During the pandemic, I am taking taste-bud journeys as I self-isolate rather than physical journeys. Here is my adapted recipe for making homemade cream cheese using just 3 ingredients. It was inspired by watching Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking instructional video featured near the end of this blog.
Conclusion: According to Gemma, you can make this with either white vinegar or lemon juice. I made mine using the former ingredient. Then, I tried the cream cheese on a piece of toasted homemade wheat bread. I must say that the cream cheese did not do the bread justice. It was on the dry side.
To compensate, I added jam to the remainder of half of the piece of toast. That was pretty good. Then, I added Hazelnut Spread to the other half. That was quite good. But all in all, I decided that the vinegar version of this cream cheese is not something I want to eat on its own. Therefore, I will use the remainder of this cream cheese in recipes instead.
I will attempt to make this again with lemon juice so that I have a basis for comparing the two. That will be the subject of a future blog.
Recipe
- 4 cups of whole milk or 8 oz. powdered whole milk added to 4 cups of water
- 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt
Procedure
- Step 1: Pour 4 cups of milk in large cooking pot and bring to a slow boil over the course of 12 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Step 2: Once the milk is slowly boiling, lower the heat and add 1 tablespoon of either white vinegar or lemon juice and stir. Wait one minute before adding a second tablespoon. Only add a third tablespoon of you don't see evidence of curds totally separated from the green-colored whey.
- Step 3: Remove the mixture from the heat. Strain the mixture in either cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer. This will totally separate the curd from the whey. Allow this to drain for 15 minutes.
- Step 4: Spoon the curds into a food processor along with 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt. Blend until smooth. If the curds appear to be grainy rather than smooth, you could optionally add a teaspoon of the whey into that mixture. In my case, that was not necessary.
- Step 5: Transfer the up to 8 ounces of cream cheese into a container and store in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days. My mixture probably only yielded 6 ounces.
In case you're interested, my blog post for the homemade wheat bread recipe plus the two 'kitchen toys' used to make cream cheese will each open in a new window.
- Taste-bud Journey: Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread with Yeast, Oats, and Seeds
- Taste-bud Journey: Homemade Cream Cheese made with Lemon Juice
- Ninja Food Chopper Express Chop with 200-Watt, 16-Ounce Bowl for Mincing, Chopping, Grinding, Blending and Meal Prep (NJ110GR)
- Nut Milk & Greek Yogurt Maker - Reusable & Durable Nut Milk Bag Alternative - Fine Mesh Stainless Steel - Soy/Oat/Almond Milk - All Purpose Food Strainer - (1 Quart Yogurt, 1.5 Quart Nut Milk)
RECIPE SOURCE: Gemma from Bigger Bolder Baking. Her tutorial video below will open in a new window.
Cooking Sites that have inspired me:
Books written by Debbie Dunn:
Here is the Amazon Link to all anti-bullying curriculum books plus all children’s books written by Debbie Dunn (both paperback and Kindle). It will open up in a new window.
