Homemade 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.

And then, I made my own Cream Cheese. Its easy and far more economical to make it at home! 🙂 The process of making cream cheese is very similar to making paneer. Read on…

How to make Cream Cheese at home
(Print this recipe)

Prep Time: 10 min
Makes: 1 cup (100-150 grams)

Ingredients
Milk – 4 cups (almost 1 liter)
*Citric Acid – 1/2 tsp
Warm Water – 1/4 cup
(Alternatively, skip the citric acid & warm water; use 1 tbsp of lemon juice or 2 tsp of vinegar instead)
you’ll also need – a clean kitchen muslin cloth

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 2-4 minutes or until milk curdles on its own.

Once the milk particles separate from the whey, pour the mixture through a kitchen cloth to retain those milk particles

Gently squeeze out any excess water in the cheese.

Add it to the blender with a few drops of whey (the water that remains after the milk curdles)

Blend it to a fine paste. Chill until use.

Notes

1. It is similar to making cottage cheese. But in cottage cheese / paneer, we let the water from milk particles completely drain out by hanging the cheese for 2-3 hours.
2. For a low fat version, use skim or low fat milk.