Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese Spread 

Homemade cream cheese is my latest project. Boasting freshness, creaminess, and a bit of tang, freshly-made cream cheese has completely ruined me for commercial cream cheese. Admittedly, in things such as cheesecake or other baked goods, wherein cream cheese is baked along with other ingredients, the vast difference between commercial cream cheese and homemade cream cheese is not so obvious. However, when cream cheese is served as the main — or sometimes sole — ingredient (e.g. as a bagel spread or in a dip), quality counts tremendously.

And this is when knowing how to make your own cream cheese comes in handy.

I got help from Chef Grégoire Michaud‘s latest book, “Got Cheese?” His method is foolproof, easy, and produces stellar and consistent results. Chef Michaud’s bi-lingual (Chinese and English) book contains instructions on how to make simple cheeses, including cream cheese, at home as well as how to turn them into spectacular desserts.

How to Make Cream Cheese at Home:
Adapted from Got Cheese? by Grégoire Michaud

Ingredients:
32 fluid ounces whole milk
48 fluid ounces heavy whipping cream (at least 35% fat content)
2 fluid ounces buttermilk
2-3 droplets of liquid veal rennet (explained in this post below)
1 tablespoon of salt

Equipments:

• An instant read thermometer
• A piece of muslin cheesecloth (which is woven more finely than regular cheesecloth)
• A large nonreactive pot
• A ladle
• A large colander
• A large bowl
• A strong rubber band

Method:

• Warm up the milk and the cream in a large nonreactive pot until the temperature reaches about 70°F (~21°C). Don’t boil them.
• Stir in the buttermilk.
• Add the veal rennet and keep the cream mixture covered at room temperature overnight.
• The next day, the mixture will have set. Sprinkle the salt all over the surface.
• With a large wire whisk, cut the gelled mass into small curds.
• Line a large colander with a piece of muslin cloth and place the colander on a bowl large enough to hold the whey.
• Gently pour the content of the pot into the colander and let it drain for about 30 minutes.
• Gather together the corners of the cheesecloth and tie them together with a rubber band to form a bag.
• Empty out the whey that has collected in the bowl*. Place the colander, with the cheese bag in it, back on the bowl. Put the whole thing in the refrigerator and let the curds continue to drain overnight.
• The cream cheese is ready to use the next day.

*Replace the water in your yeast bread recipe with this fresh whey (obtained within 24 hours of cheese curdling) for extra delicious bread.

Ingredients:

• If you have access to unpasteurized goat milk in your area, by all means get the milk fresh from the farm. This listof places in the United States, as well as a few other countries, where you can find unpasteurized cow and goat milk is a good start.
• However, if you don’t have access to farm-fresh milk, your best bet is pasteurized goat milk which can be found in some mainstream grocery stores and most health/specialty food stores. Be sure to get wholegoat milk as it coagulates better and gives you a larger amount of cheese which is also more flavorful.
• I use pasteurized whole goat milk, the one that has on the carton an image of a smiling adult goat, wearing a top that resembles what my favorite third grade teacher liked to wear, drinking what appears to be its own milk. There’s no particular reason why I use that brand other than that it’s the only brand that’s available around here.
• You need rennet. There are both animal-derived and vegetable rennets. I went with veal rennetas I’ve been told that animal rennet produces better coagulation. Veal rennet comes in a small plastic drop bottle. (You need only a little itty bitty drop for a gallon-size batch.)
• You need the right cheese culture. Visit your choice of cheese-making supply source and see what kind of enzyme they recommend for chèvre. I use the combination that contains both (LL) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and (LLC) Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris which is great for semi-soft and fresh cheeses includingchèvre. The culture comes in freeze-dried form which needs to be refrigerated. It’s not expensive and, like rennet, you need only a little bit of it for each batch.
• You need salt. From what I’ve read from various places, people seem to like iodine-free salt. I use my favorite sea salt.