After my ‘nut block experiment’ (havent finished yet) i could not stop myslef to go one step further… to see what nuts can take… and i found a website with some interesting stuff… i was hoping to see this so had no doubt after all that i have to try it. Growing mold in nuts. It is working – or it suppose to work almost the same way how it does in dairy. So what the hell i m waiting for? (to clear up some space in my fridge actually) LOL

I decided to use half – half almonds and cashew nuts in this case. I did surpsise myself with blue mold and white mold for christmas but as hungry as i am for knowledge – i slowed myself down so im focusing on the ‘bluenut’ at first. Also because i want to make a plain one and one with port wine injected (as my big favourite Stilton was from a cheese shop which closed unfortunately). So i jumped on Mr Roqueforti.

Read quite a lot of literature about bluecheese and ‘nut cheese’ and fermentation and molds so i felt prepared for this new challenge. The proccess is pretty much the same like before – except it needs more time.

I soaked the nuts overnight then strained them and poured boiling water over (new trick i learnt) to get rid of unwanted bacterias. Strain again and wait till nuts cooling down. I added my sourdough starter with some odourless coconut oil* cause i read also that mold loves fat – so its a little help.

*footnote: believe me u dont really fancy anything coconutty in your cheese so even if its more expensive plz dont ignore the ‘odourless’ word LOL

Added the roquefort mold as well. I blended it with some water – unfortunately i have a horrible blender so the mix became warmer and warmer – im not sure how does my mold act to heat so i decided to leave it grainy to ferment for 24 hours at room temperature and will blend again the next day. This is exactly what happened. The blender was having hard time – i think its about to die anyway (got it from my amazing friend Julie who moved to Portugal) so i didnt forced too much. So i devided into two and pressing and drying in my muslin for two days – just like a did with the others before.

Was still very fragile – it didnt hold any shape but i took out from the muslin and gave a shape with my hands. Rub some nice salt flakes outside to flavour and also to help preventing unwanted molds. I pressed the nut mix into some panna cotta molds (only thing i had in hands) – i covered the sides with plastic as i read mold doesnt like to touch metal. I left my bluenuts like this for 1 day in the fridge sitting on a sushi mat – the mold needs to breath so its important to make sure enough air can reach our blocks. Now its time to wait – time for turning them every day keeping them covered in the fridge so wont dry out and get the moist level right for Mr. Roquefort…

Keep continue…