Mozzarella Puffs Recipe - The Girl Who Ate Everything (2024)

FAQs

What is the liquid in mozzarella balls? ›

The liquid that mozzarella or burrata rests in keeps the cheese from drying out. It can be straight water, but more often it's salted, creating a brine that also adds saltiness to the cheese. Sometimes it's whey.

Fresh mozzarella cheese is made from cow or water buffalo milk. It has a firm but elastic texture and can be sliced without losing its shape. Burrata cheese is mozzarella that's formed into a thin pouch and then filled with a mixture of soft, stringy curd and cream called stracciatella.

It is most often made from cow's milk; however it can be made from a combination of other milks such as cow's milk and goat's milk mixed. A small amount of buffalo-milk mozzarella is produced in the USA although very little water buffalo milk is commercially available.

While fresh mozzarella must be torn or cut, low moisture mozzarella is firm enough to be shredded, diced or sliced.

When presented with mouth-watering fresh mozzarella, many Italians don't hesitate to eat it with their bare hands. Fresh mozzarella is delicious just as it is, or with a bit of salt and pepper, basil or fresh marjoram or oregano, and topped off with a good extra virgin olive oil.

Whereas fresh mozzarella is packaged as balls in liquid for near-term consumption, traditional mozzarella (also known as aged, block or processed mozzarella) is packaged dry in blocks—or in cubes, chunks, sticks, slices or shreds that have been cut from blocks—for less immediate consumption.

Burrata is generally a more expensive cheese than mozzarella. Making burrata is complicated due to the creamy center and even additional ingredients. This makes Burrata cheese more expensive than mozzarella.

What is better for you: mozzarella or burrata? They are close in both fat and calorie content, but burrata is higher in both. Burrata has about 9 grams of fat and is 90 calories per ounce, while mozzarella has about 6 grams of fat and 85 calories per ounce.

If you are planning to melt the cheese for a cooked dish like burrata pizza, fresh mozzarella is a better option since its cheaper than burrata, and melted burrata loses its trademark contrasting textures.

I have made mozzarella for the better part of 15 years, but just a few years ago, I learned about scamorza, an aged mozzarella. (

What is the cheese like mozzarella but creamy? ›

Burrata is a soft cow's milk cheese that, from the outside, could be mistaken for fresh mozzarella.

"At room temperature or even cold from the fridge, softer cheeses tend to stick in the grater holes, smush and smash up, and just not really shred into even, thin strands as they should," he says. You don't need to freeze cheese for long before shredding it—in fact, doing so could compromise the flavor and texture.

Pre-shredded cheese contains ingredients like potato starch and natamycin to keep the shreds from clumping together in the bag. That means that sometimes, pre-shredded cheese won't melt as easily as it would if you grated a cheese block yourself!

Grande and Galbani mozzarella is where it's at

The two brands that I've seen many quality pizza joints use are Grande and Galbani. Pizzamakers look for a few factors in a great pizza cheese: salt content, fat content, the way it melts, and overall flavor.

Normally I just squeeze out liquid with the hands, maybe let them sit in a sieve a little, then spread them across paper towels. That's for buffalo mozzarella. The cow mozzarella I use is normally dry enough that I can just cut it up and put on some paper towels, or pat off some.

Make sure you dry or drain fresh mozzarella for at least 15 minutes before using it on your pizza, and be sure to tear it into smaller pieces. It has a great fresh-milky flavor, but it needs that extra step of time and care to ensure your pizza retains its good structure and flavor!

Drain the baby mozzarella balls and add them to the marinade. Gently toss with a spoon to ensure each mozzarella ball is coated. Add to an airtight container and store in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour before serving to allow the flavours to develop. Serve with crusty bread, buon appetito!

Quick Fixes. Since fresh mozzarella retains at least 52 percent water, it will benefit from a bit of drying time. Instead of slicing the mozzarella and immediately adding the cheese, set the slices on a paper or tea towel to absorb excess moisture; let them rest for at least 15 minutes.