The Petit Suisse Experiment and an Accomplice

I have thoroughly chronicled my quest to find the perfect petit suisse recipe. Some think it's insane that I would spend so much time trying to replicate something that back home, is just baby food. But you must understand, I live far, far away from home and sometimes one needs closeness and needs to feed the soul with childhood memories and flavors.

I believe this is my third attempt at it and as we say in Spanish, "a la tercera, la vencida". And so it was. This time, it worked. Wonderful, thick, creamy, sweet and tangy petit suisse.

But there is something I must tell you. Something wonderful happened during this whole process of finding the perfect recipe. Another "insane" blogger decided to join me on this quest. She had brilliant ideas and we both put our minds and our palates to the test. So this would have never happened without her help, the wonderful, inspiring and "Baker Zen Master" herself, Tartelette.




Helen emailed me a couple of months ago saying she was in. She also wanted to "break the petit suisse" code. Of course, I was jumping up and down with joy. Time passed and we both got busy with life until I recently emailed her to tell her about how my creme fraiche blancmange tasted just like petit suisse. Surprisingly, she had just made some creme fraiche from scratch herself and was about to email me the same thought.

So soon after that, we scheduled a first experiment. We agreed to try to culture a mixture of some heavy cream and whole milk with creme fraiche and a bit of buttermilk. We decided to go against using a starter because both creme fraiche and buttermilk are cultured products so there would be enough bacteria in them to incubate the base. I let mine incubate overnight in my yogurt maker and in the morning, I was greeted by something similar to creme bulgare, which I have blogged about, with a good layer of cream on top. Surprisingly, not all the little jars had set the same way and for some reason, some of them ended up with a layer of cream but a liquid center. So good tasting but not what I was looking for.

I still wanted to go the fromage frais route which I had read about originally. So for our second experiment, we decided to use whole milk and rennet. We let the milk inoculate overnight and in the morning, when the milk curd had formed, we decided to add heavy cream to it. This was the key. I laddled the curd into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and I added 20% of heavy cream. Gently mixed it and let it drain the excess whey for about 4 hours. The result was unbelievable. Just like the petit suisse I grew up eating.



I made some strawberry compote to go with it and since it is so hot and humid, I thought my little boy would really enjoy some petit suisse popsicles so I folded some petit suisse and lightly whipped cream together, piped it into my shot glasses and froze it. He could not keep his hands off them!

So here is the recipe that worked wonders.

Petit Suisse

2 liters organic whole milk
30 ml organic cultured buttermilk
1/8 tablet of rennet
30 ml water
200 grams heavy cream (40% butterfat)

Sterilize a large pot by covering and boiling a small amount of water in it for 5 minutes prior to use.

Pour in the fresh milk, then the buttermilk. Warm up stirring to a final temperature of 65°F. Since my pot was warm from sterilizing it, I didn't even have to turn the heat on. Meanwhile, dissolve the rennet in 30 ml of cool water. Stir dissolved rennet into warm milk. Stir well to blend thoroughly. Cover and let it sit undisturbed overnight at room temperature.

The next morning, a soft curd should have formed; if not, let it sit until it does form which could take up to an additional 12 hours (mine was done overnight). When the curd is adequately formed, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Ladle cut curds into clean sterile cheesecloth suspended in a large strainer or stainless steel colander. Pour remaining whey through the cloth.

At this point, weigh the curd and add about 20% of its weight in heavy cream. Mine was 1 kg so I added 200 grams of cream. Stir gently. Place the curd and cream back on the strainer with the cheesecloth and refrigerate for 4 hours until most of the whey has drained off. Spoon the petit suisse into your jars.

I really want to thank Helen for helping me on this project. It was so much more fun to be able to share the steps and results with someone else. Like she said on Sunday morning... "who else out there is getting excited over curd like we are?". Yes, that's us! Merci Helen!

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The Petit Suisse Experiment and an Accomplice

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https://mercymadame.blogspot.com/2008/07/petit-suisse-experiment-and-accomplice.html

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Almond and Cherry Crumble and... Petit Suisse Part Deux

A couple of weeks ago, I professed my love for petit suisse right here in this blog. I promised you that I would be back with more and my attempt to make them at home. Well here I am, not triumphant, as I had presumed. Let me explain.

I had been searching for a petit suisse recipe for a long time but had not been very successful. Finally a few days ago, I did find a recipe to make fromage frais. This recipe indicated that this was also the method to make petit suisse and since the ingredients were easy to find and the method seemed fairly uncomplicated, I decided to go for it.

There is something about making cheese, yogurt or bread at home that is very rewarding to me. Almost spiritual. Maybe because bacteria and yeast are living organisms that really require attention and depending on the hands of the person handling it, the results can be quite different. I like that. I like inconsistency, I like little flaws, I like the imperfection. Of course nowadays, there are machines that control all variables of the fermenting process resulting in a consistent product everytime, which is necessary in commercial production, but I still find the process of making it myself very rewarding.

So the resulting cheese was basically plain unsalted, fromage frais. Very, very good flavor and texture but it was not petit suisse. I tried to research more about the petit suisse method and learned that heavy cream is added after the curd has formed. It was unclear to me how I was supposed to proceed after that. So if any of you know the answer, please... I need you!



Cherries from California also showed up at Whole Foods which has made my week. I have been eating cherries all day long. They are as addicting as sunflower seeds. I cannot stop. Here is a little crumble I made for dessert a couple of nights ago. I topped it with a little bit of the fromage blanc and it was delicious.


Fromage Blanc

Yields about 200 grams of final product

2 liters organic whole milk
30 ml organic cultured buttermilk
1/8 tablet of rennet
30 ml water

Sterilize a large pot by covering and boiling a small amount of water in it for 5 minutes prior to use. Pour in the fresh milk, then the buttermilk. Warm up stirring to a final temperature of 65°F. Meanwhile, dissolve rennet in 30 ml of cool water. Stir dissolved rennet into heated milk. Stir well to blend thoroughly. Cover and let sit undisturbed overnight at room temperature.

The next morning, a soft curd should have formed; if not, let it sit until it does form which could take up to an additional 12 hours (mine was done overnight). When the curd is adequately formed, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Ladle cut curds into clean sterile cheesecloth suspended in a large strainer or stainless steel colander. Pour remaining whey through the cloth.

The next day, open the cloth to reveal the cheese. I spooned it into ring molds but any cleaned yogurt container can be used to store it. I covered mine with a damp paper towel so the top doesn't dry out.

Almond Crumble

100 grams unsalted butter
100 grams sugar
100 grams flour
125 grams almond flour

Cream all ingredients together in an electric mixer. It will be crumbly. Place on a cookie sheet or in an air tight container and refrigerate over night. I normally make a large batch and freeze it and then I bake what I need.

Cherry Filling

200 grams pitted cherries
25 grams flour
30 grams sugar (depends on the sweetness of the fruit)
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Divide filling into four ramekins and sprinkle with a generous amount of crumble. Bake in a 350F oven. Cover the ramekins with aluminum foil for the first 10-15 minutes, then let them finish baking for another 15 minutes or until crumble is golden brown.

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Almond and Cherry Crumble and... Petit Suisse Part Deux

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