Spreading Cream Cheese
Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, Original is my favorite. The others like reduced calorie versions or the Soft Philadelphia Cream Cheese just aren’t the same. However, when taken out of a 37-degree refrigerator it is HARD. Ok, it won’t break your steel knives, but it will crumble your crackers, crack your matza and compress your untoasted bread into a gross doughy mass when you try to spread it.
I got to thinking, you can make ice cream “scoopable” when it is frozen too hard by nuking it for a few seconds in a microwave oven. Would that work for cream cheese too?
I tried it, and lo and behold it does work. If you microwave a one-ounce piece of cream cheese for 4 seconds, it will soften it just enough to allow you to spread it without damaging the above foods or altering the cream cheese’s taste or texture significantly. Add proportionately more or less time for different amounts (sizes/weights) of cream cheese.
If you vary the time per given size, you will vary the consistency, but it will change the cream cheese experience / character somewhat. So, with slightly more time per size, you could even convert it into a pudding textured cream cheese dip for a party.
Maybe everyone else already knew that, but it was news to me, so I thought I’d share it, just in case.
2 Comments
Deborah · October 17, 2017 at 9:04 pm
I always thought microwaving it for a short time would be helpful but was concerned that repeated microwave exposure of the whole block over time would affect how quickly it might go bad. I never went further to heat smaller amounts. Your research conclusion is very helpful and I am sure I will use it from time to time.
During your experiments did you by any chance find out how long to heat the whole block to make it soft enough to mix easily in a recipe, like for cheesecake?
asolof · October 17, 2017 at 9:17 pm
I think 8 seconds per ounce got it to pudding consistency but I don’t recall exactly. You can always add extra time (say start with 6 seconds per ounce). It’s harder to subtract it afterward.