Making a whipped/aerated cream cheese spread with a Bamix

[TdeV]

Host's note: as noted in the first line, this topic was split from the Bamix topic.

 

Bamix, but not quite the same topic as the beginning of the thread.

 

Using the A blade (Aerating), has anyone whipped cream cheese? Lately I have been making a dip with fresh goat cheese, cream cheese, half dozen cloves of garlic, a bundle of cilantro, couple of teaspoons granulated onion, teaspooon of citric acid. Today I added an avocado which needed using and a couple tablespoons sour cream. Previously I added Greek yogurt but today I'm trying to make a stiffer version.

 

First I use the C blade for chopping up the cilantro and garlic, and then to mix the components.

 

I also have found that aerating the dip makes it lighter. What I haven't been able to determine is how long to aerate. My short experience using the aerating blade seems to make no marked difference in the amount of air. I'm mentally comparing it with a generic whipped Boursin-like cheese which was not-quite-as-light-as-whipped-cream, but definitely lighter than my attempts.

 

Any clues?

[TdeV]

P.S. Taste test reveals that 1 teaspoon citric acid is too much. Add some honey or maple syrup?

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Would subbing microplaned lemon zest (maybe Meyer) create the desired flavor?  

[TdeV]

@Margaret Pilgrim, might do. I had cilantro and avocado in there which I wanted to keep from browning. I have read about adding citric acid to foods, so I'm curious what it tastes like. Yesterday I ended up adding honey twice which got rid of the puckering effect. 😅

[btbyrd]

Citric acid isn’t an antioxidant. You want to add ascorbic acid to prevent browning. Its much less acidic tasting than citric acid, so it impacts the flavor of your dish much less.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Lemon juice as antioxidant

[TdeV]

On 5/21/2021 at 2:21 PM, TdeV said:

Bamix, but not quite the same topic as the beginning of the thread.

 

Using the A blade (Aerating), has anyone whipped cream cheese? Lately I have been making a dip with fresh goat cheese, cream cheese, half dozen cloves of garlic, a bundle of cilantro, couple of teaspoons granulated onion, teaspooon of citric acid. Today I added an avocado which needed using and a couple tablespoons sour cream. Previously I added Greek yogurt but today I'm trying to make a stiffer version.

 

First I use the C blade for chopping up the cilantro and garlic, and then to mix the components.

 

I also have found that aerating the dip makes it lighter. What I haven't been able to determine is how long to aerate. My short experience using the aerating blade seems to make no marked difference in the amount of air. I'm mentally comparing it with a generic whipped Boursin-like cheese which was not-quite-as-light-as-whipped-cream, but definitely lighter than my attempts.

 

Any clues?

 

Thanks for the replies, but this was the issue with which I wanted help. I can update the quoted information to add that I found no apparent value in having a stiffer cheese dip.

 

Maybe I didn't make my request clear:

 

How long should I whip a cheese spread to aerate it? (I'm guessing that the generic whipped Boursin-like cheese was whipped with huge industrial machines, right? So I'm not going to be able to get that result).

 

What items have you aerated?

 

TIA.

[weinoo]

15 hours ago, TdeV said:

How long should I whip a cheese spread to aerate it? (I'm guessing that the generic whipped Boursin-like cheese was whipped with huge industrial machines, right? So I'm not going to be able to get that result).

 

What items have you aerated?

 

What I've aerated is a rather personal question, no 😉 ?

 

But - (and not trying to be snide) in your case, why not simply aerate until it's aerated to your liking? It's sort of like a question of how long should something be cooked, and the standard cooking school answer is: "until it's done."

[TdeV]

Sorry, Mitch, but I haven't found much information about using the aerating blade and was curious to know what other people have been able to do with it.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

Sorry, Mitch, but I haven't found much information about using the aerating blade and was curious to know what other people have been able to do with it.

 

Evidently, not much?

[jimb0]

On 5/22/2021 at 12:10 PM, btbyrd said:

Citric acid isn’t an antioxidant. You want to add ascorbic acid to prevent browning. Its much less acidic tasting than citric acid, so it impacts the flavor of your dish much less.

 

not sure where you’re getting this from but citric acid absolutely acts as an antioxidant. it’s also used synergistically with other antioxidants in commercial food prep. but in foods where adding noticeable acid flavours is detrimental to the outcome obv one might consider somewhat easily sourced alternatives such ascorbic acid or sodium/calcium ascorbate. 

[btbyrd]

Thanks for pointing that out; I misspoke. What I meant to say was that citric acid isn't an especially powerful antioxidant in the context of controlling enzymatic browning. The primary mechanism by which it inhibits browning is by shifting the pH (since polyphenol oxidases don't like acid) but to do this enough to appreciably slow browning will alter the flavor significantly. Citric acid also can function as a chelator, but gram for gram, ascorbic acid is much more effective at preventing oxidation and enzymatic browning and it has very little impact on flavor.

[TdeV]

Not needed

Edited May 27, 2021 by TdeV
Not needed (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I'm thinking that the Bamix isn't really the best tool to aerate cream cheese. Great in liquids - but perhaps not so great for things that are starting out solid.