Anybody have a good recipe for cheeze (like Daiya)?

[moss]

Ive been digging around online and it looks like most of the dairyfree cheese recipes are more of a sauce or they use cachews.

i need a recipe that uses similar ingredients to the daiya cheese but i want to be able to make our own. we dont 'do' canola usually.

anyone? melty non allergen shreddable tasty recipe? please?

[catnip]

I know that Real Food Daily has a housemade 'cheese' that I've had in their restaurants. It was one of the best mock cheeses that I've had. It's in their cookbook, which, unfortunately, I lent out.

[moss]

thanks luckily my library has that book. cant wait to thumb thru it.


i found an article from daiya's really early days where one of its founders was talking about his inspiration. he said that he remembered from his childhood that tapioca pudding is stretchy~like melty cheese. i think that part of their proprietary process must involve cooking the tapioca/oil/water like a pudding, and then adding the "pea protein" (whatever that is! LOL) and flavouring/thickening agents.

i was reading a blog about making non-dairy cheeses and she was saying that the best ones use the same macronutrient ratios as dairy cheeses (ie moisture, protein, fat, carbos)

surely other people have tried to hack the daiya recipe so that they can make it fit their own dietary needs. there is certainly something magical and intriguing about a nondairy cheese that acts and has a mouthfeel like real cheese. over the last few years i've learned a lot about food chemistry. i think this will be my project for the week if i cant find a recipe that someone else has figured out. i know that some people with peanut allergy avoid legumes like peas as well...

ps, do you think its ethical to try to reverse engineer a proprietary process and share the results online if they are successful?

[catnip]

You might also want to look for the Uncheese Cookbook. I've never tried any of the solid block cheeses from that book, but the spreadable ones are favorites here.

Daiya's macronutrient ratios are nothing like dairy cheese- there's almost no protein, and several grams of carbohydrate. We tend to use it as a condiment, like we would use mayonnaise or Earth Balance, adding a little tiny bit to the main dish to enhance it - I use about a quarter of the quantity I would have used of dairy cheese in a recipe.

[moss]

re the uncheese cookbook: are there any recipes that dont use soy? i seem to remember looking thru one of stepaniak's other books and couldnt do her dairyfree recipes because everything was heavy on the tofu. i had really given up on the whole idea of nondairy cheese until we tried daiya. now that i see what's possible im inspired again.

<--- aspiring to be the dairyfree meltable cheese hundredth monkey.

[Malva]

There are soy free recipes. I think several recipes may call for soy milk but you can sub your non-dairy milk of choice.

From that cookbook we regularly make the Nacho Cheese Sauce and the Lemon Teasecake is really really good.

[CoBabyMaker]

Subbing!  Cause our library pretty much stinks and doesn't have anything....

[pers]

Originally Posted by catnip 

I know that Real Food Daily has a housemade 'cheese' that I've had in their restaurants. It was one of the best mock cheeses that I've had. It's in their cookbook, which, unfortunately, I lent out.

I loooooooove that one, if it is the same I am thinking of from their cookbook.  Someone did copy it online here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000685.html, but buying the actual cookbook to support the authors is a better way to go if you like their stuff. 

However, it is another cashew based recipe.  

[pers]

Originally Posted by moss 

re the uncheese cookbook: are there any recipes that dont use soy? i seem to remember looking thru one of stepaniak's other books and couldnt do her dairyfree recipes because everything was heavy on the tofu. i had really given up on the whole idea of nondairy cheese until we tried daiya. now that i see what's possible im inspired again.

<--- aspiring to be the dairyfree meltable cheese hundredth monkey.

Yes, quite a bit.   I have the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, which is the 10th annivarsary edition, and it has an allergen-free-index in the back which is a lists recipes by if they are gluten-free, soy-free,  nut-free, or yeast-free.  The soy-free list is enough to take up a full three column page.  Each recipe also has a little "Free Of" box in the sidebar where it lists common allergens that are not in it.  Most of the recipes are the same or only slightly altered from what was in the original Uncheese Cookbook (which I've only borrowed, so haven't compared that closely), and a few have been added, but sadly a couple of my favorites are missing from the updated version I have, most noteably the super-yummy pecan cheese (spreadable, but may have been used as part of a sauce in some other recipes) and the super yummy pecan eggplant pesto.  It's worth borrowing the original version from a library or friend to get those delicious recipes!

I'm not sure how good it is for meltable though.  I've mostly made cheezy sauces or cheezy food recipes from it.  I know I did try at leas one of the block cheezes and it turned out fairly well and was yummy, but I can't remember which one now, and I don't think it would have been very meltable. But still a great cookbook!