Nothing can beat the pleasure of making your own pizza ingredients, knowing that the final product will be not only delicious but also healthy. Mozzarella is one of the main pizza toppings, so you’re probably wondering how to make cheese at home for pizza.
Start making cheese at home by warming full-fat milk and adding white vinegar. Once the paneer is formed, remove the excess water. Continue putting the paneer in hot water to bring your cheese elasticity, and refrigerate it at the end.
Making pizza at home won’t take you a lot of time. This simple recipe includes only a few basic ingredients you should mix together until you get the desired consistency. Once that paneer gets smooth, you can remove the water from your mixture and let it cool off in the fridge, and your homemade mozzarella cheese is ready to top the most delicious pizza you’ll ever make.
Learn How to Make Cheese at Home for Pizza in a Few Easy Steps
One of the best things about making homemade mozzarella is that mixing all the ingredients and forming the desired base will only take you about 20 to 30 minutes. This is why many people joke that knowing this recipe can be dangerous. Once you learn it and find out about its simplicity, it will be hard to hesitate to make it frequently.
First of all, you want to choose the proper ingredients. Some of the things you will need include:
- Milk,
- Citric acid,
- Rennet.
Start By Mixing the Gathered Ingredients
Once you have all the ingredients, you want to start making your mixture by heating up the milk with added citric acid. You can use regular white vinegar, which is a common choice for this mixture, plus you probably already have it at home. The next thing you need is a rennet. Add it to your mixture in order to separate the milk into whey and curds. Once you do this, heat it up again, stretch and knead and you’ll have mozzarella. This process is so easy and satisfying that it almost feels like magic.
People sometimes get suspicious when they hear about adding the acid and the rennet, but this shouldn’t worry you at all. These are completely normal ingredients, and they are safe to use in your kitchen. Citric acid is a powder-formed acid that’s found in lime and lemon. It should be added to this mixture to help acidify and coagulate milk. Rennet can be found in different forms – tablet or liquid, and in vegetarian form as well. It is used for setting proteins in the milk and for forming stretchy curds.
Where to Buy These Ingredients?
When it comes to finding the right milk, almost every type is good, no matter if it’s:
- Whole,
- Raw,
- Organic,
- 2%,
- Cow,
- Goat,
- Pasteurized.
The only thing you should avoid is milk that has already been under ultra-high temperature when pasteurized. When used, this method of pasteurization denatures the proteins that can be found in milk to the point when they can no longer be formed into curds.
You should also stay careful when buying organic milk because sometimes producers pasteurize it with high heat, and packaging doesn’t necessarily indicate this. In case your mozzarella ends up in a liquid form that reminds you of soupy cottage cheese, this is probably because your choice of milk was wrong. Avoid making this mistake by simply getting the right type of milk.
You can find citric acid and rennet at almost every food store. If you have trouble finding them, just google these ingredients and order them online from the closest store that sells them.
Best Homemade Mozzarella Recipe
Check out this table with all the necessary steps in the homemade mozzarella-making process, and don’t skip any important part.
| Step 1 | Prepare the rennet and citric acid – measure one cup of water and stir in the acid until it dissolves. Use a separate bowl and measure 1/4 cup of water to stir the rennet until it is dissolved as well. |
| Step 2 | Warm up the milk over medium-high heat (about 90°F) while stirring gently. |
| Step 3 | Remove the pot from the heat, add the rennet and gently stir it for 30 seconds, then cover the pot and let it cook for 5 minutes. |
| Step 4 | After five minutes, you should get a soft and silky tofu-like mixture and cut it into curds. |
| Step 5 | Cook the curds again at 105°F and slowly stir, but stay gentle in order not to ruin the structure. |
| Step 6 | Remove the curds from the heat and stir for an additional 5 minutes. |
| Step 7 | Separate the curds from the whey into a microwave bowl using the slotted spoon. |
| Step 8 | Microwave curds to 135°F for additional 30 seconds. |
| Step 9 | Stretch the curds and shape the mozzarella. |
| Step 10 | Add the salt on top of the mozzarella and squish it with your fingers, then stretch and fold the curds. When the structure becomes firm and glossy, shape it into small balls. |
| Step 11 | Refrigerate it or use it immediately. It is safe to keep it in this condition refrigerated for about one week. |
Making Pizza at Home Is a Healthy Choice
There are different types of cheeses you can use for topping, but mozzarella cheese is almost everyone’s favorite option. Plus, it is easy to make at home. Once you learn this recipe, you’ll start wondering why you ever went for market cheese. Making cheese at home will bring you joy and peace, knowing that your pizza will be much healthier than the one you can get at the fast food restaurant.
Following this recipe can feel calming for many parents whose children adore pizza, but they still struggle with including it in their children’s meal plan because it is not considered a healthy dinner choice.
Prepare Your Cheese at Home and Enjoy a Perfect Pizza
Now that you know how to make cheese for home, you can easily add it to your best airy dough and mix it up with other finest toppings layered in order to achieve the ultimate homemade quality. Share this delicious meal with friends and family. Not only will it be delicious, but you’ll also be happy knowing that you made it with high-quality ingredients without using additives and preservatives.