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messages asking me to show you how to make homemade cream cheese as part of Bold Baking
Basics. And ask, and you shall receive, because Im going to show you how you can easily
make it at home with just two ingredients. Were going to start out in a large heavy-bottom
saucepan. Add in full-fat milk, not low-fat, not skim, not semi-skimmed, or whateverfull-fat
milk.
The fuller the fat, the more curd you will actually get for your cream cheese, so
remember that. Its really important. And were just going to turn it on to a medium-high
heat, and we just want all of this milk to come to a simmer. While its coming to a
simmer, Im just going to stir it every so often.
You dont want to walk away and
scorch the bottom of your milk. Youll want to always be keeping an eye on it. So now
that our mix has come to a simmer, we are going to turn it down to a medium, controlled
heat. You want it to simmer away.
And here I have some lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of
lemon juice. You can also use lime juice, or a white, plain vinegar. That will work
really well. Now what we want to do is take our wooden spoon, and were just going to
stir in one tablespoon at a time.
Were going to stir it around for a minute or so.
Cream cheese is not available in all countries, and I didnt really realize that until I
started doing Bigger Bolder Baking, and the amount of people who asked for recipes for
cream cheese. So Im really happy to be able to bring this. This is the best recipe
that Ive tried. Ive tried many, and this is the best one that I found that worked.
So take a little a look here.
You see its starting to curdle? This is perfect. Were
on the right track, so were going to go in again with another tablespoon of lemon.
There you go. See that? Right there. Thats your cream cheese.
Im going to add in the
last bit of lemon and give it a stir around. Now do you see all of these lumps that have
come to the top? These are our curds, and this is our cream cheese. This is exactly
what we want. Now you can always double, triple, or quadruple this recipe if you want.
If you
want to make a lot of cream cheese, thats totally fine. Its not temperamental. It
will take multiplying no problem. So now, were just going to knock it off the heat,
and were just going to strain this liquid off.
Next youll want to separate the curds
from the whey. So you want to get yourself a nice big bowl, and then were going to
lay over a sieve, and then over that were going to lay over some cheesecloth. Now cheesecloth
can actually be found in a lot of supermarkets, but Im going to put a link on my website
of where you can buy it. Its really important.
You do need cheesecloth, because its really
fine, and it catches all the curds. Take your curds and just pour it into your cheesecloth.
Now this cream cheese is so simple. Were not looking to use active cultures or anything
like that. And also, we are just going to have to let it sit here for 15 minutes.
We
dont have to let it hang out overnight, like a lot of cream cheeses do. Were just
going to let him hang out here, let all the liquid drip away, and were going to come
back in around 15 minutes. So its been a few minutes, and all the liquid has drained
away. Now I just want to make a note.
This liquid doesnt have to be thrown away. It
actually works fantastically for marinades and for brines, because the acid in it from
the milk and the lemon that we added in will actually break down your meat really well.
So you dont have to throw that away if you dont want to. So with our curds here,
we are going to add this into our food processor. Youre probably thinking to yourself that
this doesnt look like cream cheese yet, and youre right, because it doesnt.
Thats why we have to process it and make it nice and creamy.
At this point to our curds,
youll want to add a little bit of salt to flavor it. You can also add different flavors
at this point too. Herbs, whatever you like, you can add in there. And then were just
going to pop on the lid, and then process until its nice and creamy.
So this recipe
yields you 8 ounces, or 1 cup, of cream cheese. So check the recipe that youre making,
how much you need, and then you can multiply my recipe for cream cheese. I can see its
nice and smooth. Now if you see that your cream cheese is a little bit on the thicker
side and you want to loosen it up a little bit, feel free to add in a little bit of the
liquid that we took away from the curds, or even a drop of cream, that would be lovely
too.
Now just check out that homemade cream cheese. It is incredible. This will last in
your fridge for seven days and it will be happy to live there, and you just use it as
you go in any of your Bold Baking Recipes. Just remember that the better quality milk
you use, the better quality cream cheese youll have at the end.
So just like this cream cheese,
I have lots more Bold Baking Basics recipes, like how to make buttermilk, food dye, and
food extract. So make sure you check all of those out..
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