Making bagels (Maple Walnut Bagels and Almond Cranberry Bagels among others), it seemed logical to make cream cheese to go with it. The first time I made cream cheese, it went very well, better than I expected, so I figured it would be a smooth, easy process. It wasn't,
I followed the steps I had followed before, still working from the same cheese-making book, but nothing happened. I added more culture, heated the cream up again, and left it. And still nothing.
Finally, I decided it was time to give up on getting cream cheese from that batch, but I was loathe to just toss it, so instead, I turned it into cultured butter, and I used the buttermilk from that for three different types of scones (almond and cranberry, cheese and pesto and lemon and black pepper), as well as buttermilk pancakes. The cultured butter was particularly good on the scones!
I was so glad to have been able to turn a failure into a number of other edible things. I still have no idea why it failed, so I guess it is time to try a new batch!
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