Fresh Honey Chevre Goat Cheese

Surprisingly easy and unbelievably delicious home made cheese.


We were introduced to honey chevre at a local cheese shop that we enjoy and we decided we should try to make it. The internet is full of recipes and instructions for goat chevre, so I wont add to the din. What I did not find was a recipe for honey chevre specifically. Chevre is creamy and just a bit tangy, almost like a sharper and lighter cream cheese. And just like cream cheese in cheese cake, a bit of sweetness in chevre has amazing results.

We have some family friends with goats who generously provided us with a few gallons of goats milk that was only hours old. We bought starter culture from New England Cheesemaking Supply and followed their directions as well. Since the milk was fresh from the goat and we had never done this, we decided to be on the safe side and batch pasteurize it first. All that means is you heat the milk to 145 for 30 minutes before cooling it down to 86 and culturing it.

I think we hung it too long because we found the cheese to be a little grainy. Just a few seconds in the food processor cleared that up completely. While it was in there, we added honey until the taste was just right. We found that 1 part honey to 4 parts cheese was the perfect blend. We also learned that you can over-process it and it will more or less liquify instead of creaming.

It thaws from freezing perfectly if you give it a day in the fridge, and if the texture changes at all in the process, the food processor smoothes it right out. This stuff is fantastic. Seriously. And since the milk was free, it cost a tiny fraction of the store bought stuff. So good!