How to make Cream Cheese

I really envy people living in the US. Most of the cake-decorating items, types of cheese etc are available everywhere and they aren't as expensive as they are in India! The other day I went looking for Cream Cheese to make my very first Cheesecake. After looking for it in almost 20 shops, I finally came across tiny packets (50 ml) priced at 125 RUPEES!! Imagine my horror! I certainly needed at least 5 packets of the cheese to make one tiny cheesecake. I decided that if I had to spend 625 bucks on one ingredient, I was better off not eating it...

I read about it in Wiki and also looked for a closely related recipe. That is when I came across this simple recipe to make cream cheese. It is very similar to cottage cheese (paneer) making. But it is soft & mild-tasting and proved to be excellent in my cheesecake! ☺

Let's make cream cheese.....

Ingredients (makes about 100-150 ml cream cheese)
Milk - 500 ml (1/2 liter)
*Citric Acid Crystals - 1/2 teaspoon
*1/4 cup warm water
If you don't have citric acid crystals, just use 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice. (If using lemon juice, you don't require warm water)

Method
Bring the milk to boil in a thick bottomed pan

Simultaneously, dissolve the citric acid in warm water. If using fresh lemon juice, skip this step

 When the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice or the citric acid-water into the milk and gently stir.

Allow it to stand for 5-7 minutes or until milk curdles on its own. Look at the picture -

Take a muslin cloth or any thin cloth & cover a vessel top with it

Very slowly, start pouring the curdled milk on the cloth. You can see the milk particles separate & the whey (the water-y substance) filter out.

After pouring the entire content, this is how the strained mixture will look on your thin cloth-

Now, if the strained whey (the water-y substance) is milky, boil it again & strain it to get some more milk particles. If not, skip  this step.

 Gently close your milk particles with the cloth & squeeze the water. Then hang it from somewhere for around 10 minutes. It will look like this after the whey has been strained completely -

Now add this to a blender / food processor / mixer and also add 2-3 drops of the whey (the water-y remains) to the blender (to get a smooth cheese) and blend the drained milk solids for 2 minutes or until you get a thick & creamy cheese.

Use as and when required! ☺ ☻ Store it in the refrigerator. Ideally, use it within a day. This is also yummy as a dip for vegetable dumplings, kebabs, patties etc...

LOW-FAT VERSION
To get a fat free version of this cream cheese which can be relished without guilt by everyone, including people having diabetes or cholesterol, use LOW FAT or SKIMMED MILK instead of the regular milk.

Now you have no excuse to make a Cheesecake, do you?! :-D ☻