Cream cheese

[lindag]

What do you do with leftovers?  Occasionally I have a recipe and it calls for half a block of cream cheese, then the rest lingers in my fridge until I throw it out.  Is there a better way?  I know I could buy a 4 oz. package, but I always think I'll use it up.

I'm interested to know if there's some way to store the leftovers; I haven't had much luck with freezing.

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by lindag (log)

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, lindag said:

What do you do with leftovers?  Occasionally I have a recipe and it calls for half a block of cream cheese, then the rest lingers in my fridge until I throw it out.  Is there a better way?  I know I could buy a 4 oz. package, but I always think I'll use it up.

Mix it with some garlic and herbs and use it on toast. You can make quite a selection of spreads with it. 

[cakewalk]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

What do you do with leftovers?  Occasionally I have a recipe and it calls for half a block of cream cheese, then the rest lingers in my fridge until I throw it out.  Is there a better way?  I know I could buy a 4 oz. package, but I always think I'll use it up.

I'm interested to know if there's some way to store the leftovers; I haven't had much luck with freezing.

 

 

I always thought I was the only one who had this problem.  The main issue, for me, is that I don't particularly like cream cheese. It's great in some dough recipes, or cake recipes, for texture, etc. But otherwise, meh. I'm not a big cheesecake fan, I don't even like it on bagels. (Butter is better.) Yet I always like to have some in the fridge, so I also don't buy the smaller package. But once that package is opened, next time I look at it, it has green mold growing around it. I think the best solution is this: whatever you're making with that half a packet of cream cheese: make two of them. 

[TdeV]

Add it to just about any casserole.

[Anna N]

You can make a creamy pasta sauce with it. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

You can make pastry crust with cream cheese. I've got a sweet recipe in "The Joy of Cooking" and Martha Stewart's website has one for savory here. She credits it as follows: "From the book "Mad Hungry," by Lucinda Scala Quinn (Artisan Books)."

 

Trader Joe's make these little mushroom filled mini-turnovers with savory cream cheese pastry that are frozen with raw dough, and probably cooked filling. Then you cook them up in the oven from frozen, and they're delicious. I can think of a lot of fillings that would be good in this pastry, though, and of course you can use it for any savory or sweet pie.

 

Crab rangoons! I love these, and most of the restaurants that serve them around here don't splurge on real crab, either. Some use surimi, some use shrimp, some use finely diced red bell pepper, minced scallion, and one even used minced pineapple in the cream cheese for a while. That last one initially disappointed me, because I wasn't expecting it in something called crab rangoon, but I wound up really enjoying these.

 

Baked crab dip is good too. There are probably other dips that use cream cheese too. I usually make a bechamel sauce to use in spinach artichoke hot dip, but I don't think leftover cream cheese would go astray there.

 

[JohnT]

Off the top of my head:

Plain on a baked potato with some chopped chives.
Mixed with some diced smoked salmon off-cuts on a baked potato.
Mixed with chopped shrimp and a drop of Tabasco on baked potato.
Put a blob in a bowl of pea soup and give a quick swirl.
Add to a nice curry just before serving.
Use in a glaze on cinnamon rolls.
Bake a carrot cake and use in a cream cheese icing (frosting).
Make a few mini cheesecakes for dessert tonight.

Use with cream for Dauphinoise potatoes

The list can be endless!

 

 

[Lisa Shock]

Chop a mix of vegetables finely in a blender or food processor, and make vegetable cream cheese spread. Good additions include: radish, bell pepper (sparingly), celery, carrots, onion, parsley, chives, roasted garlic.

 

My favorite omelette is 1cm cubes of cream cheese along with a tablespoon or so of minced parsley. Mix the parsley when beating the eggs, add a dash of salt, pour into a heated pan, wait a few seconds, then place cubes of cream cheese evenly on top. Cook until barely done, fold, serve. Cheese will become saucy.

[Tri2Cook]

Cookie dough made with part butter and part cream cheese is tasty.

[weedy]

Buy bagels?

 

 

also, cream cheese, horseradish, and honey makes a very decent steak sauce

[lindag]

7 hours ago, weedy said:

Buy bagels?

 

Indeed, I do buy lots of bagels, but for that, I prefer using onion/chive cream cheese in the tub.

 

[weedy]

Buy chives? 

[willows]

I feel like you've answered this question for yourself: Buy the 4oz package.

 

You could also just double the recipe in question, but I think it's probably better to just get over whatever urge it is that makes you buy more cream cheese than you need, since, in fact, you do not use it up as planned.

[kayb]

I use it in a baked caramelized onion dip with some Gruyere and parm. But one of my favorites is just to take a wedge on a plate, dollop some Jezebel sauce on top of it, and eat it on crackers. It's a frequent lunch.

 

[rotuts]

creamy pasta sauce.

 

I freeze chunks , as I don't keep heavy cream on hand.

 

I like a creamy sauce w pasta , but with reduced wine.

 

I add a little water to the lump and mix well w a fork until it's consistency is  little thicker than heavy cream

 

add that to the reduce wine , garlic etc or what ever you want

 

unlike regular cream  it won't ' split ' w the addition of wine.   heavy cream also won't split.

 

the sauce is just enough to coat the pasta.

[JohnT]

@rotuts sorry if I missed something, but you say the sauce is just enough to coat the pasta - but you do not give any idea of weight/quantity for the cream cheese (other than "chunk" in one part and "lump" in another), nor the quantity of pasta it is meant to coat! A bit of clarification would be helpful.

[rotuts]

I play this by ear.

 

this is just s coating usually , maybe a bit more

 

Id say for just a coating for an individual portion of pasta

 

a generous tablespoon would be a good starter.   maybe about the same of water.

 

you want it smooth and a little thicker than heavy cream.  you add that to the reduced sauce you made

 

mix quickly and add hot pasta

 

the benefit is it acts like heavy cream  which is more or less is at this point and won't ' split ' w wine  i.e. acid.

 

you want more creamy sauce ?   add more flavorings at the beginning and more cream cheese and water mixture at the end

 

the reason you add the water to the cream cheese first is so the final sauce is not lumpy but smooth.

 

try it

 

report back.

Edited June 25, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

just to review :

 

Cream Cheese , 

 

with a bit of water , thoroughly mixed in to get to consistency of Heavy Cream   

 

even perhaps whipping cream    i.e.   fat and solids high % 

 

will work for any dish where you add heavy cream or just cream and reduce for thickness  

 

not just pasta

 

for me I use it in pasta

 

and I cut up the Cream Cheese and freeze

 

as if I kept in it the refirg  it would turn more to cheese than cream

 

Q.E.D.

 

try it

 

let us know