Pleasant Lane Farms

Black Beans Salad with Feta

Black Beans Salad with Feta, Onions, and Tomato

Another great feta salad find!

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

We found this great feta and quinoa salad recipe

https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Mediterranean-Quinoa-Salad-2165087

Käsekuchen (German Cheesecake)

One of our customers shared this fantastic German Cheesecake recipe (Thank Laurie).

PREP TIME 30 minutes

CHILL TIME 1-hour

BAKE TIME 1 hour 10

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp of vanilla extract)
1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tbsp butter
1 egg (beaten)

Filling
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp extract)
6 tbsp butter (room temp)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups quark
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
3 egg whites
pinch of salt

Crust Instructions
1. Combine sifted flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, sugar, and vanilla sugar or extract.
2. Cut in the cold butter. Add the beaten egg and then use your hands to form into a dough.
3. Wrap dough in plastic and chill in the fridge for an hour.
4. After the dough has chilled, form it into a disc and then roll it out on a floured surface. Shape dough into a disc again and roll it out once or twice more. I found the dough very crumbly and hard to work with at first, but after I rolled it out twice, it became much easier to work with.
5. Roll dough out once more and then transfer to a prepared 9-inch springform pan. (See photos above for how to fold and transfer the dough to the springform pan.) Use your fingers to press the dough so that it evenly covers the bottom and all the way up the sides of the pan.

Filling Instructions
1. Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar until pale. Add softened butter and continue beating until well combined. Add the heavy cream and beat again. Add quark and beat one more time until everything is thoroughly combined.
2. Beat egg whites and salt to stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Fold egg whites and sifted cornstarch into the cheesecake batter.
3. Pour cheesecake batter into a 9-inch springform pan and bake on 300F for about 1 hr 10 min. The cheesecake is done when the edges are browned, and a toothpick comes out clean. The center of the cheesecake will be a bit wiggly and it will fall as it cools - that's normal.
4. Let the cheesecake cool on the counter for an hour and then several hours in the fridge enjoy!

Chocolate Quark Mousse

Our family loves this simple Chocolate Mousse made with our fresh quark. Fast and simple.

Ingredients

12 oz quark
6 oz about 1 cup dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon optional

Instructions

Melt chocolate chips. You can do this on the stovetop over a water bath or in the microwave. I used the microwave, stopping and mixing the chocolate every 30 seconds until melted.
Set aside melted chocolate.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk quark for a minute or two until it lightens and fluffs up a bit.
Whisk in cinnamon (optional)
Whisk in melted chocolate. Whisk until mixture is thick, fluffy and well combined.
Chill for a few hours or overnight.

Original Recipe

Chocolate Mousse (High Protein – Low Fat)

A cheesy update…

Good things take time… Great things take a little longer.

We have been very busy on the farm gearing up for cheesemaking and hope to have cheese available before the end of this year.

In the meantime… here is a sneak peek of our creamery design…

Pleasant Lane Farms Creamery

Pleasant Lane Farms announced plans for a multi-phase

Today, we will be hosting Pennsylvania Agriculture
Secretary Russell Redding as we share the plans for our Phase I 5000 sq. ft. multi-purpose agriculture facility that will host our Farmstead Cheesemaking facility (The Creamery), an integrated learning laboratory (The Learning Lab), and space for our future robotic milking project.

The creamery will feature over 2000 sq. ft of cheesemaking, packaging space, aging and storage rooms.

We have partnered with Sanitary Design Industries and the legendary Neville McNaughton (a.k.a Dr. Cheese) to assist with our plant design and cheesemaking processes.

Our cheesemaking facilities will allow us to replicate weather conditions from around the world, enabling us to make and age artisan cheeses in a repeatable high-quality process.

We plan to offer various cheese curd flavors, Colby, Cheddar, Gouda, Quark, and other speciality cheeses.

Once we are up and running, we will also offer bespoke cheesemaking services to other small family farms.

In addition to The Creamery, we are also announcing a first of its kind integrated learning laboratory. This space will be used to host school tours, cheesemaking classes, 4-H meetings, and other agricultural learning activities.

In addition to The Learning Lab, our facility will feature tour areas to view the cheesemaking process from cow-to-cheese including future access to our robotic milking system.

We would like to especially thank the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for supporting this project via a grant awarded to us as part of the PA Dairy Investment Program, the Center for Dairy Excellence who provided a transition planning grant that helped us accelerate our plant design and business plan, and the PA Veteran Farming Project for their guidance and support.