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.

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