Ads 468x60px

Saturday 1 October 2011

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

18 comments:

  1. wow...sounds easy n yumm..
    thanks for sharing dear..:)
    Tasty Appetite

    ReplyDelete
  2. dis is perfect. evn i woz wunderin wt 2 do coz cream cheese is so costly. u rock!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely fabulous idea... Looks great !!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Smiles on reading about the easily available part which is very true. Nice one Kavi.

    Vardhini
    Event: Halloween Fiesta

    ReplyDelete
  5. I will have to try this out! I love cream cheese and I bet it's even better when you make it yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kavi, thank you soooo much for sharing this recipe. I love cheesecakes and can't tell you how much I have wanted to learn making them myself! I remember eating them at 210 bakery near churchgate while i was still a student! U brought back the memory of good old days back :)
    Thank you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm already loving your blog... I can totally understand the trouble of getting the cake decorating ingredients.

    I've been waiting to try cheese cakes and Tiramisu, but I won't get Cheese to buy around here.

    I've found recipes for cream cheese using cream to make the cheese instead of milk. But if this worked well for you I should try it too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. finally i find a blogger who shares my thoughts, ingredients for international recipes too expensive for us living in India.. I recently made this cheese to make rasgulla, so i can use the same for cheesecake by processing it in mixer. That was easy. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. you have a cute blog! btw, hung curd can be substituted for cream cheese too. i use it all the time..

    ReplyDelete
  10. thnks alot for dis one!!! but i need to make cream cheese in a large qty for my cheesecake... like i need 500g of it.. how much milk do u think i ll need

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Anonymous - you didn't leave your email Id or anything. SO I don't know how to contact you. So, if you're still reading this, I think you can use around 1.5-2litres of milk to get 500g of cream cheese.
    * a tip: Make more. You can always use it later~~ :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. i dont have a blog here or nethin.. iwas jus googling for recipes.... neways u can contact me at tanuja.shelar@gmail.com
    i have jus strtd baking..well atleast trying to.... mostly my aunts and nigella's recipes.... thnks alot for da tip :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. wow! never knew i could make cream cheese at home!

    amanda

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi,
    oh I'm looking to make cream cheese, and this is probably the simplest one. My question is that we'll add lemon after the heat turn off, right? Is it ok to add some salt, if so, how much salt should I add? How long can it stay in fridge?
    Sorry for so much questions, I'm so exited! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi there everуone, it's my first pay a visit at this site, and post is truly fruitful in support of me, keep up posting these articles.

    Feel free to visit my web-site; www.tensunitsforpain.com
    Also see my page - tens unit

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hі! ӏ'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the excellent work!

    Here is my web-site ... www.irvingtxcabbie.com
    my webpage :: taxicab irving

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the feedback! :-)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...