What can I make with cream cheese?
Cream Cheese carries a dish on its own. Recipes using cream cheese are below, plus notes on melting it without turning it stringy or greasy.
8 recipes with cream cheese
Cinnamon Rolls
Fluffy yeast rolls swirled with cinnamon sugar and topped with cream cheese icing.
American55m12
Cheesecake
Rich New York-style cheesecake on a graham cracker crust.
American90m12
Carrot Cake
For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.
British4
Cream Cheese Tart
Crust: make a dough from 250g flour (I like mixing different flours like plain and wholegrain spelt flour), 125g butter, 1 egg and a pinch of salt, press it into a tart form and place it in the fridge.
United States4
Salted Caramel Cheescake
1) Blitz the biscuits and the pretzels in a food processor and mix the biscuits with the melted butter.
United States4
Rogaliki (Polish Croissant Cookies)
In a medium bowl mix egg yolks, philly cheese and baking powder using a hand held mixer.
Polish4
Keto Banitsa
Preheat oven to 360 F (180 C) Beat eggs in a bowl, using a whisk ( no mixer needed).
4
Provençal Omelette Cake
Break the eggs into two bowls, five in each.
France4
Cooking with cream cheese without splitting or clumping
- 1Bring cream cheese closer to room temperature before it meets heat; cold dairy in a hot pan is what curdles.
- 2Add it off the heat or on the lowest setting, stirring constantly.
- 3A teaspoon of flour or cornstarch stabilises a sauce and keeps it glossy.
- 4Salt and acid go in at the end - both encourage splitting when added early.
What goes well with cream cheese
Cream Cheese is at its best with bread, tomato, basil, black pepper, honey and pasta. Any two or three of those, plus cream cheese, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.
Storing cream cheese
Keep cream cheese in the main body of the fridge, not the door, where the temperature swings most. Wrap cheese in paper rather than plastic so it can breathe. Hard cheeses freeze acceptably for cooking; fresh dairy does not freeze well.
Substituting cream cheese
If you are out of cream cheese, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.
Cream Cheese recipes: common questions
- What can I make with cream cheese and not much else?
- Plenty. With cream cheese plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.
- What is the quickest cream cheese recipe?
- Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.
- Can I substitute cream cheese?
- In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.
- How do I use up leftover cream cheese?
- Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover cream cheese without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.