Homemade Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese Cream Cheese.. the name itself is enough to tempt the taste buds.. so creamy.  I had no idea about its taste till the day I made it at home as it was my heartiest wish to make my own cheese cake from scratch.  

The story goes like this that after seeing so many kinds of cheese cakes umpteen times on the internet, I was dying to make one at home.  Here in food stores I  had seen Cheese Creams but they were flavoured ones so my making cheese cake was getting postponed again and again. One fine day I decided to make it at home :)  Googled it and found a plethora of recipes and all were just the same as there is nothing to experiment with.  Simple milk curdling, making cheese and blending it with some milk or curd and your cheese cream is READY.  Incredibly simple.

I made yummy Mini Strawberry Cheese Cakes with it. (Recipe soon).  So here I am sharing my cream cheese recipe.  Do try it and make wonderful desserts with it like Tiramisu, Cakes, Tarts and so on.. not to forget my Cheese Cake :D  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Full fat milk      - 1 Litre

Lemon Juice     - 3 tbsp (strained)

Fresh curd        -  2 tbsp

Method:

• Boil the milk in a deep pan.  Once boiled, remove from the flame.  Add lemon juice and stir. 
• Slowly milk will start to curdle.  Mix again.  Let the milk completely curdle.  
• Strain through a muslin cloth or clean kitchen cloth and wash with the clean water to remove the lemony flavour.  Hang the prepared paneer for 20 minutes to get the excess water drained.  After 20 minutes, remove it from the cloth.
• Take the prepared fresh paneer and curd in a blending jar and blend to a smooth paste.
• Shift it to a muslin cloth or a strainer and strain it again.  Keep it in the fridge overnight.
• Use as per requirement.