Easy Home-made Cream Cheese

You don't need fancy cultures, special equipment, or technical knowledge to make your own tasty cream cheese at home! All you need is yogurt, a strainer, and some thin cloth. This type of cream cheese, also called yogurt cheese or labneh is far superior to most commercial varieties. This is because the beneficial bacteria in the yogurt transfer to the yogurt cheese, so you get a live-cultured product that is good for your digestion and immune system. Plus you are left with the yogurt liquid, called whey, which you can use for other fermentation adventures!

What you need:

• Yogurt: I like using the whole milk organic variety. Whatever kind will work, but make sure it has live cultures! (The container will tell you if it does.) Without these, the whey won't have the bacteria needed to initiate other fermentations.
• A strainer
• Cloth- something thin like muslin works best. If it's too thick it will take forever to drain!
• A clean bowl
• Optional: spices, herbs, dried fruit, honey, or whatever other flavor enhancer you can think of.

Directions:

Line a strainer with some thin cloth. Place the strainer over a bowl. (Make sure the bottom of the strainer is at least a couple inches above the bottom of the bowl. You will be surprised by how much liquid comes out!) Pour the yogurt into the strainer. In a matter of minutes you will see the whey starting to drain out.

Let the yogurt strain for several hours, or until it reaches the desired thickness. You will see a pool of whey collected at the bottom of the glass. (Note: it actually doesn't look yellow like in this picture! That's just an optical illusion from the green counter top. The actual color is quite clear.) If you are looking for a thick, greek-style yogurt, let it hang for 2 to 3 hours, then put in a container and refrigerate. If, on the other hand, you're looking for something thicker, proceed to the following step.

Tie up the corners of the cloth so that the yogurt is wrapped into a ball. Hang this cloth from a long spoon into a bowl. Let it drain about 6 hours or overnight. 

When you unwrap it, the yogurt should be thick and retain its shape as shown above. At this point you can add spices, herbs, sweeteners, or whatever you want to enhance the flavor. Use as you would normal cream cheese. Enjoy!

What to do with the whey? Try replacing water with it in baked goods, put it in a smoothie, or use it to kickstart other fermentations! For starters, check out this fermented punch.