How to cook processed cheese at home

Cream cheese is rightfully considered a universal dish. It is often added to salads, used as an independent snack. Shop products are crammed with artificial additives and flavor enhancers. After reading the composition of processed cheese, the consumer will often lose the desire to eat it. Having decided to make such a product on their own, many housewives clutch their heads, not knowing where to start. However, in practice, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance.

Cream cheese from cottage cheese: a classic of the genre

• butter - 95-110 gr.
• soda - 20 gr.
• quail eggs - 4 pcs.
• salt to taste
• cottage cheese - 500-600 gr.
• seasonings - at the discretion
• dried or fresh herbs - to taste

1. To prepare the base for cooking cheese, put the pan on the stove, fill it with water to half. Take a smaller container in advance, which will be placed in the main pan when using a water bath. Put the cottage cheese in it. The mixture for making cream cheese is made quickly.
2. Add slightly flooded butter to the cottage cheese, then mix with the total mass of eggs and soda (you can replace the baking powder for the dough). Do not add ice cream oil, otherwise you will not be able to avoid product heterogeneity.
3. Take a meat grinder or food processor, pass the curd granular mass through the device. If you have a blender in the kitchen, it is best suited for this process. Turn the mixture into a homogeneous mass, excluding lumps and grit. If you wish, you can use a fork or a whisk, look according to the circumstances.
4. When the water in a large pan boils, reduce the burner to medium power, put the curd mixture in a water bath. Do not forget to stir the composition, do not allow the first container to touch the bottom of a large pan. After 4-5 minutes, the curd mass will look like cream cheese (viscous paste).
5. Knead the mixture until smooth so that ultimately the cottage cheese breaks up into grains that do not exceed the size of grains of salt. Remove the cheese mass from the steam bath, add spices and salt to taste.
6. You can make a unique cheese by adding various flavoring spices and additives to the prepared composition. To improve the taste, add finely chopped champignons, as well as herbs and garlic. Cream cheese can be supplemented not only with garnish, but also with sweeteners, such as jam or grated berries.
7. Stir the prepared mass before use and pack in a container for long-term storage. Leave the cheese in the refrigerator for several hours so that it thickens and finally brewed. The shelf life of the finished product usually does not exceed 5 days.

Cottage cheese does not melt: what to do

Do not be upset if the cheese is not the first time. You may encounter a difficulty in which the curd does not want to melt under any pretext. Consider possible solutions to the problem.

1. The curd mass may not melt to the end and leave noticeable lumps among a homogeneous paste, in which case a little more soda should be added. If the particles of the mixture are small, at the end of cooking, leave the cheese to cool, they will dissolve themselves.
2. Melting cottage cheese directly depends on its quality. It doesn't matter the amount of fat contained. The main thing is that the product should not be diluted or frozen, only a completely natural composition is welcome. If the cottage cheese is of good quality, its melting will begin in the first minutes.In cases where after a quarter of an hour the consistency of the composition remains unchanged, we can assume that everything is gone. From cottage cheese, which did not yield to processing, cheese cannot be made.

Important!
Some housewives are faced with a problem when all the cottage cheese, with the exception of small grains, has melted. Not even an extra serving of soda helps. In this case, do not suffer, remove the composition from the fire and proceed to further manipulations. Otherwise, you risk irrevocably ruining the product.

Milk-based processed cheese

• butter - 120 gr.
• milk with a fat content of 3.2% - 1 liter.
• salt - 20 gr.
• soda - 20 gr.
• cottage cheese - 0.9-1 kg.

1. Put the pan on the stove, pour milk into it and leave it on medium heat until the first bubbles appear. At this time, pass the cottage cheese through a kitchen sieve so that it breaks up into small grains.
2. As soon as the milk reaches the required boiling point, reduce the burner to low power. Pour the curd product, knead the composition with a wooden spatula.
3. After 3-5 minutes, you will notice that the composition begins its decay. You will get two sections, which consist of serum (liquid with a yellowish tinge) and individual curd clots.
4. Continue stirring the product until the whey is almost clear. As practice shows, these manipulations will take about 5 minutes. Next, remove the container from the fire, proceed to the next step.
5. Prepare a wide container and a sieve; crockery is needed to separate whey and curd. Some housewives prefer to recline the composition in a colander, after lining it with gauze.
6. Pour the product into the filter, wait until all the liquid has drained. Press the curd with your hands a little, tie the gauze edges, making a bag. Hang it over the basin, leave for 1 hour.
7. Chop the butter into cubes, transfer to a deep glass or ceramic bowl. Microwave on the edge of the turntable. Melt the product completely, mix into the cottage cheese.
8. Pour salt, soda, whisk the finished mixture with a mixer or use a blender. The main thing is to bring the mass to complete homogeneity. No lumps should be present in it, otherwise the cottage cheese will turn out to be of poor quality.
9. Next, melt the composition in a convenient way. You can pour it into a thick-bottomed pan, and then put it on the stove. Or make a water / steam bath, with which the longing will be safe.
10. When the mixture dissolves, it will resemble a sticky paste. Checking readiness is easy: lower the plug and remove it. If you see the threads stretching from the total mass, the cheese is ready.
11. Remove the product from the stove, pour into heat-resistant containers. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The exposure period should not exceed one week.
12. If you follow the instructions, you will get 750 gr. cream cheese. Lubricate them with a crispy bun, prepare a salad, after mixing the product with paprika, herbs, ham or pickles.

Cacao based sweet cream cheese

• soda - 8 gr.
• cottage cheese - 175 gr.
• cocoa powder - 10 gr.
• honey (can be replaced with cane sugar) - 25 gr.

1. Sift the cocoa powder through a fine kitchen sieve, mash the cottage cheese. Mix the listed components, add soda to them. Bring the mass to homogeneity as much as possible. Leave the composition for a quarter of an hour for partial infusion.
2. Choose 2 pots of different sizes (large and medium). In a smaller diameter, mark the infused mass, pour water in a large one. Put one container in another, bring the liquid to a boil over medium heat.
3. As a result, you will get a water bath, in which the cottage cheese will begin to melt. Stew for 8 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula.Once the granules dissolve, pour the melted honey, soak for another 2 minutes.
4. Pour the mass into a heat-resistant mold, a food container with a lid will do. Some housewives prefer to pour cheese into ice cubes, and then leave the mass to solidify. Before serving, the cheese is pounded on toothpicks and sprinkled with grated chocolate.

It is easy to cook processed cheese at home, if you have an idea regarding basic technologies. Consider a traditional recipe based on cottage cheese, try to make a viscous product from fat (preferably cow) milk. Indulge your ancestors with sweet cheese made from cocoa powder. Add additional ingredients as desired (paprika, horseradish, mushrooms, ham, smoked sausages and more).

Video: homemade cream cheese