Cream cheese recipe

If you like cream cheese, that you can spread on your bread, you may like this recipe. For me it started with making labneh cheese in my bread maker. I hadn't heard of labneh cheese before finding a video by ZaTaYaYummy. It looks like mozzarella: very soft and delicate. You may want to check out his video and see it for yourself! Anyway, after tasting this cheese, I decided to turn it into a spreadable cheese because I'm a huge fan of cream cheese. I like to spread it on a slice of bread and eat it with some ham, but sometimes only with some raw vegetables like tomatoes, paprika or radishes.

So the first step is to make the labneh cheese. For this, you can use the description in the video or follow my recipe, which also includes the extra step at the end to turn it into a buttery cream cheese.

Ingredients:

For making the labneh cheese in the bread maker:

• 1 l whole milk
• 125 g natural yoghurt (50 g in the video, but I used a full cup)
  

For turning it into cream cheese:

• 50-75 g butter
• salt to taste
• optional: basil or oregano (fresh or dry)
  

Settings:

Put the milk and yoghurt in the plastic yoghurt holder and mix it. Put it inside the bread pan (without the paddle!). Although the video shows the lid on the plastic pot, it might be better without it because this way you will have to remove less water from it.

• Program: 18 Yoghurt
• Fermentation time: 8 hours

Additional steps:

When the machine finishes its program, you can (optionally) add some salt and herbs to the yoghurt and mix them. I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and some dried oregano. Now you can filter it using two cheeseclothes on a strainer (check out the video!). I didn't have any cheeseclothes so I simply used a kitchen towel. Make sure that it's big enough, though. After pouring the yoghurt onto the cloth, let it strain for at least one day. My kitchen was very warm (it's summer here!) so I put it in the fridge for a day and a half. Regularly remove the liquid from under the strainer.

After a day you can wrap the cloth around your cheese and squeeze out the leftover liquid with your hands. 

Put the cheese on a plate and taste it. Now you can still add some salt (I added some) or herbs. Add some butter; it's up to you how much. Usually I add as much to have about a 1:3 or 1:2 butter-to-cheese ratio in volume (by eye). It depends on how buttery you want your cream cheese to be.

Now use a fork to break and mix the cheese and the butter. They not only mix but also become softer and a bit fluffy.

That's it, you have your cream cheese! Put it in a small container that closes well and store it in the fridge.

I have to say, I was surprised by the small amount of cheese I got from a full litre of milk. I will not make this recipe too often, but now that my milk was about to expire, it was an excellent way to use it. Consider whether it's worth the time, effort, energy and the space it takes in your fridge while straining before deciding to make it.