What To Eat With Cream Cheese – Best Ideas!

Cream cheese is a delicious and beautifully spreadable type of cheese that can be used in so many different ways. While a lot of cheese is typically salty and bitter, cream cheese has an amazing sweet flavor that is sweet enough to be used in sweet dishes, but also not so sweet that it no longer works in savory dishes. Because of this, it is ridiculously versatile and adaptive, so it can be quite difficult to decide what to eat cream cheese with. This article will help you tackle exactly this problem. Read this, and then go and spread cream cheese on everything you can find, you will not regret it.

Table of Contents

• Best Dishes For Cream Cheese
  • Stuffed Chicken Breasts
  • Smoked Salmon And Cream Cheese Bagels
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Crepes
• What Is Cream Cheese?
  • How Is Cream Cheese Made?
• Cream Cheese With A Keto Diet
  • What Is A Keto Diet?
  • Why Is Cream Cheese Good For A Keto Diet?
• Is Cream Cheese A Key Ingredient
• FAQs On Cream Cheese

Best Dishes For Cream Cheese

As previously said, cream cheese is so versatile that it can be really difficult to decide what to do with it. Obviously, you can always spread some cream cheese on toast if you are looking for a creamy snack and do not have the energy to follow any savory recipes.

However, simply look below and you will see some great sweet and savory recipes that will make you run to get some cream cheese. There is something for everyone, even if you have a sweet tooth.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

If you are looking for savory dishes that use a cream cheese filling, then look no further. With some chicken breasts, bacon, and cream cheese; you can make a delicious meal that you will struggle to forget.

1. To do this, you just need to cut a small hole into the chicken breast. It is not meant to go all the way through, just half an inch deep is fine. Essentially, you want to create a pit for your cream cheese to be placed.
2. Alongside cream cheese, you can add diced mushrooms, garlic and other ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. If you have any more ideas, add them too.
3. Once you have stuffed your chicken breast, you will want to wrap it in bacon. This is very easy but it is highly recommended that you wrap width-ways so that the bacon is less likely to fall off.
4. Now that that is all done, just cook your chicken in the oven until it is cooked all the way through, and serve it with your preferred sides.

This is easily my favorite recipe as it is so delicious but also very simple and easy to do.

Smoked Salmon And Cream Cheese Bagels

If you are looking for some cream cheese appetizers, or maybe just a snack to bring to work, this is by far one of the best recipes you can follow. Not only is it delicious, but it is so ridiculously easy to make too.

1. The main steps are making sure you have bagels that you like. It can work with seeded bagels, wholewheat bagels, or gluten-free bagels, if that is what you want.
2. To start off, spread your cream cheese on your bagel and make sure it covers all of it. The hole of the bagel can sometimes get messy so it is personal preference if you clean that or not.
3. Now it is time to add your smoked salmon. All you need is a layer or two of tasty salmon and you will be satisfied. You can optionally spread cream cheese on the top half of the bagel too or you can leave it. Either way, it is technically done and you can enjoy the best bagel you will ever eat.

If you are looking to make this a bit more hearty, you can try introducing new flavors. For example, you can experiment with your favorite dip and see if that pairs well with the rest of the bagel.

Alternatively, use the smoked salmon in scrambled eggs and add this to your bagel instead. More protein, more flavor, more brilliance. It is certainly worth the effort.

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are always mentioned when food is involved. This is for a good reason, potatoes are amazing and mashed is arguably the best way to eat them.

If you are looking for a new way to try mashed potatoes, use cream cheese as an added ingredient or as a substitute for milk. This will result in a delicious and creamy dish that will make you question your old methods of making mashed potatoes.

As an extra tip, because you deserve it, try changing the liquid you boil your mashed potatoes in. For example, instead of using water you can use milk. While it sounds weird, it makes the end result so much creamier than you could imagine.

Or, if you do not want to use milk, you can go for a more flavorsome approach and boil your potatoes in water that has had a chicken stock cube dissolved in it.

Crepes

One of the best cream cheese appetizers that you can make are little cream cheese-filled crepes. They can be made by using any pancake or crepe recipe that you like to follow. Just make sure that they are nice and small, if this is for cream cheese appetizers then you do not want people getting full off of them.

Make your mini crepes or pancakes and spread some cream cheese inside of them. It may sound weird but it works so well.

What Is Cream Cheese?

Cream cheese is a very soft and mild type of cheese that is so soft and moist that it can be spread on different foods with a knife, similar to butter. It is not a naturally matured cheese, so it is meant to be eaten fresh as soon as it is made, sold, and the package is opened.

In a lot of different countries, the criteria for it to be counted as cream cheese can differ. However, in the USA, the FDA have set out some very basic requirements to ensure that your product is classified as cream cheese. These governmental requirements ensure that all cream cheese is regulated and will be a quality product.

While it differs from country to country, the USA says that cream cheese must contain at least 33% milk fat. Alongside this, the required moisture content is nothing more than 55%. Anything with a higher moisture content is too watery and moist for it to be classed as cream cheese. The texture would simply be wrong. Other than this, the only other main requirement is the PH level, which is meant to be anything from 4.4 to 4.9.

Naturally, as is the way with many food products, there can be alternative varieties that adhere to different dietary restrictions such as vegetarian, vegan, and dairy free. This is very common with all food products, although a lot of government regulations state that they must include the difference in the title. So, while vegan cream cheese is very similar to standard cream cheese, it cannot be labeled as such. It must state that it is vegan.

How Is Cream Cheese Made?

If you are familiar with the process for making a lot of other types of cheese, you will notice a lot of familiar steps in the process of making cream cheese. However, there are also some different steps that are crucial for the cheese to result in the desired texture. For example, when making parmesan; the cheese is brined in salt water to help develop the rich flavor, this does not happen with cream cheese as the flavor is meant to be a lot milder and more subtle.

Like most, if not all, cheese products – cream cheese starts out as nothing but milk. The main difference between this and other cheese recipes is that this time, there is cream added to the milk to thicken it. This milk and cream picture is then mixed with some lactic acid in order to lower the PH and make the milk mixture start to curdle.

After the curds have all formed, the whey is drained. The whey is all of the liquid product that is made as a result of the previous step. The curds are used in the process and the whey is drained. The curds are then heated, as this helps with the resulting texture, and stabilizers are added in order to make sure that the milk properly coagulates and stays as a solid.

As mentioned, cream cheese is eaten fresh. This means that there is no aging process or fermentation process as there is with a lot of other cheeses. After all of this is done, the cheese is packaged and ready to be sold. This can either mean that the cheese is wrapped in foil and sold as a block, or the cheese can be mixed with air to make an even lighter texture, so that it is pliable and easy to spread.

There are different types of cream cheese that will have added flavors in them. This is done in the last step of the process, typically when the cheese is mixed with air, and is a great way to add extra flavors to your dish that you are using your cream cheese in. A lot of these flavors are savory as they include chives, garlic, herbs, and more salty flavors. However, there are also sweet variants of this such as a chocolate flavored cream cheese.

Cream Cheese With A Keto Diet

While it may not be obvious to a lot of people, cream cheese is actually really good for people that follow a keto diet. It can be a flavorsome ingredient that does not break their diet but really allows them to have more flavor and texture in a lot of their dishes.

What Is A Keto Diet?

A keto diet, also known as a ketogenic diet, is a nutritional diet that is mostly followed for weight loss purposes. The reason it is so effective is because it kicks your body into a state of ketosis. During this, your body will use your fat reserves for energy instead of food you have recently eaten.

When you consume carbohydrates, your body break these down into sugars such as glucose. These sugars then are used as a fuel for your body. This is perfectly natural and is what is meant to happen. However, if you take away any carbohydrates that you eat, your body responds by going into ketosis. This is where it starts consuming and digesting your fat reserves and using them as a source of energy instead. This results in a lot of weight loss very quickly, while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

A lot of diets that target weight loss can be unhealthy. Many suggest you start eating much less than your body needs, while moving more. Ketogenic diets are much healthier for your body and mind. It’ll also burn fat quite quickly compared to a lot of other methods.

Why Is Cream Cheese Good For A Keto Diet?

Cream cheese is super good for a ketogenic diet solely because of how little carbs are in it. In a singular ounce serving, there is approximately only 1g of carbs in cream cheese. However, there are plenty of fats and protein in it. These make sure you get all the nutrients you need while still also helping you stay in ketosis.

Is Cream Cheese A Key Ingredient

As you can see from what you have just read, cream cheese is incredibly versatile and can satisfy any craving. It is an inexpensive and simple ingredient that can find use easily without overpowering a dish or relying on being the main ingredient.

Not only that, but it is also very creamy. It has a brilliant texture that can be used to improve the texture of sauces and other dishes too. It really is a key ingredient that I recommend having in your fridge almost 24/7.

FAQs On Cream Cheese