Goat Cheesecake

for the bottom:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup or one stick (and a tbs) of vegetable butter
1/2 cup of organic cane sugar
1 tsp salt

microwave butter on high for 45 seconds in glass container
combine flour, sugar, salt and mix well; add butter and mix well until it just about forms a ball

if the dough does not stick to each other, add a little orange juice - but not too much! it is a crumble dough type, it should not smooth out like bread dough, otherwise it will taste sticky.

fill one 10" spring form evenly, but only the bottom, not the sides
optional: use a prepared Graham cracker crust (if you do, cut the filling recipe in half)

for the filling:
2 envelopes unflavored gelatine
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup boiling water
32 oz (home made) soft goat cheese / chevre
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix gelatin powder and sugar; add boiling water and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.

Beat chevre and vanilla in KitchenAid / mixer until smooth; remove mixer and by hand slowly beat in gelatin mixture.

Pour into spring form and refrigerate until firm (ca. 3 hours but preferably the next day).

optional: add a 1/2 pint of home made jam to the chevre to make a sweet cheesecake.

Crust recipe from Het Nieuwe Kookboek, page 422 (zandkoekjes)
Filling recipe adapted from Knox It's-a-Snap Cheesecake

Grams to Cups Conversion

Great resource for us European bakers!

According to the Alt.cooking FAQ

flour, Deaf Smith 130 grams/cup
flour, U.K. self-raising 110 grams/cup
flour, U.S. all-purpose 100 grams/cup
flour, buckwheat 170 grams/cup
flour, cake 90 grams/cup
flour, legume 130 grams/cup
flour, potato 170 grams/cup
flour, rice 150 grams/cup
flour, rye 90 grams/cup
flour, semolina 175 grams/cup
flour, wheat bread 100 grams/cup
flour, whole wheat 130 grams/cup

sugar, brown 200 grams/cup
sugar, castor 190 grams/cup
sugar, confectioner's 130 grams/cup
sugar, granulated 190 grams/cup
sugar, powdered 130 grams/cup

more goats...

A week after we picked up the little bottle kids, I finally found some weaned boer bucks for a good price. I immediately went to pick them up - they are bred and raised by a 14 year old! - and they are happily living in the fenced in area out back.

This week we're supposed to have our fence posts dropped off and this weekend the pounder tractor comes to put them in the ground! Couple more weekends, and they'll be happily munching on all the weeds they want, without us having to take them out in the morning and in at night - sooo nice!

Our toddler Simon enjoys walking down there and feed them corn, though right now they think he's a little alien and try to hide!

We've got goats!

The same morning Oma Winda flew back to the Netherlands, Simon and I went on a tour at Side Hill Acres Dairy Farm with our playgroup buddies Sungiva, Nellia, Willow and assorted parents. The tour was wonderful, lots of goats and lots of babies, and we all came home with lots of dairy goodies - except Simon, he came home with baby goats :-)

We had picked two at the farm and called them Adam (orange) and Jamie (black & white) but Adam never drank real well and he passed two days later. Jamie had a little dip (funny how baby goats and baby humans are similar!) but with a little nudge here and there we got into a good routine.



Jamie loves sleeping on my lap, likes to follow Simon around the house (in circles) and comes outside to hang out & play with us, though power tools are not his favorite toys... it's like having a little dog in goat fur! Except for the part of not being house trained...

He drinks (pasteurized) goat milk from our local grocery store, about 4 times a day.