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Homemade Cream Cheese

Homemade Cream Cheese

Homemade Cream Cheese

(original recipe)

2 l milk (2,8% milk fat)
360 g Bulgarian buttermilk* (3,2% milk fat)

Boil milk. Let it get lukewarm and stir in buttermilk. Cover the pot and wrap it in a blanket. Keep like that overnight in a warm place to ferment. It will become curdled during the process.

In the morning, line a large sieve with large cheese cloth or any other fabric with similar texture. I, for example, use either kitchen cloth or a cloth diaper :) Pour curdled milk into the lined sieve and then wrap it like a sack and tie with a rope. Hang it to drain and put a large bowl under it to collect the draining whey. Jelena says that this whey can be used instead of water when making bread. I still haven’t tried it but intend to.

You could let it drain without having to tie it, but it will take longer (5-8 hours) and whenever I make homemade cheese, I use this traditional method to hang it to drain and it takes about one to one and a half hour.

There is no need to add any more salt because this type of buttermilk is already salted, but then, again, you should taste it and season if you wish.

Makes about 500 g cream cheese.

Homemade Cream Cheese

*What we have in Serbia is called soured milk. It is fermented milk product made by using Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. I am not 100% sure if it is exactly the same as Bulgarian buttermilk, but I suppose that cultured milk product made using this bacteria will produce the same taste in cheese. Just make sure that you use products with proper amount of milk fat.

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11 Comments

  • Sandra January 17, 2012 7:44 am

    Very interesting recipe…love the addition of buttermilk! I can’t wait to try this one! Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful week ahead!

  • Just Cake Girl January 17, 2012 8:04 am

    wow :) it looks just perect! I adore cream cheese and I woul love to try making it at home :)

  • Shannon | JustAsDelish January 17, 2012 8:56 am

    this look quite amazingly easy, just have to find buttermilk. thanks for sharing!

  • Anna January 17, 2012 11:51 am

    One of my resolutions for this year is to make as much homemade food ingredients as possible. Thank you so much for posting this! I use cream cheese very often – I would love to make it at home!

  • Susie January 17, 2012 2:10 pm

    How awesome are you that you made homemade cream cheese. That’s pretty great. What is Bulgarian buttermilk? Is it the same as regular buttermilk?

    • Marija January 17, 2012 3:19 pm

      It uses the same bacteria culture as the product we have in Serbia. I really can’t give you anymore details…

  • Russell at Chasing Delicious January 17, 2012 8:22 pm

    How cool! I never knew you could make cream cheese from scratch.

  • katy January 28, 2012 6:17 am

    I am going to have to see if we have equivalent products here in my little country grocery store. This looks so amazing and so fresh! Thank you!

  • amaterka January 29, 2012 10:18 am

    looks delicious :)

  • Laura February 8, 2012 10:38 am

    At our supermarket (I think in most of them, though) you can get salted or unsalted buttermilk. So that would solve the “salt problem”. Your recipe looks wonderful, I will try it.

  • Kari@ Loaves and Dishes June 22, 2012 3:43 pm

    This cheese looks so creamy (hence the name). Can’t wait to try it!

Comments are closed.