5-Minute Homemade Cream Cheese

I never thought of the possibility of making cream cheese at home until I came face to face with the much discussed cream cheese shortage of 2021. 

Because of this shortage, Kraft, the maker of Philadelphia cream cheese, was offering $20 to people to find an alternative to using cream cheese around the holidays. Twenty dollars not to make your favorite cheesecake?

Well, I thought, there must be a way to make cream cheese at home. You know, take things into our own hands and bypass the shortage altogether.

And, lo and behold, there is!

To get started, I relied on two cream cheese recipes: Gemma’s at Bigger Bolder Baking and Rifika’s at Rafika’s Kitchen.  By taking something from each of these recipes, I was able to get a nice whipped homemade cream cheese.

But would it taste like Philadelphia cream cheese? — that was my biggest concern. Because some things are just so seared into our tastebuds as the standard, that sometimes homemade doesn’t seem to live up to store-bought.  

So How Does It Taste?

It’s still delicious, but it tastes much more like fresh milk than the original. And it doesn’t have as much acidity as the Philadelphia — it’s missing that tanginess that I associate with cream cheese. I’m guessing that if it were made with vinegar rather than lemon juice it would have a more pronounced tanginess to it. 

It’s also less salty, so you could bump up the salt content a smidgen to get a more pronounced salt flavor. 

In terms of consistency, or texture, it’s more grainy than the original. But, all-in-all, still delicious and well worth making if you’re experiencing a cream cheese shortage!