Cream cheese: Uses, brands, tips

[NulloModo]

Since it is only a thirty cent swing per pound, and you use around three pounds per cheesecake, I'd just use the Philly and if it comes down to it, raise the price of your product by a dollar to compensate.

After all, cheesecakes are pretty decadent desserts, no point in skimping on the main ingredient.

[phaelon56]

Although the plant I'm thinking of has been closed for years, when I was a young lad the world's largest cream cheese plant was located in East Smithfield PA where my best friend had relocated to a few years after we met. I visited there every summer for years and recall that they not only made Philadelphia brand cream cheese under contract for Kraft, but also a number of other brands as well. That's not to say that all "store brands" are the same as the Kraft product but I suspect that a number of them are.

One thing we haven't considered here and I wonder if it could be an issue: the transitional seasonal change that occurs in some milk supplies due to a change in the cows' diet. In the cafe where I work part-time as a barista, there's a change that occurs in the milk in early to mid autumn, when the cows' diet transitions from a mix of silage and outdoor grazing to all silage and other supplied feed (versus the mix of natural grasses and other feed).

Although the milk is always sold to us as whole milk and has the same overall taste, there's something different about the fat content during that transition- either its level or its intrinsic nature. The noticeable change is the way the milk froths/foams - not nearly as well. In some senses it's similar to what one gets when foaming a lower fat content milk although not identical to that.

[MarketStEl]

Although the plant I'm thinking of has been closed for years, when I was a young lad the world's largest cream cheese plant was located in East Smithfield PA where my best friend had relocated to a few years after we met. I visited there every summer for years and recall that they not only made Philadelphia brand cream cheese under contract for Kraft, but also a number of other brands as well. That's not to say that all "store brands" are the same as the Kraft product but I suspect that a number of them are.

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If you've found one that is, I'd like to know its name.

So far, I haven't run across a store brand that is even close to Philly in all areas. Some taste about the same but do not have the same consistency; most are either thinner or drier. Many are saltier, and as I noted above, America's Choice is sweeter.

[JeanneCake]

Thank you, Wendy, I would love to try your formula. I can't afford to keep using Philly, so every little bit helps. The bottom line for the plain cheesecake is that it is too easy for someone to buy a prefab, frozen one - they come to me for the unique flavors I offer (white choc toffee, cappuccino, oreo cookie, eggnog...) but everything comes down to the bottom line when the client is a restaurant.

Here's the smallest batch size I make (this makes 25 3" size or one 10" round):

3# cream cheese, at rm temp

13.75 oz sugar

.75 oz cornstarch

6 whole eggs

1 TBL vanilla

1/2 TBL lemon juice

Mix crm cheese with paddle until creamy, gradually add sugar and cornstarch, scrape sides down often. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, mix until incorporated and pour into crust. Bake at 300 for 90 mins, 20-30 mins for the individual sizes (or for my circumstances, I bake in a water bath at 350 for the larger cakes), turn off oven and let sit for 30 mins. Top with barely sweetened sour cream (2 oz to 1#). For the individuals, you can put the topping on when they are sitting in the oven to let the sour cream set up (if you have to get them out the same day you make them!) or you can put it on after they come out of the oven, let them sit overnight in the walk-in and then torch them to remove the rings.

The original formula didn't use the cornstarch, but when I started baking the large size cakes, I used it to help firm it up a little. I mix the cornstarch with the sugar (like you would for pastry cream).

Thanks everyone for all the help!

[Wendy DeBord]

I'm really short on time today, but I promise I'll post asap.

[helenjp]

I'd appreciate some opinions! About 10 years ago, I thought I'd learn how to make cream cheese pastries. I've fiddled with them on and off since then, and I hate 'em. Rugelachs and similar things I've used it for always seem utterly bland and tasteless, and occasionally gritty to boot.

Is that just what cream cheese pastry is, or could I leave the cream cheese out of the fridge for a while to ripen, or should I have chilled the finished items down more and baked them in a hotter oven...or is there a "better brand" of cream cheese out there that I don't know about???

[Wendy DeBord]

Hum.............this could be hard to completely figure out seeing that your in Japan and their cream cheese could be slightly different. I do like the bigger name brand Philly cream cheese over other brands........I do think that brand is more consistant and easiest to handle.

"Critty", leaves me dumbfounded. I can't think of how or why that would be. I can only think that it's your sugar that's not totally dissolving that seems gritty.

Typically you want to keep this dough cold.

Warming cream cheese shouldn't ripen it really......

It is sort of a plain dough.............really just about being a flaky neutral dough.

Maybe it's the recipe your using? Do we have anyone that's got a killer rugelachs dough recipe they'd share?

[helenjp]

I've used Philly, and also a cheap tube-packaged cream cheese (that was the one that felt gritty, couldn't help wondering if it had been "solidified" with milk powder or something like that ).

The rugelach recipe I used was from Rose Levy Berenbaum's Christmas baking book - her recipes are very handy for people outside the U.S., because of the obsessive measurements - gives me a starting point if the texture is not what I expected in a new recipe. I've tried other cream cheese pastry recipes, but not with great results - maybe I'm just too wedded to the taste of butter!

[Pan]

It would be best if you could get cream cheese that has no gum in it. Is that obtainable in Japan?

[ludja]

It would be best if you could get cream cheese that has no gum in it. Is that obtainable in Japan?

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I haven't made cream cheese doughs, but for other apps I have definately found it worthwhile, in terms of taste, to search out a source for cream cheese without gum in it. I'm not sure if the difference would show up in a recipe using the cream cheese as a dough ingredient though... That being said though, I've never encountered gritty cream cheese.

Edited June 6, 2005 by ludja (log)

[FWED]

I have Beranbaum's cookie book and have made several things out of it but not the Rugelach. I suspect that the dough for the rugelach is what it is and not much of an outstanding flavor. After reading the recipe I would think that the real flavor of the cookie comes from the filling. But that doesn't mean we can't change things.

I would suggest trying the recipe again using a really good grade of vanilla and hi fat butter along with the Phili cream cheese and definitely taste the raw dough before rolling and filling. Check for the vanilla taste and the salt. I know the salt is listed as optional but you would be surprised at what adding more than a pinch of salt will do to bring out the brilliance of other flavors. For this recipe I would start with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and maybe more according to your taste. I have also added 1 tablespoon of lemon or orange zest to cream cheese to add to the flavor of the dough. Remember the recipe is a starting place. You can always tweak the flavorings to your taste and in the final analysis with all the changes you may find that you just don't like this cookie. That can happen.

[cbarre02]

From some one who has made some 10,000 rugelachs: dont' over mix dough, don't over roll dough, 50% ap 50% pastry, powdered sugar, and always work with this dough cold. IF you have rolled it once and you have scraps don't reuse.

This is one of my favorite doughs in the world, tender and light. Not to much rise so shapes are easly kept, and its easy to make. when rooling roll in granulated sugar not flour... flour will make this tough and gritty. Don't look for a cream cheese flavor, but instead a buttery one.

[helenjp]

Some very useful comments on both ingredients and process, thank you!

Cream cheese without gum - I had never noticed the stabilizers in the list of ingredients before!

I also suspect that I like a definite tang of salt in pastries and cookies, so I'll try adding a little more salt too.

[jhlurie]

Can't cream cheese be homemade?

Google says: yup.

Here's one recipe.

Here's another (this one sounds a lot more ambituous).

[chromedome]

Hum.............this could be hard to completely figure out seeing that your in Japan and their cream cheese could be slightly different. I do like the bigger name brand Philly cream cheese over other brands........I do think that brand is more consistant and easiest to handle.

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That's interesting.

My head office just standardized on Kraft for specific products, and we're now using the Philly cream cheese. Our bakers detest it; our cheesecakes and cream-cheese topped brownie needed substantial re-working. The cheesecakes have come pretty much together; they break more easily than they used to and don't taste like they should but they're more or less functioning. The brownie has been more problematic, the only way we can cut the damn' things anymore is to put the sheet in the freezer for a half-hour and then use a knife heated in boiling water. Even at that, chunks still break off the corners. <sigh>

We get 50 biggish squares from a full sheet pan, and since the switch I write off anywhere up to 15 squares per sheet. It's killing me.

[Wendy DeBord]

It seems to me that you might need to make a small adjustment in your recipe or procedure Chromedome since your change of cheese. Perhaps you need a little more egg or less bake time? Cheeses can vary in tightness, density.

Breaking.........seems like the cake is dry, to me.

MAYBE it all depends upon where you live and what all the brand options are.......as to which cream cheese is "better". My chef buys a sysco kind of brand and no matter what you do, you will ALWAYS get small bits or lumps that won't break down into a smooth cream. So in comparision, for me I'd much rather have the Philly cheese which does break down into a smooth cream. Philly seems to me to always be consistant, where I can't say that about other brands I've had to use.

[chromedome]

They're slowly increasing the quantities of eggs and tweaking proportions of sugar, etc. The Philly is much "chunkier" than the variety we used to use, which was softer and creamier in comparison and contained less in the way of stabilizers. Fortunately, these products come from the bakery at our south-side sister store, so it's not my headache except as stated above.

If it affected my muffins, now, there'd be war...

[helenjp]

you will ALWAYS get small bits or lumps that won't break down

Yeah, that's what I meant by gritty! Good thing somebody knew what I meant, since I obviously didn't!

Making cream cheese myself...any time they start selling cream in packages larger than 1 cup in Japan and knock a few zeros off the price, I'll be happy to experiment!

Oh yes, and Philly is definitely MUCH firmer than cream cheese I buy in New Zealand, but as I haven't been there for nearly 2 years, my memory is getting a bit unreliable.

Edited June 7, 2005 by helenjp (log)

[jhlurie]

Making cream cheese myself...any time they start selling cream in packages larger than 1 cup in Japan and knock a few zeros off the price, I'll be happy to experiment!

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From the recipes it doesn't seem very hard. One of the recipes (the good one, I bet) is VERY time consuming, but it's not labor time--it's just "sitting around and waiting time".

[lancastermike]

Last week I made a cheesecake for my wife to take to work for her office party. Just your standard cheesecake with chopped up heath bars in it. From what she told me it was a hit at the party and won the best desert award.

That was nice, but the point of this post is how foul smelling and off putting I find the taste of the cream cheese. Just opening the foil packets and getting a whiff of it makes me think I want nothing to do with the stuff. Baked together with eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and chopped up candy bars it makes a tasty confection. But on its own? Horrible to my taste. I used the famous national brand that I picked up that day at my local market. I just don't like the stuff.

Am I alone in this feeling? As a side issue, people seem to love cheesecakes. Most of them I find to be pretty dreadful. Dry and flavorless. If I make one I need to put something, lemon zest, brandy, Heath Bars, something in it to make it have some taste.

Wow, please excuse the cream cheese rant. I got carried away

[alanamoana]

obviously there is something deeply, psychologically wrong with you lancastermike!

i looooooove cream cheese. every time i open it up to make cheesecake, i have to have a bite of it for myself.

to each his/her own...more for me!

[annecros]

Do you like fresh cheese in general? Some people don't, but honestly the silver wrapper won't be fresh, just "freshish" cheese.

Hubby and myself like this one, homemade quark:

http://www.natureparktravel.com/eating&drinking/quark.htm

He giggles when he gets home and sees a laden dish towel hanging from the handle of one of our cabinets. He scoops out the curd and throws in fruit or spreads it on toast. Great for cheesecake, if you are into the European style.

alanamoana, yep, though I like other things better, I would be happy to take a swipe at the foil covered rectangle any day! Straight up!

[aguynamedrobert]

Wow I've never seen a cream cheese recipe for homemade cream cheese before...I am someone that makes a lot of cheesecakes and I'm gonna try that out! thanks for the info

Robert

Chocolate Forum

Edited December 18, 2006 by aguynamedrobert (log)

[annecros]

Wow I've never seen a cream cheese recipe for homemade cream cheese before...I am someone that makes a lot of cheesecakes and I'm gonna try that out! thanks for the info

Robert

Chocolate Forum

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Let me know how it comes out for you. I have only ever used the all buttermilk version, never the whole milk version. Whole milk sort of scares me about this recipe for some reason. I've never had a flop, or anything even remotely close to a flop. You just have to plan ahead.

In my opinion, it is fresher and cleaner homemade.

Edited December 18, 2006 by annecros (log)

[Marlene]

I like cream cheese, especially on toasted bagels. Conversely though, I'm not much of a cheesecake fan. In the grocery store last week I actually saw some chocolate cream cheese, which I guess you'd use for chocolate cheese cake. Lanctancia, (sp) who makes it, notes that it's a "seasonal" product only.