Cream cheese is an ingredient that has been increasingly used by cooks and pastry chefs lately to create their own masterpieces. That's just not yet in every store you can find this product, and the price for it often bites. But there is good news: cream cheese, not inferior to a store product, can be prepared at home.

Cream Cheese - Classic Recipe

Cooking cream cheese at home is not a fast and time-consuming process. But with a certain amount of patience and effort, you can get a sufficient amount of a gentle creamy product, which by its taste will leave the store product far behind.

For about one kilogram of cream cheese, you will need:

  • 1000 ml of milk 3.2% fat;
  • 500 ml of sour cream 20%;
  • 400 ml cream with a fat content of 20%.

The recipe for making homemade cheese step by step:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pan with high walls and a thick bottom. Stir to get a homogeneous rare mixture, which should be left warm for 6 to 8 hours for ripening.
  2. The result will be one whole clot, which will spring a little when pressed. Next, you should be very careful so as not to violate the integrity of this clot in the next stages of preparation.
  3. Place the container with fermented raw materials on the fire and warm up until the whey is separated and its boiling begins. After the first bubbles in the separated liquid, the fire should be turned off.
  4. Next, the cheese in the pan must be left for another 12 hours in the heat for ripening. After this time, it needs to be transferred to an improvised bag from a waffle towel or multilayer gauze and suspended for draining the serum.In 6 - 7 hours the product will be absolutely ready.

How to make a soft cheese product

Soft cream cheese is often used to layer cakes and decorate cupcakes as part of cream cheese. It can also be the main ingredient in making cheesecakes. And if you add fresh chopped herbs and spices to it, you will get a tasty spread for sandwiches.

To make such a product at home, you will need:

  • 400 g of sour cream with a fat content of 25%;
  • 450 g ryazhenka 4%;
  • 450 g of kefir, the fat content of which is 3.2%.

Cooking Technology:

  1. The first step is freezing all the ingredients. Therefore, for the convenience of further extraction of frozen products, it is better to use sour cream, fermented baked milk and kefir in plastic bags, which are simply put in the freezer for a while.
  2. Frozen dairy products with a knife or scissors are removed from the packaging and transferred to a bag of dense fabric. Then it is put in a colander mounted above the container, where the serum will drain.
  3. Leave frozen foods in a cloth bag at room temperature for 8 to 10 hours. After the specified time, it remains only to transfer the soft cheese into a storage container and mix. Released whey can be used for baking, for example, pancakes and fritters.

Mascarpone at home

Mascarpone cream cheese, which conquered the hearts of gourmets far beyond the borders of its homeland (Italy), is obtained by ripening cream. In industrial production, tartaric acid is used for this, and at home, lemon juice.

For home Mascarpone should take:

  • 500 ml cream 25% fat;
  • 500 ml cream 30% fat;
  • 45 ml of lemon juice.

The sequence of cooking processes:

  1. Pour the cream into a pan with a thick bottom and set on fire. The goal is to heat them to 85 ° C, but in no case bring them to a boil. Here, as they say, a thermometer to help.
  2. Remove the cream from the stove, pour in fresh lemon juice and mix quickly. The mass will slightly thicken.
  3. Return the pan to the fire, again bring to 75 - 85 ° C and hold for three minutes. Cool to room temperature.
  4. On a colander, lay a linen towel or gauze in 5-6 layers, pour the cooled cream and collect the cheesecloth (towel) in a bag. Hang it over a bowl or pan, for example, on a spoon.
  5. Remove the resulting structure for 24 hours in the refrigerator. During this time, all excess moisture will drain, and only thick cream cheese will remain in the bag.

Cream cheese

In just half an hour, you can cook a small portion (about 300 g) of creamy curd cheese using a slow cooker or a pan with a thick bottom.

The proportions of the ingredients for this recipe will be as follows:

  • 1000 ml of milk (3.2%);
  • 200 ml of kefir (2%);
  • 60 - 70 ml cream (30% and above).

Cooking method:

  1. Pour all the components of the future cheese into a multi-pan (or ordinary pan) and mix thoroughly to make the mixture as homogeneous as possible.
  2. Turn the slow cooker into the "Extinguishing" mode or put the usual pan on medium heat. Without covering the milk mixture, carefully sweeten when it begins to curl. This will happen at 85 degrees, i.e. in about 20-30 minutes.
  3. Then it should be thrown back onto a gauze-covered colander and let the serum drain. The moisture content of the finished product can be adjusted independently to your taste, holding a little longer or slightly less raw material in a colander.

From milk with cream

You can make cream cheese at home from milk and cream and bypassing the long fermentation process in the heat. For this you have to use a few drops of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Do not worry, the taste of vinegar in the finished product will not be heard, and the fermentation process will accelerate at the same time, regardless of the percentage of cream fat.

The list and quantity of products required in this case:

  • 1000 ml of milk;
  • 600 ml of heavy cream;
  • 30 ml apple cider vinegar.

Working process:

  1. Milk and cream, mixed until smooth, put on a slow fire and heat until almost boiling, but do not boil.
  2. Pour apple cider vinegar into the dairy products and stirring to keep it on a quiet fire for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is completely curled.
  3. Next, filter the serum by hanging the mixture in a linen bag for 12 hours.

The shelf life of such homemade cheese in the refrigerator is 3 to 4 days, since the product is natural and does not contain preservatives.

Cooking Philadelphia Cheese

Philadelphia is a cream cheese that does not require long ripening.

The popularity of its use for the preparation of various desserts and snacks has become a determining factor that influenced the appearance of the following recipe:

  • 500 ml of natural yogurt without fillers (can be replaced with kefir 3.5%);
  • 250 ml of sour cream with fat content above 20%;
  • 5 ml of lemon juice;
  • salt to taste.

You need to prepare Philadelphia cream cheese as follows:

  1. Combine sour cream and yogurt. Add lemon juice to this mixture, salt to taste.
  2. Set the colander over the pan, cover it with a white linen or waffle towel.
  3. Pour the sour-milk mixture onto it, fold the edges of the towel inward, and set enough heavy oppression on top. Leave it like this for a day.

So that the product does not deteriorate, it is better to put the design in the refrigerator. After the specified time, home Philadelphia will be ready.

Sour cream cooking option

Weighted sour cream is the easiest cream cheese option. To prepare it, you will need only one ingredient and the time to separate the serum. The taste of the final product will depend entirely on the taste of the feedstock, so sour cream should not be acidic or have any aftertaste.

For one serving of homemade cream cheese, you need to take 500 ml of sour cream with a fat content of at least 20%.

Cooking sequence:

  1. Fold a piece of dense sterile gauze in five to six layers and lay in a bowl. Pour sour cream on top. The ends of the gauze cut to collect in the center and tie a knot.
  2. Hang the resulting bag over a deep container of an appropriate size so that the serum can drain into it. As a crossbar for hanging, you can use a large spoon or a wooden spatula.
  3. When the liquid leaves, and this usually happens after 10 - 12 hours, you can beat the cheese a little for splendor and use it for its intended purpose.

How to replace cream cheese in cooking

Since cream cheese made according to any of the above recipes does not repeat the exact industrial technology, it can only be considered an alternative to the purchased Mascarpone, Philadelphia and other popular types of cream cheese.

 

But if you do not have time to prepare a home-made analogue, because even the simplest recipe requires significant time costs, you can use another substitute. A soft, not very greasy curd is suitable, which must be very carefully wiped through a sieve or interrupted with a blender. For greater “creamy” taste, you can add to the resulting cream mass.

For sweet pastries, for example, for cream cheeses or cheesecakes, you can take the same sweet curd mass or curd without fillers (such as raisins or dried apricots). Of course, in this case, the taste and texture of the finished dish may slightly differ from the original ones. But, it is worth noting that many like this option even more than the classic.

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