How to Make Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is a favorite as a dip, with appetizers and with desserts. It also goes hand-in-hand with your favorite bagel. Learn to make this soft, spreadable cheese at home using ingredients that you may already have, such as milk.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Heavy cream
• Whole milk
• Mesophilic culture
• Calcium chloride
• Cheesecloth
• Colander

1. Mix in a large pot 2 to 3 cups of whole or goat's milk and 3 cups of heavy cream. Heat the mixture until it reaches between 72 and 80 degrees F.
2. Remove the pot from the stove's heat. Then, stir in 1/4 tsp of mesophilic starter culture. This ingredient forms a lactic acid that preserves the cream cheese. It also adds flavor. Mesophilic comes in foil packaging and can be found at any specialty cheese shop or online.
3. Add 1/4 tsp of calcium chloride liquid and 2 tbsp liquid rennet or rennet tablets to the pot. Feel free to add some salt to the cream cheese to taste. Stir the mixture, then cover the pot. Store the pot in the kitchen at room temperature.
4. Ripen the cheese for 24 hours in the same room. The cheese at this stage should look like yogurt.
5. Place some cheesecloth into a colander. Pour the cream cheese into the colander, then tie up the cheesecloth so that any remaining liquid drains.
6. Drain the newly formed cream cheese curds until they become solid. Transfer the cream cheese into a separate container, then mix until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate the cream cheese for one or two weeks, then serve it with crackers, chips, fruits or vegetables.

Tips & Warnings

• Add chives or other fresh herbs to the cream cheese for some extra flavor. Fold in pieces of chopped fruit or berries if you're serving the cream cheese with bagels or sweets.
• Substitute an unused pillowcase if you don't have cheesecloth. Disinfect it first with hot, soapy water and bleach. Let it dry, then cut it to fit into the colander.