Lemon Cream Cheese

[curious aardvark]

Knocked this up last night.

Basic process is almost identical to the queso blanco.

Heat milk to 185-200
I used 4 english pints - approx 5 us pints.

I added the finely grated zest of 1 1/2 lemons to the milk to add flavour during heating.

At 185 added 1/4 cup lemon juice stirred well, turned off heat and left for 15 minutes. Then poured into the net lined colander.
See here for pics of method.

Right so to this morning.
Had about 1 lb lump of softish crumbly curds. Quite pleasant lemony flavour, but I just don't like that texture.
Broke it up in small bits added to the magic bullet with small amount of my spicy salt and blitzed.


Now this is really good stuff. The salt and turning it smooth makes all the difference. This stuff is going to become a permanent denizen of my fridge :-)
Got a moist apple cake recipe that's just crying out for little blobs of this over the surface before baking. Need more milk ! lol

I've never seen lemon cream cheese for sale over here. And I got about 1lb for about £1.50 worth of milk. Which is cheap by any standards.
Did the math (4% fat milk) and reckon this is 20-25% fat cheese.
Which is as low or lower than light philli - but just as creamy.



1 of the 2 pots I ended up with :-)

If you're a lemon head like me - you have to try this stuff !

[Richtee]

Nice... But I'm gonna wait till I add new fatty stuff to my diet for a while ;{) They make an olive one at a local place here..I love that stuff...

[curious aardvark]

make your own.

Just mix finely chopped olives in with the curds.

And if you're worried about the cholsterol - how about oat cheese
lol

Oh and apparently you can make cheese with soya 'milk'.
I won't be trying it lol but you can if you want ;-)

[Richtee]

And if you're worried about the cholsterol - how about oat cheese
lol

Oh and apparently you can make cheese with soya 'milk'.
I won't be trying it lol but you can if you want ;-)

Heh...can see it now...oatmeal cakes... :{)

Naw... no soy for me. I am actually a bit allergic to it. I use the sauce, but only sparingly.

[Whisky Fish]

Very nice CA, luv my lemon too, but this brings up all kinds of possibilities, Jalapeno, chipotle, strawberry, chives. Good info, for the idea. Oh and was it non fat, low fat or whole milk?
Thanx

JT

[ALX]

Nice work CA....I like the different possibilities....

[curious aardvark]

Thanks for points - getting kind of guilty with all these cheese points, gonna have to smoke something soon to make up for it.
I'm thinking maybe some smoked cheese

Whisky I've only used whole milk to date. It's been pastuerised and homogenised and I've ignored the fancy organic or filtered milks.
Says 4 % fat on the bottle. which seems to work out fine - the cream cheese certainly tastes rich and creamy and the hot queso blanco has that full on cheesy texture and flavour - would be good on pizza !.

Says in the book you can use other kinds of milk - but you just get less curds.
And skimmed milk is pretty pointless and uht she really doesn't like at all :-)

I've just got another 4 pints and some lemons for another batch tonight or tomorrow.
Going to use it on my apple cake - I'll take pics this time round, it's dead easy and seriously good. And a lot healthier than it looks and tastes

All the kit I use (except the cheapo ikea thermo and the net curtain) came from the pound shop. This is certainly not an expensive journey to start out on.

Once I start buying the bacterial cheese cultures it'll get a bit more expensive. And if i ever get a cheese 'cave' I'll be hanging salami in it as well - so that'll cost me even more lol

But just making your own flavoured cream cheese or cooking cheese - really cheap and simple.

[Fishawn]

Nice work Alex.... Neat to watch all your experiments... Kinda like our own "Mad Cheese Scientist"...... Keep em coming

[SMOKE FREAK]

Very inspirational...been wanting to try this for a long time...

[Uncle-Honky]

I do like the sounds of this cheese Alex. I would be happy to try it. You sure do seem to enjoy the cheese gig, and that is cool Very interesting to see bud.

[williamzanTzinger]

you go boy!!

making cheese is still on the back burner for me but that looks great. Might should find it way into a cheesecake.

[curious aardvark]

see how it cooks on the apple cake first, then maybe cheesecake :-)

[Bbqgoddess]

Nice work Alex.... Neat to watch all your experiments... Kinda like our own "Mad Cheese Scientist"...... Keep em coming

Awesome work Alex!
I have to ditto Scott! your incredible with the cheese! YUM!

[GOT14U]

boy talk about a show boat....na what a great job. I think you are the neighborhood cheese head now !

[curious aardvark]

just joined a uk cheese making forum.
Hopefully find somewhere decent to get the cultures. got a couple of ideas on how I can mature cheese without an actual cave :-)
But yeah - I'm hooked lol

Check out the apple cake - home made cream cheese was perfect with it :-)