Brie from the Artisan Vegan Cheese Book

A wedge of vegan brie from a recipe in Miyoko Schinner's vegan cheese book (yeah we know it looks like cheesecake). We're slowly working through some of the key recipes in the book as part of our ongoing review. This one uses the same rejuvelac-cultured cashew base as most other recipes in the book, and includes coconut oil for ooziness, along with yeshi (nutritional yeast) for flavour.

The coconut oil in the recipe is supposed to make the brie oozy like the dairy stuff, but even after leaving our cheese at room temperature for a couple of hours, we didn't get any oozing. Mind you, the current temperature at Veganoo HQ this chilly February is not much warmer than the fridge. It certainly melts though, with the tiniest bit of heat.

The taste of the brie...is nothing like brie. We asked a friendly vegetarian to verify this for us. It is rather pleasant though, but more like a nutty cream cheese than anything else. The oil makes it really smooth, despite the fact that 10 minutes in the Magimix leaves the base cashew mix still a little grainy.

We're finding this artisan cheese making an expensive business. This brie costs about ten quid to make, with the current price of cashews and coconut oil being sky high. You do get a lot of cheese from each recipe though and it keeps well in the fridge.

Next up is the sharp cheddar...stay tuned.

Web: veganoo.net   Twitter: @veganoo   Facebook: fb.com/veganoo.net   Flickr: veganoo