For The Love of Cheese!

I've already told you all about my crazy love of cheese (see here) and the wonder that is Wine and Cheese but this Tuesday was special. It's the Wine and Cheese before my birthday!

For years I have wanted a proper cheese cake for my birthday. Like this one

here

or this one

here

but wheels of cheese are EXPENSIVE! A good whole wheel can cost upwards of 300$ not to mention the fact that how on earth could anyone eat that much cheese??? (well, I know how I just don't think my body would appreciate it). Like all things that are out of my reach I lust and then I plan a knockoff. Honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before. You can make a very cute and modest cheese cake with just a few simple tools. 

1: Round cookie cutters of varying sizes. I love this set Daniel got for me for Christmas. 

2: Cheese. The key to making this work is that your cheese has to be flat and the same thickness all the way through. 

I picked up a nice selection. I also grabbed a few round cheeses to make my life slightly easier. 

I missed getting pictures of this next step because I was having way too much fun (and I had cheese all over my hands) but it is pretty simple. Take a round cookie cutter and punch out a round of cheese. Once you've punched all the rounds you can (remember to do these in different sizes so they stack like a regular cake) stack away. I made two.

"Curse you mighty mountain of cheese!" Who said you can't play with your food? Next simply garnish and enjoy! 

The blue cheese was the most difficult to work with since it was a bit crumbly but you can just reshape it if it falls apart a bit. 

The best part of punching out all the rounds is getting to make fromage forte with all the leftover bits of cheese. Sometimes I hoard cheese ends for weeks just to make this stuff. If you eat as much cheese as we do you will find there always seems to be just a little bit left over. Save these! Do not throw them away! Just keep them around until you have 1/2-1 lb of cheese bits and pieces. Then, using your handy dandy food processor, blend all the bits (grate them first if they are hard cheeses) with 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 cup of white wine. It should go from this

to this

Just add a little more white wine if you need to until it is the consistency of pie dough. Now you've got a pliable mound of spreadable cheese that can be made into a ball or simply pressed into a serving dish like so

A warning though, this cheese is not for the faint of heart. Fromage Forte means strong cheese and it is. Especially if you've got a good blue in there. You can make it with any cheese you'd like, but I say the stronger the better! 

So get out there and eat some cheese! 

Cheers!