the flavour is light and not overly bearing.

Baking the Holidays Away

So this year, I tried to be adventurous and baked up cookies for the family and friends. I do normally bake some cakes, and cookies, but nothing in this scale. I was originally planning on making pannetone as well, but I couldn’t get the recipe right in time. Oh well, there’s always next year. I made a mixture of butter cookies, and gingerbread cookies. About 200 plus cookies later, I was ready to bite off all their heads. The icing is simply sugar and water with some food colouring. I also made some double coloured butter cookies, and cookies with smarties in them. The colouring bled through, so a suggestion from May was to stick the smarties on top next time instead of mixing it into the dough. I think chocolate chip cookies would have been simpler and more presentable.

I then boxed them in tins, stuffed with wax paper. The tins were from Michaels’s and they were very much of the season. May showed me how to tie up a round container; with a bit of weaving, the string stayed in position quite nicely. I ran into a cookie casualty and the little butter bled icing all over the place.

Then I delivered the cookies via my parents out westwards to my brother in Seattle, Aunts Uncles and cousins in Vancouver. I delivered cookies and a stollen to family in town. Much to my chagrin, the stollen was a little dry, and denser than most breads baked in the past. It was like my pannetone, more of a dense alcoholic fruit bread, than the expected fluffy results.

The pannetone on the left, in picture above, was store bought, and my stollen on the right looked more like a giant biscotti.

So after several pounds of flours, multiple blocks of butter, and pounds of sugar, I’ve received some positive feedback. The gingerbread was a hit all around, and the butter cookies were fatteningly yummy. My uncle commented “Trying to get us all fat eh?” “Sure, only if you eat all the cookies yourself!” Merry Christmas 2006 and a Happy New Year for 2007. More fun to come next year, and maybe more mise en place for a less stressful holiday.

Into the Blue

I don’t recall trying blue cheese before and so ventured into this category with a Roquefort Papillon from France and a stilton from Thomas Stevenson’s, a British adversary. The packaging on the stilton was superior.

However, I think the taste and sharpness of Roquefort won this battle. As a novice to this cheese, I found the blue cheeses to have a strong mushroom scent, and a spicy finish. The blue mold was tasty and the pate was quite smooth. I didn’t notice the rind to be all that salty. In the picture below, the roquefort sits on the left and the stilton on the right. I’ve never really enjoyed blue cheese on my salads, but I think this cheese type will be joining my palette permanently. Let’s go with 4 wheels for the roquefort, for its smooth and complex flavour, and a 3.5 wheels for the stilton. I liked it, but the pockets of blue mold in the roquefort was more fun texture wise.