Clone of Thermomix Mozzarella and Bocconcini

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Recipe's preparation

Pour 2000ml of milk into the Thermomix bowl.

 

Mix 1 teaspoon of citric acid into 1 tablespoon of cool water. The citric acid has dissolved properly once the water turns clear. Add to milk and stir through with a long spatula.

 

Bring milk to 37c at speed 1. You’ll have to keep your eye on the temperature lights, but my room temperature milk took about 5 minutes. Once the 37c green light stops flashing, you know you’ve hit your temperature.

 

Dissolve the junket tablets in 1 tablespoon of warm water. Stir for 2 seconds on speed 3.

 

Pour milk mixture into a warmed Thermoserver. Cover and leave undisturbed for 15 minutes. *See note at bottom if you do not have a thermoserver

 

Using a sharp knife, cut into your curds horizontally and then vertically. You want to try and cut your curd into 3 centimetre squares. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.

 

With the lid on the Thermomix, carefully tip your curds and whey back into the Thermomix bowl (with the lid on, it prevents a bit of slash back). Cook for 40 minutes/37c/gentle stir mode. (you may need to get the mixture stirring on speed 1 or 1.5, and then reduce speed to 0.5 once the mixture has momentum)

 

Line your Thermomix strainer with a damp cheesecloth or a wet, new chux wipe and strain your curds over a large bowl. Drain for about 15 minutes. You might want to help the draining process along as you want to drain as much whey from the curd as possible. Reserve your whey if you’re going to store your cheese for more than a day. Actually, reserve your whey because it’s fantastic in baking.

Return your thoroughly drained curd to the Thermomix bowl. It’s going to look crumbly at this stage, but that’s okay. Add half a teaspoon of finely ground non-iodized salt and knead for 1 minute. Remove curd from the bowl.

 

Now here comes the fun part. It’s the stretching that gives mozzarella that mozzarella-ey texture. First you need to heat the mozzarella, so channel your inner-yogi and put your pretend asbestos gloves on, because this is going to get a little ‘heated’.

 

Microwave method: Place your curd into a medium-sized microwave proof bowl and cook on high for 40-60 seconds.

 

Thermomix method: Place your curd into a small heatproof bowl that will fit inside the strainer. Place enough whey or water to cover the blades. Place the strainer with the bowl of curd into the Thermomix bowl and cook on varoma/speed 1 for 4-5 minutes. Leave the MC off because you’re trying to avoid water condensing into your drained curd. Tip your curd into a larger bowl for you to work with. WARNING! The bowl is going to be very hot and it’s a little awkward to remove from the strainer, so be very careful!

 

To be honest, I prefer the microwave method, but I know lots of people prefer not to nuke their food.

 

Anyway, back to the fun stuff.

 

Using a flexible spatula, beat and stir your cheese until it comes together into a ball.

 

Once you’ve stirred your curd into a smooth mass, carefully stretch your mozzarella before folding it back onto itself. I reheated the cheese twice until I felt I’d created a smooth, glossy ball of mozzarella. Place your mozzarella into a rounded bowl and set in the fridge to cool.

 

 

To make bocconcini, pinch out little balls of the stuff. Egg sized is the size of traditional bocconcini, while grape size is baby bocconcini. If you don’t work fast enough, you may have to reheat your cheese halfway through. Pop your little bocconcini balls into a tub of cold, reserved whey.

 

You can either store your mozzarella wrapped in the refrigerator, or you can store it in the cooled reserved whey (refrigerated of course).