Here in Wisconsin deep friend cheese curds are extremely popular. The only problem with them is that they’ve always been viewed as an appetizer. Why should something so delicious only be served prior to a meal, or as a side dish accompanying a meal though? Why is their no dessert version?
As much as I’d love to take the credit for this delicious creation, the idea was actually planted in my head by my buddy Jeff from EatWisconsin.com when he told me about a Wisconsin cheese company named Sugar Brook Farms that makes a chocolate fudge cheese. Yep, you heard that right, they actually combine Wisconsin cheese, cream, cocoa and sugar into mouthwatering seven ounce blocks of chocolate fudge cheese. By now you can probably see where I’m heading with this blog post right? Dessert cheese curds using chocolate fudge cheese!
I started off by taking a block of the cheese and dividing it into 20 or so equal sized pieces which I then rolled into balls and put into my freezer. Then I got to work on whipping up a batter to dip them in. Since beer batter is often used when deep frying I opted to use that, and in keeping with the whole dessert theme the beer I chose was Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, which is produced by a great Wisconsin brewery named Sand Creek.
After dunking the balls of chocolate fudge cheese in the beer batter I tossed them in my deep fryer and waited with eager anticipation as they turned golden brown and floated back up to the top of the 375 degree vegetable oil. A few minutes of cooling time later and my dessert cheese curds were ready to eat!
Since traditional cheese curds are often dipped in marinara sauce I decided to use a similar colored reddish dip for mine – homemade cranberry jam!
The chocolate fudge cheese has a consistency similar to cream cheese, so you know how when you spread cream cheese on a freshly toasted bagel it gets nice and soft and a little warm? These were pretty much just a chocolate version of that same thing. Even after being battered and deep fried the cheese kept a nice consistency and softened up without melting too much.
Since the chocolate fudge cheese is so rich I didn’t sit down and shovel handfuls of dessert cheese curds into my mouth like I normally do with regular cheese curds, but enjoying a small bowl of them after my dinner was definitely a nice dessert option to have.
Last year for Valentine’s Day I made my wife some meatloaf cupcakes. The reviews on them were mixed. I absolutely loved them. Her on the other hand? Not so much… This year I came up with what I think is an even better idea. Chocolate covered bacon hearts!
To form the heart shapes I decided to try forming slices of bacon around some heart shaped metal cookie cutters and then wrapping them in aluminum foil before baking them in the oven. Since bacon shrinks so much when cooked I had no idea how well the bacon hearts would hold their shape, but after 20 minutes at 400° they still looked remarkably heart-like.
After letting them cool for a few minutes I slipped the bacon off of the molds and put the hearts in the refrigerator to cool even more. About an hour after that I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips, dipped the bacon hearts in them and put them back in the fridge to let the chocolate harden.
Will my wife like this years treat better than last years? I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out, but the one that I ate tasted pretty good. It’s a good thing she doesn’t read my blog too often. I’d hate to spoil the surprise!
I made some beer cheese soup recently (Check out the picture down below. Seriously, how good does that look?) and even after devouring two pretzel bowls worth of it I still had a decent amount left over. Instead of simply saving it for later though I decided to see how it would taste deep fried.
For the deep fried beer cheese soup I pretty much just followed the exact same procedure that I used when I made deep fried Baconnaise. This process consisted of spooning the soup into an ice cube tray, freezing it overnight and then wrapping the frozen cubes in wonton wrappers and tossing them into my deep fryer.
As expected, the deep fried beer cheese soup tasted delicious, but biting into the cubes was a little messy. Ideally they would be smaller so you could just pop them into your mouth one at a time like Totino’s Pizza Rolls.
Oh, and if you’re looking for my beer cheese soup recipe you can find it (along with my recipes for slow cooker Reuben dip and deep fried chocolate cheese fudge) over at EatWisconsinCheese.com.
Last year I was asked to be part of the 2nd annual 30 Days, 30 Ways Macaroni & Cheese Blog, which takes 30 different food bloggers and pairs them each with a different cheese that they then use to come up with a unique macaroni and cheese recipe.
My cheese last year was Colby Jack, which I used to create a macaroni and cheese pie featuring a crust made entirely out of bacon as well as a bacon lattice top. To this day it’s still one of the most popular posts on my blog. The problem with that recipe though (despite how delicious it turned out) is that most people don’t have the time it takes to recreate it.
That’s why when I was asked to participate again this year I wanted to come up with a recipe that could be prepared a little more quickly and easily, and I think I’ve done just that with my Reuben Mac & Cheese. I mean, Reuben sandwiches on their own are great, and macaroni and cheese is great, so why not combine the two?
So, with that I claimed Swiss as my cheese for this year’s blog and got to work combining it with some pasta, corned beef, sauerkraut and a few other ingredients to create my Reuben macaroni and cheese. And what better way to serve it than inside of a giant loaf of hollowed out rye bread?
Want the recipe? Just head over to the 30 Days, 30 Ways Macaroni & Cheese Blog!
I got a package in the mail recently from Target that contained some of their Archer Farms (which is Target’s store brand) Salted Roasted Pistachios, a jar of Corn, Bean and Roasted Pepper Salsa, a package of Buffalo-Style Blue Cheese Dip Mix, a bag of Blue Corn Tortilla Chips and a giant tub of their Market Pantry (Target’s other store brand) Cheddar Cheese Balls.
Out of all the food in the box you’d think that I would be most excited about the chips and dip, or maybe even the pistachios since the pound and a half jar that they sent me normally costs $12.99. Nope, what really made me happy was seeing the $2.99 tub of Cheddar Cheese Balls. Why you ask? Maybe it’s because as a kid I used to eat these things by the handful, or maybe it’s the fact that I just hadn’t had them in fifteen years or so, but man, those cheese balls sure looked good!
Since just saying “hey, check out all this free food I got from Target!” would probably be the most boring blog post ever I decided to use Target’s Cheddar Cheese Balls as part of a recipe, but for the life of me I couldn’t decide what to make. Then it came to me… Inspired by the Cheeto Crusted Chicken Sandwich I wrote about a few weeks back I decided to try my hand at making some chicken strips breaded with some of Target’s Cheddar Cheese Balls.
I started off with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts which I cut into strips. Then I covered the chicken strips in flour and dipped them in a mixture of egg and milk before topping them with crushed up cheese balls. After that all I did was cook the chicken strips in the oven at 375° and after about 25 minutes they were done!
Much like the Cheeto Crusted Chicken Sandwich my Cheddar Cheese Ball Crusted Chicken Strips turned out delicious! In fact, this is definitely one thing that I’ll be making again. Actually, considering how many cheese balls I have left there’s a good chance that I’ll be making them again sooner rather than later.
Here in Wisconsin deep friend cheese curds are extremely popular. The only problem with them is that they’ve always been viewed as an appetizer. Why should something so delicious only be served prior to a meal, or as a side dish accompanying a meal though? Why is their no dessert version?
