A few weeks ago I was craving bagels and cream cheese. Ever since I’ve been enjoying the Pepperidge Farms Bagel Flats but when I looked at the ingredients for my strawberry cream cheese I was appalled to see Red 40 on the list of ingredients. Really I shouldn’t be surprised because artificial food coloring finds it’s way into the most unlikely food and I feel it’s totally unnecessary. So I decided that I could make my own flavored cream cheese.
This is not so much of a recipe as a guideline and encouragement to make your own flavored cream cheese. The combinations are endless.
Flavored Cream Cheese
- 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
- fresh herbs, minced (I used dill and chives.)
- 1/2 cup cranberries, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
Using a handheld mixer, whip the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Split the cream cheese evenly into 2 bowls. In one bowl add the fresh herbs and stir to combine. In the other bowl add the cranberries and orange juice and stir to combine. Add sugar to taste to the cranberry mixture if you are inclined.
Spread on crackers or bagels. Store covered in the refrigerator.
Some Triscuits with dill-chive cream cheese makes a lovely little snack.
Now you’ve got pink cream cheese with no Red 40. My cranberry-orange version was a bit watery but still quite delicious.
My son tried the herb version by dipping pretzels in it and he liked it. :-)
What a great idea to make your own flavored cream cheese. Next time, I may try to make my own blueberry one. It’s my daughter’s favorite and I spend as much on one tub of the cream cheese as a whole pint of fresh berries too! Love this!
I love the idea of adding fresh herbs to cream cheese – yummy! :-) Mandy
So much better for you than store bought…. and I bet it tastes great, too!
I love this idea!! I am already thinking of a million (ok, maybe 3 or 4) ways to make my own flavored cream cheese! Raspberry cream cheese may be calling my name.
Eating a mini-portion (hah! More like a 273480724590824 cal portion. It’s huge.) of your cream cheese idea right now on a sesame bagel. Seriously? I love you. And the cream cheese. Thanks for another brilliant idea!
I bet they tasted divine
Great idea! Did you use fresh cranberries? I imagine dried cranberries wouldn’t color the cream cheese so vividly. I really need to figure out bagel making by strawberry season.
I did use fresh cranberries but I think that you could use dried cranberries. I saw a recipe for a Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball at One Ordinary Day that uses dried cranberries.
I bet you could wrap the fruit variation in a cheese cloth (folded 3-4x over), put it in a mesh wire strainer above a large bowl with some weight on top (I use a ziplock bag full of water when I make my cream cheese from plain yogurt) and let set for a few hours to remove some of the added moisture from the addition of the fruit ;)