Hey Emmy! One way of getting better tang in your cheese would be to ''sour'' the milk before you bring it to temp. One way you can do it is to add buttermilk or unflavored greek yogurt (half a cup of buttermilk/yogurt for 2L of milk), stir well and leave it on the lowest heat of your stove for 30 minutes. Then, you raise the temp of your milk to almost boil (small bubbles on the edges of the pot) and then you add your lemon juice or vinegar. It will taste more acidic overall. Also, you can use a blend of milk and cream to make the end result even better.
@@hislivelystone I've never worked with raw milk but I would be a bit more careful with that if I were you. Unless you have the capacity to analyze if there are bad bacteria in there, I'd want to pasteurize the milk first. I know it destroys some of the calcium, but you can always add some calcium chloride (like, 1/8 tsp) in a gallon of milk if you're worried about your curds. I personally would pasteurize the milk first before using for this purpose, especially if it has gone a little sour. Just be careful. (I'm glad you have access to raw milk though, the taste must be really superior!)
I took a two day cheese making course several years ago and cream cheese is one of the first cheeses we made. We made cultured buttermilk first, then sour cream and then cream cheese. The cultured buttermilk made a world of difference in the texture of the cream cheese.
Ellen Knowles, that’s such an interesting class to take! I bet you learned a lot. 😁 I always say you can never learn enough and education is key to self growth! So my question is, I’ve seen some others on RUclips make quick homemade ricotta cheese in the same way except stopping before the blending. However cream cheese is not just a blended/whipped version of ricotta cheese correct? I was wondering if that’s why her taste and texture is different?
The gum included (used to be gelatin) in the Philadelphia brand is necessary to make a set cheesecake. I tried an organic cream cheese with no extra ingredients to thicken it to make my cheesecake one time and it was good tasting soup!
LOL. I’ve been make cream cheese (not this recipe) in mason jars since I was a little girl, and made thousands of cheesecake. No gums or gelatin needed. The key is to start with cream, not milk.
@@RestingBitchface7 ah that actually makes sense considering you would whip double cream to make whipped cream and not from milk ahahah would there be a big difference if you used single cream or double cream to do the cream cheese?
cheesecake perfection: 50% dark chocolate bar mixed iwth 50% cream cheese and 1 egg per 8 oz of whatever you use. :) (half joking but you don't have to worry as much about it setting)
That's incredible! We were in India during covid lockdown and couldnt get more than the bare basic ingredients. I used milk to make yogurt and cheese. Made homemade pasta. Found I could use the yogurt directly in lasagna (homemade noodles 😅) like ricotta. This year we are well established back in the US and for Christmas I made homemade cheesecake with my 2 blocks of cream cheese and subbed greek yogurt. Then made spinach artichoke dip with yogurt and mozz/parm cheeses, no cream cheese. Such a different experience using walmart pickup and having nice ingredients! But God got us through and those days are testaments to how much ingenuity and creativity we can have when needed!😊💜
I would imagine the homemade version tastes more like whipped ricotta? OG cream cheese is cultured I wonder if using cultured cream to make it instead of milk will make it taste more like real cream cheese :O
You are correct. You can add buttermilk or yogurt to the milk/cream before starting, and you let the milk sour at low temp for 30 mins before you proceed with the rest of the recipe. No need to bring the milk to a rolling boil though. A gentle simmer is hot enough.
I've found that if you do half vinegar and half lemon juice, it works better! You're guaranteed not to get that vinegar taste, and it adds that acid that's missing if you only use lemon juice!
I also use half vinegar and half lemon and it taste awesome. I love the homemade cream cheese more than the store bought. I have been making this for a while now before realizing there is a shortage of cream cheese in NY. My son wants me to make cheese cake. Has anyone ever try making cheese cake with homemade cheese cake?
What you have here is not technically cream cheese, as this requires a culture, but something commonly known as 'quark'. It's very popular throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I usually make it myself by buying cottage cheese curds and then blending them as you did here. It also blends really well with herbs like dill, or even fruit.
Happy New Year!!! I like the different style of intro in this video. It's usually just the food and its name at the start, but seeing you get your mise-en-place for the video before the "typical" intro is a cool change!!!
This is one of the things that makes her videos so great. I'm sure she's not the only RUclips chef who forgets to turn on the power strip or jumps when the oven beeps, but most of them edit out such things. Seeing the normal mishaps humanizes her and makes it easier to identify with her.
This is basically a cream cheese substitute, very similar to whipped ricotta. Cream cheese is cultured with cheese cultures. They arent too expensive to buy but not always accessible. I've made my own cream cheese a few times (I make my own goats cheese which is basically the same method but with goats milk). You culture full cream milk for 24hrs, drain it for a few hours in muslin, but it is honestly so delicious. The same if not better than Philly cream cheese. Try a Mad Millie recipe!
I’ve read up on the “shortage” of cream cheese, specifically Kraft, and it’s weird cause it’s never been an issue here in the DFW area of TX. It’s plentiful here from the mini packs, all the way to the 4 packs of normal size I always get. It was never an issue here, even a couple weeks out before Christmas , all the way up to New Years. Hopefully it returns to normal for everyone else soon…:) Eat Kentucky Moss…:) BTW: a great use for cream cheese- get two waffles and slather cream cheese on one and your favorite jam or apple butter on the other, slap together for a great breakfast sandwich…:)
“THEY” want to promote anxiety, fear, etc. so they say there are shortages for various products. They probably have warehouses full of the products that they say are limited.
@@patcox8745 I live in Arizona, far away from the shipyards. Many shelves are empty. I don't think Safeway is into conspiracy theories. They need to make money. Just like all of us.
@@patcox8745 In my state, there has been a shortage. It likely has to do with how much stock individual warehouses had prior to it. "They" don't make money if "they" don't sell product, especially perishables that would simply go bad being held for the sake of promoting fear. Some of y'all are wild.
The shortage isn't happening everywhere at once. Here in East TN, we're just now running out. In other regions, they ran out a while ago. Just because your grocery stores still have cream cheese in stock doesn't mean that supplies won't eventually run out.
I make yogurt the same way but I strain it overnight which makes what I call Greek yogurt it’s so thick after straining that it’s a natural Cream cheese or quark which is a farm cheese . So yummy I used to make 3 litres which after strained is about half I’d add icing sugar and vanilla and I couldn’t keep up production and my son rarely left any for me lol
You have GOT to have one of the best channels on RUclips, if not anywhere on media. Simple, concise, truthful, experimental, opinionated. Thank you for keeping my cooking interests and travels piqued.
Talking with my 94 yr old mother one day she told me about her mother making cottage cheese on the Kansas Prairie while she was a child and how wonderful it was compared to store bought, which she didn't taste until while out on a date with my father. All of this got my curiosity going. It is relatively easy to make and is delightfully delicious and nothing like store bought.
@@GlamGoreChaosQueen I dont have grandma's recipe but the one I have been using is easy. Heat 1 gallon of milk slowly to 190°, remove from heat, pitch 3/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, stir and cover for 30 minutes, strain through cheesecloth, let set for another 30 minutes. Take the cheesecloth and bring the corners of the cloth together and form the cottage cheese into a ball. Now while still wrapped firmly in the cheesecloth rinse the cottage cheese under cool water until the cheese is cool (I think this is also to remove any vinegar remaining). Turn cottage cheese out into bowl, stir in salt 3/4 teaspoon and cream cool in refrigerator. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of cream but I find that I have been adding more. It is nothing like the loose sloppy cottage cheese at the store. The curds are itty bitty and it is quite dry even after doubling the cream. It's almost like a ricotta and its delicious.
The "cheese culture" in Phili Cheese probably has a lot to do with the tang. Maybe adding yogurt and even letting it age for a few days in the fridge would help that? Carageenan Gum is a thickening stabilizing agent that gives Philli cheese that dense buttery texture. You might could get close to that with tapioca starch but that would take experimenting. You could also up the fat content by using a larger quantity of a more neutral fat like lard or vegetable shortening in place of butter. Italian Moscarpone cheese is made in a similar way using tartaric acid crystals (NOT Cream of Tartar).
I want to try this. One of the tastes you might be missing (that acid bite) is lactic acid. Industrially made cream cheese uses lactic acid to split the milk instead of vinegar and lemon juice. I want to try all three versions to see which taste I'd enjoy. This with salmon must be amazing.
We here dont really have cream cheese shortage but, the cream cheese here is expensive. I'm really thankful for this recipe. The ingredient that i really need to buy was just milk . All other ingredienf was readily available in my kitchen. I dont really mind if its taste was a bit different but the most inportant thing that its cheaper .
that’s actually the exact same recipe i use to make a very beloved product that we use daily in brazil: requeijão. it’s milky and smooth but it’s not the same as the philadelphia cream cheese i know, instead, this recipe tastes just like our requeijão, and i’m glad you discovered cause everyone should know this wonderful thing
Hi Emmy! Been making cream cheese for years. It isn't easily available in India. We do get the Philadelphia Cream cheese but it's crazy expensive. We used the homemade cream cheese to make cheese cakes.
It’s expensive in Trinidad as well, I used to splurge once a year to make a cheesecake. But then all the real condensed milk became nonexistent and all we get is FILLED condensed milk (which contains oil) so the cheesecakes don’t set properly 😩.
I read about the shortage, but when I went to the store there was the normal cream cheese display in the refrigerated section and a separate Philly cream cheese only display for the holidays. No shortage here.
I was using a similar recipe to make homemade ricotta, but I used whipping cream instead of whole milk. When I strained it through the cheese cloth, the curds were much smaller and the texture was naturally smooth and creamy. After I refrigerated it, it was naturally creamy when I tasted it. And that’s when I realized It tasted and had the texture of the most delicious cream cheese! So try the same recipe, only use whipping cream and don’t add any butter. ( No need for whipping it either.)
Little Miss Muffet would be proud! Reminiscent of my grandmother making "sour cream" by mixing vinegar into "Pet milk" (Carnation Evaporated Milk) for my 1st attempts at cooking hamburger strogonoff for the family when I was a young preteen. A nice memory. Happy New Year Emmy!
Here in the upper Midwest we haven't really experienced this cream cheese shortage, thankfully. The description you gave for the flavor of the homemade cream cheese makes me think of mascarpone which has a much milder flavor, as in less tangy. Cool recipe though! 😋
Maybe a little extra whey mixed in would make it smoother. Straining and taking out too much of the whey out I can easily see causing the graininess. You could add it in as blending to control the smoothness.
Shelves in Chicago and suburbs are packed with cream cheese, not seeing any sort of shortage here! Not even the non-dairy version I eat! And yes, in case you're lactose intolerant and have never bought the non-dairy/vegan cream cheese, it is DELICIOUS and tastes EXACTLY like Philly cream cheese!
@@annevarca7976 Same shortage of crème cheese in Ohio. Bare shelves. The exception is a few small dessert cups of flavored Philadelphia soft crème cheese spread and even those are dwindling fast.
I never saw vegan cream cheese sold on my grocery store until one day I saw some in the marked down section. I bought it because it was much cheaper than regular cream cheese which is a horrendous price and I love this vegan cream cheese.!
Perfect timing. We got our son a pasta maker for Xmas, he made ravioli from scratch last nigh, everything but the cheese. I shared this video and the links, and they are so excited to try. Thank you 😊. Happy new year! 🎊
It's so weird, I kept hearing about the "cream cheese shortage" all over the national news but here in Wisconsin, we literally had an over abundance of cream cheese! Most likely because we make a LOT of cheese in this state, but I went to the store about ten days before Christmas and the cream cheese was absolutely overflowing! To the point the store's cooler could not contain all of it, it was tumbling out into milk crates on the floor!! Needless to say, I bought much more than I actually needed and froze the extra. (Yes, it does freeze as long as you allow it to thaw in the fridge and not out on the counter.)
I’m in Wisconsin as well, and the grocery stores in my area ran completely out right before thanksgiving. However, they restocked all of it and I haven’t seen anyone run out since.
For those of us who are dairy sensitive. I finally found an alternative that (IMO) Surpassed the taste of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The name is Violife... 💯👍🤟🤗
Is it a problem with the protein? None of my kids can have regular milk, but the A2 brand milk works well for them. I was nervous, because their reaction to regular milk can be painful for a few days. I'll have to try violife. 🙂
Agreed - Violife is the current best non-dairy substitute in the US, and generally a good bet for dairy substitutes. Follow Your Heart (which I think is the supplier for Trader Joe's house brand) is my second choice -- also cultured -- but I think they recently changed their formula. That said, if you happen to be in NYC, some of the bagel shops carry a cultured vegan cream cheese that is almost indistinguishable. On my first bite, I thought I was served the wrong sandwich, then (once I found the faintest ghost of the soybean base and stopped panicking about having an allergic reaction) I was in absolute heaven.
Whey can be made into whey cheeses like gjetost or traditional ricotta (most grocery store ricotta uses more than just whey). In some of these the milk sugar can be overpowering. The whey protein can be made into protein powder and the sugar fermented for fuel alcohol, of course.
@@dottiepark let it drain in the strainer, as it drains and the curds mature they'll continue to acidify or culture giving the cheese a richer flavor. It's basically like a slight fermentation
You can also add a thermophilic culture to the milk before using the lemon or vinegar cause the store bought milk is highly processed and is missing the good bacteria needed for the cheese
To get the industrial finishing which is a glossy thick liquid, mix 1 tbsp of water with 1 tsp of baking soda + 1 tsp of citric acid and mix it together until the bubbling from the reaction stops and liquid becomes clear and citricacid dissolves completely. Add this mix while blending along with a few tablespoons of whey from the milk. You get a glossy finish. For the umami, either you can add nutritional Yeats if using freshly or let it age in the refrigerator for a week or two.
If you just let it strain and press it without whipping or adding butter you'll have paneer. It's delicious cut into bite size squares and made into a curry. It doesn't melt just gets a little soft in the curry sauce.
Happy new year, you made my first day of 2022 with this!!! I learn something from every video but even if I didn’t I wouldn’t care, you are an absolute delight and hands down my favorite person/channel in the entire RUclips world... and have been for years now! Love you and all you do!!!
Hi Emmy I want to tell you that you can make cream cheese from yoghurt and does not take hours . If you have an instant pot you make yoghurt in it and keep the milk for incubation around 4 or 5 hours. After that you go to sauté button and boil the yoghurt at the lower sauté power meaning you push the button only once. Boil it gently until it makes curds. The process is the same from this point on like the stove method. It is easy and does taste very similar to store bought cream cheese.
We make tofu directly from soy beans at home, and the process looks exactly the same up until the whipping part -- we press it into a block instead, but it's basically vegan curds and "whey". xD
Gavin Webber is probably the biggest homemade cheese channel on YT. He's definitely the most comprehensive. He's a lovely Australian bloke who greets his viewers, "G'day curd nerds!"
I LOVE making my own cheese!! What you made is more like whipped farmer's cheese than creamed cheese. I am not convinced it would have the same flavor and texture if used in a recipe. I have made the Chef John/Food Wishes version and it is identical to cream cheese. You really need those cultures to get the right flavor and texture. That recipe does work the same as store bought in recipes. Yes, it takes a couple days, but if you are making your own flavored cream cheeses (bacon horseradish is my favorite) it is worth it. When making yogurt to eat or for creamed cheese, I find what works best for a thick and creamy outcome is when you mix 1 gallon whole milk with 1/2 cup heavy cream. Bring it to 181° F and hold there (or at least between 181°F and 191°F for 30 minutes, then cool to 110°F - 120°F. Skim off the skin and gently whisk in 2 Tablespoons room temperature starter. Cover and incubate for 6 - 12 hours. (I like it less tart, so I go 6 - 8 hours.) After that I use a straining bag to take out some whey (but also good as is). I love it!! I hate waste, so I use the whey in smoothies, replace water with it in bread recipes, or as water in soups.
once in a while my grandmother from Italy would make homemade ricotta, for pasta ricotta for sundays, which was like a sweet pasta dish we had as a desert. i'd be happy to share the recipe
@@Kiki-D-Kimono you can use store bought ricotta if you don't want to make it, it's more of eye ball amount, usually pound of pasta, we like to use penne or the bowties. And rest is how you'll like it. Vanilla and sugar, cup or less depending if you want it sweet or not, and you put it on when the pasta is still hot to make it easier to mix and it might seem a little loose but will thicken as it cools, but it is better to have it when it's still hot or warm
You are a jewel. Thank you for all your tenacious genius. A gallon of milk and a few drops of flavoring and you don't need much more to make cheesecake. Genius!
Omfg thank you so much for this! I’m doing a no-spend/fridge cleanout challenge for my next vlog and I’m out of cream cheese, now I can just make some without going to the grocery store 🥺
As a person of Lebanese heritage, I have eaten homemade cream cheese (Labeneh) all my life. We take plain yogurt (homemade or store bought) add some salt to draw out the whey, put it in cheese cloth and suspend it over a bowl for several hours or overnight. The result is thick, rich and creamy. You can then put it in a dish and cover with olive oil, or roll it into small balls and drop into jars filled with olive oil and the oil "preserves" it and it will keep for a very long time. It is delicious. I make it at least once every couple of weeks.
The lemon juice likely stayed behind in the whey. When you make farmers cheese with vinegar the vinegar all comes out in the whey too. I wonder if adding some lemon juice to the strained curds before whipping would help.
I knew that there was a soy milk shortage, but I never knew that there was a cream cheese shortage as well! We had to make our soy milk at home for a week and it wasn’t as good as the Silk soy milk, but it sufficed for the time being! ☺️
I love Refika! She is so knowledgeable and seems like such a lovely person. Gemma too, been following her baking journey since the early days of her channel!
I didn’t even know we had an official cream cheese shortage but every time I go to the grocery store I notice the shelf is bare! Wow cream cheese is my fav 😩
The drained yogurt version is much smoother and although it takes a few days to drain you just leave it in the fridge while that happens so not much fuss at all 😊👍🏼
I've strained yogurt as a cream cheese/quark substitute. With normal, 4% yogurt, it takes ideally overnight, but 2-4 hours will give you something to make a baked cheesecake with.
You can totally just use a gallon of whole milk, too but that will make really more of a Ricotta Cheese. What separates Ricotta from Cream Cheese? Cream. By using the heavy cream and half and half, you will get a much richer tasting, creamier cheese
Make sure if you really like that acidic taste that Philadelphia cream cheese has, to use half white vinegar and half lemon juice. Don't use just lemon juice or it will just be like Emmy's non-acidic version in this video.
The only major ingredient between the spread and the brick that would affect taste would be the whey. The spread has it added back to the cream cheese. Though I honestly don't know how much of a difference that would make in terms of flavor. Natamycin I don't think changes the flavor and the emulsifiers *do* change the texture (for obvious reasons) but do they affect the taste?
Definitely going to make this! I love that there isn't any extra ingredients even the bean gum stuff. I've made homemade butter by shaking the mason jar and loved it! 💜
Just made it with a gallon of whole milk, as I wanted to see if it was more economical than the store brand @ $1.99 an 8 oz. block. Reporting, yes, it is. I have about 21 ounces! The texture is really nice, too! And I’ll use the whey when I bake bread!
I was so happy to see Refika's recipe here she is an amazing and inspiring chef! I'd love to see you recreate and try some of her recipes on this channel. Love you Emmy!
Emmy! Please try using whey to make “brunost” which is Norwegian brown cheese! It is so wonderful and caramel-y, perfect with toast and butter for breakfast.
Yogurt cheese is very much like cream cheese if you use full fat milk to make your yogurt or add cream to your milk to make it as well. It's called Labneh and it spreads like cream cheese btw. It's almost got the same taste too on a bagel when you roll the balls of yogurt cheese in sesame seeds etc or poppy seeds.
I'm wondering if you put the homemade cream cheese in your stand mixer and whipped it with the paddle attachment you could potentially smooth it out a little? Also, what if you blended in some of your freezer jam to make a strawberry cream cheese? They used to offer strawberry cream cheese at Tim Hortons and I miss it! I'm tempted to try making it myself!!
Philadelphia/commercial cream cheese, like creme fraische, is a cultured cream/milk dairy product (albeit with the ratios and specific probiotics trade secrets) instead of a blended from-milk farmer's cheese. Thus the tang is grown in, rather than merely used to cause the casein curd to separate from the whey.
I’ve always used this method (ie: hot milk with lemon juice) to make Cottage Cheese- just strain lightly through a clean new chic cloth, add a bit of salt and pepper and leave it in loose crumbly curds- yummy cottage cheese!🤷♀️ (forgive my ignorance, but is cottage cheese mostly an Aussie thing or is it fairly common elsewhere too?
Thank you! I used fresh squeezed lemons (1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons of vinegar) and I let the small curds cool down in the Whey - then strained in cheesecloth - then a little salt and blend with a little heavy cream! It’s fabulous…. Thank you!!! Please Don’t use bottle lemon juice because that comes from concentrate - you really need Fresh lemons- I know because this is my 8th time making it!!!
Perfect timing! I don’t like to drink milk but I do eat cheese. I have milk leftover from a Christmas cookie recipe & now I’m totally making cream cheese with it! 🥰
I have made cream cheese when my gallon of milk is getting old and hasn't been used. Homemade butter, too. My recipe is to scald the milk, add apple cider vinegar, and salt. Then either strain for farmer's cheese or whip slightly for cream cheese. I let mine cool so I don't whip it long. Happy New Year!
With that same acidified curd you can put it in a food processor with a mixture of baking soda and citric acid and butter - then you cook it over a double boiler until smooth , pour in a mold and let firm up.. you have American cheese!
Ok so I made this tonight. Twice. Lol. The first time exactly as Emmy directed. It came out precisely as she described. It reminded me of creamed oaxaca cheese, but much less salty. The second time with a variation of 1/8c lemon juice and 1/8 c of plain Greek yogurt. It was a little bit tangier, but still not the flavor or texture of cream cheese. I whipped mine for 6 minutes, checking at 3 minute intervals. It’s still grainier than cream cheese. Familiar, but not the same. It’s worth making for fun or in a pinch, but I wouldn’t try making a cheesecake with it. You could however, make a lovely savory dip with it.
I think you made a whipped ricotta which will always be grainy. For cream cheese you use cream, a drop of rennet and a mesophilic starter. That’s what gives it the tang. Much better than Kraft.
Lovely Video. You could add a small squeeze of lemon juice for the extra tang during the blending it would also help with the texture to add a touch of liquid during that process. If you wanted it perfectly smooth there are micro-meshes you could pass/press the cream cheese through if it is still on the grainy side. Without a professional emulsification machine you will not get a perfectly smooth mixture without a straining process.
Would love to see a video where you try the vinegar and extra salt! Would passing the cream cheese through a sieve perhaps remove some of the grainy texture? Or perhaps passing it through a panty hose (like hena)?
If you blend hung curd into the food processor along with the existing recipe, you'd have the most nearest taste of cheese. Have been using it as an alternative for the processed cheese and mozzarella cheese in many recipes including pizzas! Give it a go. Just make sure the curd/yogurt is slightly tangy and not too fermented.
I have been making cream cheese for years and from experience I know that the tangy taste ends up in the whey, not in the cheese, whether you use lemon or vinegar so I add a few drops of lemon juice to the cheese in the food processor. Also be careful not to blend it too long or it will end up like mashed potatoes mixed in the food processor, like glue not cream cheese.
I think it also is a bit different because there is some whey in the store bought. It does say it has whey in it. I think some people add a little of the whey back in. It might help it be more the right consistency? Worth experimenting
I just mix yoghurt and sour cream and drain them overnight in a cloth and in the morning you have a fresh philadelphia cheese for your breakfast ☺ or freeze kefir and then leave in a cloth to defrost overnight - same result in the morning
I make mine with Greek yogurt and it's not long at all and so delicious. Mine is very smooth. It doesn't taste at all like yogurt and it's totally tastes just like cream cheeses we are used to. Much less calories and so much healthier you throw out your outdated yogurt that you didn't eat I'm always going to just make my own delicious cream cheese ❤
In this recipe you basically make cottage cheese and then blend the cottage cheese. You can skip the first step and just buy a carton of cottage cheese and puree it. That was an old Weight Watchers' trick for making a low fat cream cheese substitute. If you're going to make your own as you did, I suggest using half & half or table cream instead of milk, to make it creamier. The tanginess that you taste in the store-bought, Philly cream cheese comes from the cultures. You can buy the cultures to make it at home. It's not that different from making mozzarella or yogurt. It's one of the easiest cheeses to make at home, but it takes more than 5 minutes.
At the curd stage, if you add white vinegar, you'll be able to blend, drain and have ricotta cheese. Using heavy cream and apple cider vinegar you'll have marscapone cheese.
you should try to make messmör, popular spread on the sandwich or as a seasoning in certain dishes in Sweden / Norway messmör is made by caramelizing the whey left over from cheese making. you can caramelise it so you either get a soft spreadable topping or by cooking longer you get a cheese (mesost) that you cut into thin slices and have on the sandwich.
Emmy you should try making it with homemade yogurt. I have found it to take only 24 hours, less if you spread it over a larger cheese cloth. It is creamy and delicious.
If you sub out the lemon juice with buttermilk as the acid, and the same time you blend in the butter add a couple tablespoons heavy cream, it is much creamier and smooth.
I hadn't heard about the shortage stateside. We don't seem to have an issue here in the uk, as far as I know, anyways. I bought 2 packs recently. I wonder if adding a bit of whey into the mix would solve the texture and tang issue? Also, use very soft butter, in case it was butter not quite broken down. The butter looked pretty firm going in.
Ms Emmy , I just love you videos mushroom picking , cooking & baking and cheese making n such ! You explanations idea n tips are Excellent! Thank you !!! I'm Blessed to have found you !!!
Try adding butter milk say 1 cup, your tang in the buttermilk than just milk and a bit of butter to will help it stiffen. Also force it through a metal strainer it will loose the grain.
If you can find or make some cream cheese I recommend trying Eðla. It's an Icelandic take on nachos. It's a fun and simple recipe and the name translates to Lizard which gives me a laugh.
Hey Emmy! One way of getting better tang in your cheese would be to ''sour'' the milk before you bring it to temp. One way you can do it is to add buttermilk or unflavored greek yogurt (half a cup of buttermilk/yogurt for 2L of milk), stir well and leave it on the lowest heat of your stove for 30 minutes. Then, you raise the temp of your milk to almost boil (small bubbles on the edges of the pot) and then you add your lemon juice or vinegar. It will taste more acidic overall. Also, you can use a blend of milk and cream to make the end result even better.
Would you get that tang with raw milk that’s slightly sour?
@@hislivelystone I've never worked with raw milk but I would be a bit more careful with that if I were you. Unless you have the capacity to analyze if there are bad bacteria in there, I'd want to pasteurize the milk first. I know it destroys some of the calcium, but you can always add some calcium chloride (like, 1/8 tsp) in a gallon of milk if you're worried about your curds. I personally would pasteurize the milk first before using for this purpose, especially if it has gone a little sour. Just be careful. (I'm glad you have access to raw milk though, the taste must be really superior!)
I hang my curds in a muslin bag over a bowl 3 days,that developes the flavour.
Great to know!
Hello there! I have quite a few good recipes, feel free to drop by. Maybe I have a recipe you like. Thanks in advance
"Greetings my beautiful lovelies" is the best sentence we could possibly hear on January 1.
😊😊😊 Happy New Year!
Soooooo true!
Couldn't agree more!
I took a two day cheese making course several years ago and cream cheese is one of the first cheeses we made. We made cultured buttermilk first, then sour cream and then cream cheese. The cultured buttermilk made a world of difference in the texture of the cream cheese.
What was the measurements of the recipe?
Buttermilk was a staple at my grandparents' house. I'd love to know how to make it.
Sounds like fun
@@melaniekeeling7462 for recipes you can add vinegar or lemon juice to milk and let it curdle a bit
Ellen Knowles, that’s such an interesting class to take! I bet you learned a lot. 😁 I always say you can never learn enough and education is key to self growth! So my question is, I’ve seen some others on RUclips make quick homemade ricotta cheese in the same way except stopping before the blending. However cream cheese is not just a blended/whipped version of ricotta cheese correct? I was wondering if that’s why her taste and texture is different?
The gum included (used to be gelatin) in the Philadelphia brand is necessary to make a set cheesecake. I tried an organic cream cheese with no extra ingredients to thicken it to make my cheesecake one time and it was good tasting soup!
Yep. You can add gelatin mixed with milk to skyr to get a skyr “cheesecake” - need the gelatin for the set.
Cool, thanks!
LOL. I’ve been make cream cheese (not this recipe) in mason jars since I was a little girl, and made thousands of cheesecake. No gums or gelatin needed. The key is to start with cream, not milk.
@@RestingBitchface7 ah that actually makes sense considering you would whip double cream to make whipped cream and not from milk ahahah
would there be a big difference if you used single cream or double cream to do the cream cheese?
cheesecake perfection: 50% dark chocolate bar mixed iwth 50% cream cheese and 1 egg per 8 oz of whatever you use. :) (half joking but you don't have to worry as much about it setting)
That's incredible! We were in India during covid lockdown and couldnt get more than the bare basic ingredients. I used milk to make yogurt and cheese. Made homemade pasta. Found I could use the yogurt directly in lasagna (homemade noodles 😅) like ricotta. This year we are well established back in the US and for Christmas I made homemade cheesecake with my 2 blocks of cream cheese and subbed greek yogurt. Then made spinach artichoke dip with yogurt and mozz/parm cheeses, no cream cheese. Such a different experience using walmart pickup and having nice ingredients! But God got us through and those days are testaments to how much ingenuity and creativity we can have when needed!😊💜
I would imagine the homemade version tastes more like whipped ricotta? OG cream cheese is cultured I wonder if using cultured cream to make it instead of milk will make it taste more like real cream cheese :O
You are correct. You can add buttermilk or yogurt to the milk/cream before starting, and you let the milk sour at low temp for 30 mins before you proceed with the rest of the recipe. No need to bring the milk to a rolling boil though. A gentle simmer is hot enough.
Yes, I meant to say that traditional cream cheese would be made from cultured cream.
Sour cream
Ahhh, cultured buttermilk. Something that doesn't seem to exist in the uk. Just plain, thin, useless buttermilk....
@@Libertas4Ever That's right! When I started making my own crème fraîche and farmer's cheese, I could not go back to store bought.
I've found that if you do half vinegar and half lemon juice, it works better! You're guaranteed not to get that vinegar taste, and it adds that acid that's missing if you only use lemon juice!
I also use half vinegar and half lemon and it taste awesome. I love the homemade cream cheese more than the store bought. I have been making this for a while now before realizing there is a shortage of cream cheese in NY. My son wants me to make cheese cake. Has anyone ever try making cheese cake with homemade cheese cake?
What kind of vinegar do you use? White, apple cidar or anther kind maybe? I would love to know so I could try to make this cream cheese.
@@stellajean3020
White vinegar
@@shamelasukhraj4368 Thanks so much for your quick reply!
@@stellajean3020
You are very welcome.
What you have here is not technically cream cheese, as this requires a culture, but something commonly known as 'quark'. It's very popular throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I usually make it myself by buying cottage cheese curds and then blending them as you did here. It also blends really well with herbs like dill, or even fruit.
Happy New Year!!! I like the different style of intro in this video. It's usually just the food and its name at the start, but seeing you get your mise-en-place for the video before the "typical" intro is a cool change!!!
Thanks and Happy New Year to you!
I agree makes me feel normal usually I'm so scattered bc of my 3boys lol but seeing another mom do the same makes me feel better
Agreed!! I’ve been watching Emmy for years and I love to see “behind the scenes” incorporated into her videos.
This is one of the things that makes her videos so great. I'm sure she's not the only RUclips chef who forgets to turn on the power strip or jumps when the oven beeps, but most of them edit out such things. Seeing the normal mishaps humanizes her and makes it easier to identify with her.
Yeah I liked it too!
This is basically a cream cheese substitute, very similar to whipped ricotta.
Cream cheese is cultured with cheese cultures. They arent too expensive to buy but not always accessible. I've made my own cream cheese a few times (I make my own goats cheese which is basically the same method but with goats milk). You culture full cream milk for 24hrs, drain it for a few hours in muslin, but it is honestly so delicious. The same if not better than Philly cream cheese.
Try a Mad Millie recipe!
I’ve read up on the “shortage” of cream cheese, specifically Kraft, and it’s weird cause it’s never been an issue here in the DFW area of TX. It’s plentiful here from the mini packs, all the way to the 4 packs of normal size I always get. It was never an issue here, even a couple weeks out before Christmas , all the way up to New Years. Hopefully it returns to normal for everyone else soon…:) Eat Kentucky Moss…:)
BTW: a great use for cream cheese- get two waffles and slather cream cheese on one and your favorite jam or apple butter on the other, slap together for a great breakfast sandwich…:)
Same! Lol I’m happy we didn’t get the storage! They were even giving away $20 because of the storage
“THEY” want to promote anxiety, fear, etc. so they say there are shortages for various products. They probably have warehouses full of the products that they say are limited.
@@patcox8745 I live in Arizona, far away from the shipyards. Many shelves are empty. I don't think Safeway is into conspiracy theories. They need to make money. Just like all of us.
@@patcox8745 In my state, there has been a shortage. It likely has to do with how much stock individual warehouses had prior to it. "They" don't make money if "they" don't sell product, especially perishables that would simply go bad being held for the sake of promoting fear. Some of y'all are wild.
The shortage isn't happening everywhere at once. Here in East TN, we're just now running out. In other regions, they ran out a while ago. Just because your grocery stores still have cream cheese in stock doesn't mean that supplies won't eventually run out.
I make yogurt the same way but I strain it overnight which makes what I call Greek yogurt it’s so thick after straining that it’s a natural Cream cheese or quark which is a farm cheese . So yummy I used to make 3 litres which after strained is about half I’d add icing sugar and vanilla and I couldn’t keep up production and my son rarely left any for me lol
You have GOT to have one of the best channels on RUclips, if not anywhere on media. Simple, concise, truthful, experimental, opinionated. Thank you for keeping my cooking interests and travels piqued.
Talking with my 94 yr old mother one day she told me about her mother making cottage cheese on the Kansas Prairie while she was a child and how wonderful it was compared to store bought, which she didn't taste until while out on a date with my father. All of this got my curiosity going. It is relatively easy to make and is delightfully delicious and nothing like store bought.
Does grandma have a recipe you can share?! The idea of tasting something from grandma's childhood just fills me with joy.
@@GlamGoreChaosQueen I dont have grandma's recipe but the one I have been using is easy. Heat 1 gallon of milk slowly to 190°, remove from heat, pitch 3/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, stir and cover for 30 minutes, strain through cheesecloth, let set for another 30 minutes. Take the cheesecloth and bring the corners of the cloth together and form the cottage cheese into a ball. Now while still wrapped firmly in the cheesecloth rinse the cottage cheese under cool water until the cheese is cool (I think this is also to remove any vinegar remaining). Turn cottage cheese out into bowl, stir in salt 3/4 teaspoon and cream cool in refrigerator. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of cream but I find that I have been adding more.
It is nothing like the loose sloppy cottage cheese at the store. The curds are itty bitty and it is quite dry even after doubling the cream. It's almost like a ricotta and its delicious.
When I make this recipe, I also add 1/2 teaspoon of King Arthur lemon powder to it. It then makes killer cheese cake!
The "cheese culture" in Phili Cheese probably has a lot to do with the tang. Maybe adding yogurt and even letting it age for a few days in the fridge would help that? Carageenan Gum is a thickening stabilizing agent that gives Philli cheese that dense buttery texture. You might could get close to that with tapioca starch but that would take experimenting. You could also up the fat content by using a larger quantity of a more neutral fat like lard or vegetable shortening in place of butter. Italian Moscarpone cheese is made in a similar way using tartaric acid crystals (NOT Cream of Tartar).
I want to try this. One of the tastes you might be missing (that acid bite) is lactic acid. Industrially made cream cheese uses lactic acid to split the milk instead of vinegar and lemon juice. I want to try all three versions to see which taste I'd enjoy. This with salmon must be amazing.
We here dont really have cream cheese shortage but, the cream cheese here is expensive.
I'm really thankful for this recipe. The ingredient that i really need to buy was just milk . All other ingredienf was readily available in my kitchen. I dont really mind if its taste was a bit different but the most inportant thing that its cheaper .
that’s actually the exact same recipe i use to make a very beloved product that we use daily in brazil: requeijão. it’s milky and smooth but it’s not the same as the philadelphia cream cheese i know, instead, this recipe tastes just like our requeijão, and i’m glad you discovered cause everyone should know this wonderful thing
Hi Emmy! Been making cream cheese for years. It isn't easily available in India. We do get the Philadelphia Cream cheese but it's crazy expensive. We used the homemade cream cheese to make cheese cakes.
It’s expensive in Trinidad as well, I used to splurge once a year to make a cheesecake. But then all the real condensed milk became nonexistent and all we get is FILLED condensed milk (which contains oil) so the cheesecakes don’t set properly 😩.
I read about the shortage, but when I went to the store there was the normal cream cheese display in the refrigerated section and a separate Philly cream cheese only display for the holidays. No shortage here.
I was using a similar recipe to make homemade ricotta, but I used whipping cream instead of whole milk. When I strained it through the cheese cloth, the curds were much smaller and the texture was naturally smooth and creamy. After I refrigerated it, it was naturally creamy when I tasted it. And that’s when I realized It tasted and had the texture of the most delicious cream cheese! So try the same recipe, only use whipping cream and don’t add any butter. ( No need for whipping it either.)
👍🏾
Little Miss Muffet would be proud! Reminiscent of my grandmother making "sour cream" by mixing vinegar into "Pet milk" (Carnation Evaporated Milk) for my 1st attempts at cooking hamburger strogonoff for the family when I was a young preteen. A nice memory. Happy New Year Emmy!
Here in the upper Midwest we haven't really experienced this cream cheese shortage, thankfully. The description you gave for the flavor of the homemade cream cheese makes me think of mascarpone which has a much milder flavor, as in less tangy. Cool recipe though! 😋
Maybe a little extra whey mixed in would make it smoother. Straining and taking out too much of the whey out I can easily see causing the graininess. You could add it in as blending to control the smoothness.
Shelves in Chicago and suburbs are packed with cream cheese, not seeing any sort of shortage here! Not even the non-dairy version I eat! And yes, in case you're lactose intolerant and have never bought the non-dairy/vegan cream cheese, it is DELICIOUS and tastes EXACTLY like Philly cream cheese!
New york is short..cant find cream cheese anywhere it's like striking gold finding a package!
@@annevarca7976 we've got plenty of cream cheese here in Queens 🤷🏾♀️
@@annevarca7976 Same shortage of crème cheese in Ohio. Bare shelves. The exception is a few small dessert cups of flavored Philadelphia soft crème cheese spread and even those are dwindling fast.
@@TabisWifey I guess I must make a trip to queens! Never thought I wouldn't be able to find it
I never saw vegan cream cheese sold on my grocery store until one day I saw some in the marked down section. I bought it because it was much cheaper than regular cream cheese which is a horrendous price and I love this vegan cream cheese.!
Perfect timing. We got our son a pasta maker for Xmas, he made ravioli from scratch last nigh, everything but the cheese. I shared this video and the links, and they are so excited to try. Thank you 😊. Happy new year! 🎊
It's so weird, I kept hearing about the "cream cheese shortage" all over the national news but here in Wisconsin, we literally had an over abundance of cream cheese! Most likely because we make a LOT of cheese in this state, but I went to the store about ten days before Christmas and the cream cheese was absolutely overflowing! To the point the store's cooler could not contain all of it, it was tumbling out into milk crates on the floor!!
Needless to say, I bought much more than I actually needed and froze the extra. (Yes, it does freeze as long as you allow it to thaw in the fridge and not out on the counter.)
I’m in Wisconsin as well, and the grocery stores in my area ran completely out right before thanksgiving. However, they restocked all of it and I haven’t seen anyone run out since.
You are fortunate. Shelves are empty of cream cheese this week - including the store brand!
For those of us who are dairy sensitive. I finally found an alternative that (IMO) Surpassed the taste of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The name is Violife... 💯👍🤟🤗
Thanks so much for this!
violife everything is to die for. SO GOOD. but the cream cheese is absolutely amaziiinnnggggggggggggg
If it’s just the lactose you have a problem with, Green Valley Creamery makes an excellent lactose free cream cheese and sour cream.
Is it a problem with the protein? None of my kids can have regular milk, but the A2 brand milk works well for them. I was nervous, because their reaction to regular milk can be painful for a few days. I'll have to try violife. 🙂
Agreed - Violife is the current best non-dairy substitute in the US, and generally a good bet for dairy substitutes. Follow Your Heart (which I think is the supplier for Trader Joe's house brand) is my second choice -- also cultured -- but I think they recently changed their formula.
That said, if you happen to be in NYC, some of the bagel shops carry a cultured vegan cream cheese that is almost indistinguishable. On my first bite, I thought I was served the wrong sandwich, then (once I found the faintest ghost of the soybean base and stopped panicking about having an allergic reaction) I was in absolute heaven.
I made “cheese” from the dregs in a yoghurt pot. No other ingredients were needed, and I got a good spreadable texture in a couple of hours.
A couple days in the fridge to meld and it'll taste a lot more like what you're used to :)
Whey can be made into whey cheeses like gjetost or traditional ricotta (most grocery store ricotta uses more than just whey). In some of these the milk sugar can be overpowering.
The whey protein can be made into protein powder and the sugar fermented for fuel alcohol, of course.
You have to let the curds acidify at room temp about 3hrs before you whip it and it'll give you a nicer tangy flavor
Please explain! Do you mean let it sit in the whey or let it drain for three hours?
I’d like to know to!
@@dottiepark let it drain in the strainer, as it drains and the curds mature they'll continue to acidify or culture giving the cheese a richer flavor. It's basically like a slight fermentation
You can also add a thermophilic culture to the milk before using the lemon or vinegar cause the store bought milk is highly processed and is missing the good bacteria needed for the cheese
@@mariodcom interesting! Thanks for sharing :)
To get the industrial finishing which is a glossy thick liquid, mix 1 tbsp of water with 1 tsp of baking soda + 1 tsp of citric acid and mix it together until the bubbling from the reaction stops and liquid becomes clear and citricacid dissolves completely. Add this mix while blending along with a few tablespoons of whey from the milk. You get a glossy finish. For the umami, either you can add nutritional Yeats if using freshly or let it age in the refrigerator for a week or two.
I love Emmy's personality. A breath of fresh air!
If you just let it strain and press it without whipping or adding butter you'll have paneer. It's delicious cut into bite size squares and made into a curry. It doesn't melt just gets a little soft in the curry sauce.
Happy new year, you made my first day of 2022 with this!!! I learn something from every video but even if I didn’t I wouldn’t care, you are an absolute delight and hands down my favorite person/channel in the entire RUclips world... and have been for years now! Love you and all you do!!!
Carrageenan gum is an ingredient that helps with emulsification, texture (thickener), and preservation. It's made from seaweed.
I thought so!!
Emmy, try the one with yogurt. It's fairly easy and delicious. I make the yogurt and drain it.
Hi Emmy I want to tell you that you can make cream cheese from yoghurt and does not take hours . If you have an instant pot you make yoghurt in it and keep the milk for incubation around 4 or 5 hours. After that you go to sauté button and boil the yoghurt at the lower sauté power meaning you push the button only once. Boil it gently until it makes curds. The process is the same from this point on like the stove method. It is easy and does taste very similar to store bought cream cheese.
Happy New Years Emmy!!!!! I’ve loved your channel for years you have most calming vibes, watch you whenever I need cheered up!
We make tofu directly from soy beans at home, and the process looks exactly the same up until the whipping part -- we press it into a block instead, but it's basically vegan curds and "whey". xD
Yum!
You can add that whey can be used to wash hair, to "water" houseplants, and for the water in bread baking.
Gavin Webber is probably the biggest homemade cheese channel on YT. He's definitely the most comprehensive. He's a lovely Australian bloke who greets his viewers, "G'day curd nerds!"
I LOVE making my own cheese!! What you made is more like whipped farmer's cheese than creamed cheese. I am not convinced it would have the same flavor and texture if used in a recipe. I have made the Chef John/Food Wishes version and it is identical to cream cheese. You really need those cultures to get the right flavor and texture. That recipe does work the same as store bought in recipes. Yes, it takes a couple days, but if you are making your own flavored cream cheeses (bacon horseradish is my favorite) it is worth it. When making yogurt to eat or for creamed cheese, I find what works best for a thick and creamy outcome is when you mix 1 gallon whole milk with 1/2 cup heavy cream. Bring it to 181° F and hold there (or at least between 181°F and 191°F for 30 minutes, then cool to 110°F - 120°F. Skim off the skin and gently whisk in 2 Tablespoons room temperature starter. Cover and incubate for 6 - 12 hours. (I like it less tart, so I go 6 - 8 hours.) After that I use a straining bag to take out some whey (but also good as is). I love it!! I hate waste, so I use the whey in smoothies, replace water with it in bread recipes, or as water in soups.
If you are in New England, Cabot cream cheese is going strong and is so good!
We love Cabot, but that was wiped out too. 🤷🏻♀️
@@emmymade that just means you need to come visit Vermont! Highly recommend the Cabot outlet
once in a while my grandmother from Italy would make homemade ricotta, for pasta ricotta for sundays, which was like a sweet pasta dish we had as a desert. i'd be happy to share the recipe
Please share the recipe!
@@Kiki-D-Kimono you can use store bought ricotta if you don't want to make it, it's more of eye ball amount, usually pound of pasta, we like to use penne or the bowties. And rest is how you'll like it. Vanilla and sugar, cup or less depending if you want it sweet or not, and you put it on when the pasta is still hot to make it easier to mix and it might seem a little loose but will thicken as it cools, but it is better to have it when it's still hot or warm
@@nicholasmaielli3806 thank you for posting! I'm going to try this with my nephews!
You are a jewel. Thank you for all your tenacious genius. A gallon of milk and a few drops of flavoring and you don't need much more to make cheesecake. Genius!
Omfg thank you so much for this! I’m doing a no-spend/fridge cleanout challenge for my next vlog and I’m out of cream cheese, now I can just make some without going to the grocery store 🥺
As a person of Lebanese heritage, I have eaten homemade cream cheese (Labeneh) all my life. We take plain yogurt (homemade or store bought) add some salt to draw out the whey, put it in cheese cloth and suspend it over a bowl for several hours or overnight. The result is thick, rich and creamy. You can then put it in a dish and cover with olive oil, or roll it into small balls and drop into jars filled with olive oil and the oil "preserves" it and it will keep for a very long time. It is delicious. I make it at least once every couple of weeks.
Watching Emmy eat a bagel and cream cheese is "so stinkin' cute".
The lemon juice likely stayed behind in the whey. When you make farmers cheese with vinegar the vinegar all comes out in the whey too. I wonder if adding some lemon juice to the strained curds before whipping would help.
I knew that there was a soy milk shortage, but I never knew that there was a cream cheese shortage as well! We had to make our soy milk at home for a week and it wasn’t as good as the Silk soy milk, but it sufficed for the time being! ☺️
I hope you don't give soy to any boys you have around. It mimics estrogen in the body.
@@nunyabizness3777 🙄
@@nunyabizness3777 That is not true.
Milking all those tiny soybeans must be grueling. Do you have to use a magnifying glass to see the udders?
@@nunyabizness3777 no it doesn't
I love Refika! She is so knowledgeable and seems like such a lovely person. Gemma too, been following her baking journey since the early days of her channel!
I didn’t even know we had an official cream cheese shortage but every time I go to the grocery store I notice the shelf is bare! Wow cream cheese is my fav 😩
The drained yogurt version is much smoother and although it takes a few days to drain you just leave it in the fridge while that happens so not much fuss at all 😊👍🏼
Oh, my God! I just realized that Emmy just made a modern "hard times" recipe for us!!
I've strained yogurt as a cream cheese/quark substitute. With normal, 4% yogurt, it takes ideally overnight, but 2-4 hours will give you something to make a baked cheesecake with.
ASMR begins at 11:00 🤣
You can totally just use a gallon of whole milk, too but that will make really more of a Ricotta Cheese. What separates Ricotta from Cream Cheese? Cream. By using the heavy cream and half and half, you will get a much richer tasting, creamier cheese
This is interesting, I’ll try it. I have made cream cheese from yogurt as Chef John has made.
Make sure if you really like that acidic taste that Philadelphia cream cheese has, to use half white vinegar and half lemon juice. Don't use just lemon juice or it will just be like Emmy's non-acidic version in this video.
If it’s still grainy, add a teaspoon of whey. Up to a tablespoon. That will make it smoother and a bit looser. But not too much
Emmy, the packet you used is actually cream cheese spread; not cream cheese. Philadelphia's plain cream cheese brick is just 5 ingredients. 🙂
The only major ingredient between the spread and the brick that would affect taste would be the whey. The spread has it added back to the cream cheese. Though I honestly don't know how much of a difference that would make in terms of flavor. Natamycin I don't think changes the flavor and the emulsifiers *do* change the texture (for obvious reasons) but do they affect the taste?
Definitely going to make this! I love that there isn't any extra ingredients even the bean gum stuff. I've made homemade butter by shaking the mason jar and loved it! 💜
You made this look so easy! I'm going to have to try this.
Just made it with a gallon of whole milk, as I wanted to see if it was more economical than the store brand @ $1.99 an 8 oz. block. Reporting, yes, it is. I have about 21 ounces! The texture is really nice, too! And I’ll use the whey when I bake bread!
I was so happy to see Refika's recipe here she is an amazing and inspiring chef! I'd love to see you recreate and try some of her recipes on this channel. Love you Emmy!
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Emmy! Please try using whey to make “brunost” which is Norwegian brown cheese! It is so wonderful and caramel-y, perfect with toast and butter for breakfast.
This is not a cream cheese. It is a blended whole milk ricotta. This is per a cheese maker.
Strange your name is karen
Yogurt cheese is very much like cream cheese if you use full fat milk to make your yogurt or add cream to your milk to make it as well. It's called Labneh and it spreads like cream cheese btw. It's almost got the same taste too on a bagel when you roll the balls of yogurt cheese in sesame seeds etc or poppy seeds.
I'm wondering if you put the homemade cream cheese in your stand mixer and whipped it with the paddle attachment you could potentially smooth it out a little? Also, what if you blended in some of your freezer jam to make a strawberry cream cheese? They used to offer strawberry cream cheese at Tim Hortons and I miss it! I'm tempted to try making it myself!!
a simple alternative is clotted cream, just baked heavy cream in a shallow dish on the lowest temp for about 12 hours, slow cooker works too.
Philadelphia/commercial cream cheese, like creme fraische, is a cultured cream/milk dairy product (albeit with the ratios and specific probiotics trade secrets) instead of a blended from-milk farmer's cheese. Thus the tang is grown in, rather than merely used to cause the casein curd to separate from the whey.
I’ve always used this method (ie: hot milk with lemon juice) to make Cottage Cheese- just strain lightly through a clean new chic cloth, add a bit of salt and pepper and leave it in loose crumbly curds- yummy cottage cheese!🤷♀️ (forgive my ignorance, but is cottage cheese mostly an Aussie thing or is it fairly common elsewhere too?
Thank you! I used fresh squeezed lemons (1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons of vinegar) and I let the small curds cool down in the Whey - then strained in cheesecloth - then a little salt and blend with a little heavy cream! It’s fabulous…. Thank you!!! Please Don’t use bottle lemon juice because that comes from concentrate - you really need Fresh lemons- I know because this is my 8th time making it!!!
Perfect timing! I don’t like to drink milk but I do eat cheese. I have milk leftover from a Christmas cookie recipe & now I’m totally making cream cheese with it! 🥰
I have made cream cheese when my gallon of milk is getting old and hasn't been used. Homemade butter, too. My recipe is to scald the milk, add apple cider vinegar, and salt. Then either strain for farmer's cheese or whip slightly for cream cheese. I let mine cool so I don't whip it long. Happy New Year!
With that same acidified curd you can put it in a food processor with a mixture of baking soda and citric acid and butter - then you cook it over a double boiler until smooth , pour in a mold and let firm up.. you have American cheese!
Ok so I made this tonight. Twice. Lol. The first time exactly as Emmy directed. It came out precisely as she described. It reminded me of creamed oaxaca cheese, but much less salty. The second time with a variation of 1/8c lemon juice and 1/8 c of plain Greek yogurt. It was a little bit tangier, but still not the flavor or texture of cream cheese. I whipped mine for 6 minutes, checking at 3 minute intervals. It’s still grainier than cream cheese. Familiar, but not the same. It’s worth making for fun or in a pinch, but I wouldn’t try making a cheesecake with it. You could however, make a lovely savory dip with it.
I think you made a whipped ricotta which will always be grainy. For cream cheese you use cream, a drop of rennet and a mesophilic starter. That’s what gives it the tang. Much better than Kraft.
Lovely Video. You could add a small squeeze of lemon juice for the extra tang during the blending it would also help with the texture to add a touch of liquid during that process. If you wanted it perfectly smooth there are micro-meshes you could pass/press the cream cheese through if it is still on the grainy side. Without a professional emulsification machine you will not get a perfectly smooth mixture without a straining process.
Would love to see a video where you try the vinegar and extra salt!
Would passing the cream cheese through a sieve perhaps remove some of the grainy texture? Or perhaps passing it through a panty hose (like hena)?
If you blend hung curd into the food processor along with the existing recipe, you'd have the most nearest taste of cheese.
Have been using it as an alternative for the processed cheese and mozzarella cheese in many recipes including pizzas!
Give it a go.
Just make sure the curd/yogurt is slightly tangy and not too fermented.
I have been making cream cheese for years and from experience I know that the tangy taste ends up in the whey, not in the cheese, whether you use lemon or vinegar so I add a few drops of lemon juice to the cheese in the food processor.
Also be careful not to blend it too long or it will end up like mashed potatoes mixed in the food processor, like glue not cream cheese.
I think it also is a bit different because there is some whey in the store bought. It does say it has whey in it. I think some people add a little of the whey back in. It might help it be more the right consistency? Worth experimenting
I just mix yoghurt and sour cream and drain them overnight in a cloth and in the morning you have a fresh philadelphia cheese for your breakfast ☺ or freeze kefir and then leave in a cloth to defrost overnight - same result in the morning
I make mine with Greek yogurt and it's not long at all and so delicious. Mine is very smooth. It doesn't taste at all like yogurt and it's totally tastes just like cream cheeses we are used to. Much less calories and so much healthier you throw out your outdated yogurt that you didn't eat I'm always going to just make my own delicious cream cheese ❤
In this recipe you basically make cottage cheese and then blend the cottage cheese. You can skip the first step and just buy a carton of cottage cheese and puree it. That was an old Weight Watchers' trick for making a low fat cream cheese substitute.
If you're going to make your own as you did, I suggest using half & half or table cream instead of milk, to make it creamier.
The tanginess that you taste in the store-bought, Philly cream cheese comes from the cultures. You can buy the cultures to make it at home. It's not that different from making mozzarella or yogurt. It's one of the easiest cheeses to make at home, but it takes more than 5 minutes.
At the curd stage, if you add white vinegar, you'll be able to blend, drain and have ricotta cheese. Using heavy cream and apple cider vinegar you'll have marscapone cheese.
you should try to make messmör,
popular spread on the sandwich or as a seasoning in certain dishes in Sweden / Norway
messmör is made by caramelizing the whey left over from cheese making.
you can caramelise it so you either get a soft spreadable topping or by cooking longer you get a cheese (mesost) that you cut into thin slices and have on the sandwich.
Emmy you should try making it with homemade yogurt. I have found it to take only 24 hours, less if you spread it over a larger cheese cloth. It is creamy and delicious.
Ooo...
If you sub out the lemon juice with buttermilk as the acid, and the same time you blend in the butter add a couple tablespoons heavy cream, it is much creamier and smooth.
You can also use whey as a fermentation starter to ferment vegetables, homemade soda, or dehydrate into whey protein powder
Happy New Year! I'm definitely going try this, but with the vinegar...I like the tanginess. This would also make a great Boursin cheese. Thanks Emmy.
I hadn't heard about the shortage stateside. We don't seem to have an issue here in the uk, as far as I know, anyways. I bought 2 packs recently. I wonder if adding a bit of whey into the mix would solve the texture and tang issue? Also, use very soft butter, in case it was butter not quite broken down. The butter looked pretty firm going in.
Ms Emmy , I just love you videos mushroom picking , cooking & baking and cheese making n such ! You explanations idea n tips are Excellent! Thank you !!! I'm Blessed to have found you !!!
Try adding butter milk say 1 cup, your tang in the buttermilk than just milk and a bit of butter to will help it stiffen. Also force it through a metal strainer it will loose the grain.
I'm wondering if instead of lemon juice use citric acid. I use both in canning and there is a definite difference in acidity.
If you can find or make some cream cheese I recommend trying Eðla. It's an Icelandic take on nachos. It's a fun and simple recipe and the name translates to Lizard which gives me a laugh.
Oooh interesting! Is there any recipe you’d recommend? Takk!
I adore yoghurt cheese! I have yoghurt cheese on bagel or bread every morning.
Stir jam or preserves in yoghurt cheese and it’s as good as cheesecake
Oh, my God! I just realized that Emmy just made a modern "hard times" recipe for us!!
Idk if "hard to find" is the same as "hard times."
@@skeetsmcgrew3282 Of course it is. Otherwise, previous 'hard times' recipes she made, wouldn't be hard times. As they were made due to scarcity.
@@skeetsmcgrew3282 hard times aren't just about financial woes. Those old recipes were very much influenced by food scarcity.
THIS is an EPIC observation :)
Woah! I love that!