Awesome Kitchen Hacks: Homemade Cream Cheese

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to my blog, this little tiny space I take off the internet to share with you my passion for cooking and baking :) Today my rant is all going to be about how to make your very own cream cheese at home, with only two ingredients and minimal tools.

“Where did this come from?” you will ask… Well being a baker in Egypt is not always easy. There are many key ingredients needed in most recipes that are hard to find, sometimes go for months in a row without being available and when they are, they can be really pricey. Also the local cream cheese that is available does not yield the same flavor and results I get when I use the imported one so I thought why not try to make it myself, and save myself the hassle of looking for it in every supermarket in the country! :D
So let’s get right into it!

First step you are going to need 4 cups of milk, full fat (the better quality the milk, the better results you will get…and don’t try to skip on the fat, it’s what will allow the mixture for form clumps and turn into cream cheese) and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, or white vinegar.

Place the milk in a heavy bottom sauce pan and heat it on a medium-high heat (stirring occasionally so as not to scorch the milk), just until it begins to simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add in the lemon juice, one table spoon at a time and mix it. You will see the milk will immediately begin to separate and form clumps.

Keep stirring and adding the lemon juice till you finish all 3 tablespoons, then turn the heat off. At this point it should look something like this:

Take a large bowl, place a sieve inside it and lay over a cheese cloth. Carefully pour all the cream cheese mixture over and let it hang for about 15 minutes until all the liquid has been drained off and you are left with cream cheese curds.

Place all the curds into a food processor, add in a pinch of salt for flavor and blitz it up until it’s all creamy and smooth.

Voila! :) How easy was that?!

This recipe yields 1 cup of cream cheese, or 225 grams and you can easily multiply it as much as needed. If you won’t be baking with it, you could also add more flavors in the last stage, like herbs and garlic and it would make wonderful cream cheese spread on sandwiches ;)

I personally use it in so many of my baking creations, like my favorite Red Velvet brownies and cream cheese, Cheesecakes, Cream cheese frosting etc…

I really hope this recipe was helpful to you and will make your life in the kitchen easier :) If you do try it out please leave me a comment and share the article. It would mean the world to me :D