
What is it?
Cream cheese is a creamy, spreadable cow’s milk cheese with a slightly tangy flavor. Besides its most famous uses as a spread for bagels and a cheesecake filling, it’s also used in cookie doughs, cake and brownie batters, frostings and fillings. It occasionally makes its way to the savory side of cooking, appearing in pastas, dips, soups, and sauces.
Kitchen math:
8 oz. = about 1 cup
How to choose:
For almost all baked goods that call for cream cheese, use the kind that comes in a brick (we like regular Philadelphia brand cream cheese) and not in a tub. The cream cheese in a tub is formulated to make it more spreadable than the brick kind. That’s fine for your toasted bagel, but it’s usually not good when you’re using the cream cheese as an ingredient.
How to prep:
Most recipes call for cream cheese to be at room temperature before using.
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Tender, meaty beef short ribs are classic cold-weather comfort fare, but these—made in a slow cooker while you tend to the rest of your life—harken back to summer, thanks to…
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Lingonberry Cream Cheese Pastries
These individual tarts are simple to make using purchased puff pastry. You can prepare them up to the point of baking, freeze them, and then bake one whenever you want…
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