Soft, delicate, with a delicious creamy taste, Philadelphia cheese is the perfect filling for sandwiches. This product can be eaten with bread and crackers. But Philadelphia is also an indispensable ingredient in some dishes, both appetizers and desserts. For example, without it, it is impossible to make Sinnabona buns or the famous New York cheesecake. And the Philadelphia rolls and their name got because of this cheese. Moreover, this creamy mass can be replaced by more expensive and inaccessible delicacies, such as Mascarpone. And if you are going to make Tiramisu dessert, you can safely make a cream from Philadelphia. We repeat: the taste of this cream cheese is neutral, and therefore it can be included in both dessert dishes and savory ones. But it became problematic to buy Philadelphia in Russia. Well, you can do it yourself. It will be just as tasty, but much cheaper. In this article we will tell you how to cook Philadelphia cheese at home. Photos attached to descriptions of recipes will help to facilitate the culinary process.
Some Secrets to Cooking Philadelphia
From the equipment we need:
- pan or deep bowl,
- sieve,
- gauze cut
- piece of dense fabric.
The principle of preparation of "Philadelphia" is not much different from the preparation of any other cheese. Dairy products are fermented with citric acid, the mass is reclined on a sieve, so that unnecessary serum glass. From here the conclusion suggests itself: the fatter the foods, the more finished Philadelphia cheese will come out for you. At home, the procedure looks like this. A colander or sieve covered with gauze is placed over the pan. The mass gradually gives up the serum and is compacted. The whole process can take twelve hours. But it is not laborious at all. The cook should work for about fifteen minutes, no more. Lemon juice and lactic acid bacteria will do everything themselves, and in the morning you can enjoy delicious cream cheese. Now let’s introduce you some recipes for home-made Philadelphia.
On sour cream and yogurt
So, set a sieve over a deep bowl. We cover it with three layers of gauze. And on top we put another piece of dense fabric. It is needed in order to give the Philadelphia cheese a smooth and uniform structure. The fabric should be sized so that the hanging ends can subsequently cover the contents of the sieve. Pour into this design half a liter of drinking yogurt without flavoring. Best is Activation Classic. There we add 200 grams of sour cream. We note right away: the original Philadelphia lacks a sour taste. If you want to get cheese as close as possible to a foreign product, take not sour cream, but farmer sour cream. Its fat content should be at least 20 percent. We mix the ingredients with a submersible mixer to break the lumps, and the mass itself becomes smooth. Pour a pinch of salt and pour half a teaspoon of lemon juice. The chemical process will start with cheaper acid, but it is better to use natural citrus. Mix the mass.
On yogurt and sour cream (second recipe)
The cooking process is practically no different from the previous one. Even the ingredients are the same. The difference is only in the proportions, and also in the absence of lemon juice. Pour on the fabric not half a liter, but 400 ml of yogurt. But we add more sour cream - 300 grams. Salt sprinkle as much as in the previous recipe. But citron or citric acid can not be added - the less acidity, the better. Next, the Philadelphia cheese at home is cooked like this. The ends of the fabric are selected and covered with a yogurt-sour cream mass. They put a plate upstairs and some oppression on it . It can be a regular jar filled with water. We put the whole structure in the refrigerator. A temperature of +5 degrees set there is ideal for ripening cheese. Milk fats exfoliate gradually, whey drains, and oppression forms a dense Philadelphia texture. After twelve hours, your cheese is ready.
Cooking Philadelphia cheese at home: recipe for cream and cottage cheese
Sour cream is also on the list of ingredients. And instead of drinking yogurt, we add cottage cheese with cream. Since the mass comes out more dense, it is not necessary to use a dense fabric as a filter - gauze is quite enough. So let's get started.
- First, beat a glass of cream with 30 percent fat content.
- When they thicken, add the same amount of sour cream. It should also be oily and, if possible, not very acidic.
- Salt the mass. If in the future you plan to use Philadelphia for preparing dessert dishes, place crystals on the tip of a knife. For crackers, rolls, salmon baskets, increase the amount of salt to half a teaspoon.
- You can even then chop a little fresh herbs (dill, chives) or garlic, and add to the mass.
- At the end we intervene a pound of fat farm cottage cheese.
- We leave the mass covered with gauze for a day at room temperature.
On milk and kefir
This recipe for Philadelphia cheese is good because it does not require sedimentation. Immediately after cooking, the dish can be served. Note: raw eggs are used in the recipe! We start cooking by putting a pan with a liter of milk on the fire. As it heats up, add a teaspoon of sugar and salt to it. When the milk reaches the boiling point, pour half a liter of fat yogurt into it. Stir. We will see how milk fermented with kefir turns into cottage cheese. We need to achieve a smooth structure so that there are no lumps. We discard home-made cottage cheese on cheesecloth folded in several layers. Having connected the ends of the fabric, we hang the bag over the sink. After about a quarter of an hour, all whey should drain. In a cup, beat the egg with citric acid with a fork. It needs very little - at the tip of a knife. Pour the egg to the cottage cheese and stir.
Recipes with Philadelphia cheese (with photo). Light snacks
This cream cheese is so delicious that even the most ordinary sandwich with it will become a real gastronomic masterpiece. And try to generously spread Philadelphia salted crackers and sprinkle with herbs. Yes, your guests will surely sweep everything from the plate to the last bite. Yes, and ask for supplements. This cheese is ideal for cold appetizers. It can be used instead of butter in complex sandwiches and stand-up canapes. Try making a canapé appetizer called Nests. The process is as follows:
- Boil quail eggs.
- Clean them and put in strong tea. After some time, the protein absorbs the natural dye.
- We will pick up "Philadelphia" in a pastry bag. If you don’t have one, take the file and curly cut one of its edges.
- Fill the fist with cheese and squeeze lush “nests” onto the tartlets.
- Place two brown eggs in each. Add to this a sprig of dill.
Holiday canapes with such cream cheese decorated with caviar or red fish look beautiful.
Pancake cakes
Philadelphia cheese and tartlets (baskets made of fresh, puff or shortcrust pastry) seem to be made for each other. The creamy mass can be supplemented with various flavors. For example, mix finely chopped basil greens, garlic, ground paprika into the cheese. Even a mixture of peppers will do. For sandwiches with red fish and rolls, you can mix Philadelphia with caviar oil. This cheese mass will be appropriate not only on tartlets, slices of bread or crackers. Try baking pancakes and layering a stack of Philadelphia. Such a cake can be made a snack bar. You just need to mix greens and spices, chopped dried tomatoes in the finished “Philadelphia”, and decorate the top of the product with strips of multi-colored bell peppers with dill. Or use red fish, decorating the cake with caviar. But cheese will serve as an excellent cream for desserts. The famous pancake cake “Red Velvet” is made from “Philadelphia”.
New York Cheesecake
This is one of the iconic world desserts, for which only Philadelphia cheese is used. The cake recipe was invented in 1929 by the American chef Arnold Ruben. Rather, he was the first to think of putting Philadelphia, not curd, into the cheese pie.
- The first thing we bring to the room temperature is two eggs, 30 grams of butter and 150 milliliters of cream cheese.
- Then crush 100 g of any shortbread cookie in crumbs. Add oil and two tablespoons of water. Mash it with your hands to make it sticky and moist (but not wet).
- Tamp it into a mold covered with baking paper to make dough cake. If you buy more cookies, you can make not only the bottom of the cheesecake, but also form the sides.
- Sent for ten minutes in preheated to 180 gr. the oven.
- During this time we make the filling. Mix eggs with cream, 50 grams of sugar and a pinch of vanillin. Stir everything until smooth until crystals melt.
- Add 480 grams of Philadelphia. Beat everything with a whisk so that the mass becomes magnificent. Especially not zealous: the airiness of the filling will lead to cracking of the cheese surface.
- Fill the dough base with mass. We put in preheated to 160 gr. the oven. Do not open the door so that the cheesecake does not crack or sag.
- After an hour and ten minutes, turn off. Slightly open the oven door so that the cooling is slow. You can decorate it with fresh berries.
Cinnabon Buns
Cooking yeast dough. Mix 220 grams of cane sugar and 20 g ground cinnamon in a bowl. Pour 70 g of melted butter. Stir until smooth. Roll out the dough into a layer, grease with cinnamon filling, roll up the roll. Cut it into buns. Let stand for a quarter of an hour, and bake for 25 minutes at 200 C. While the buns are preparing, make the cream. Knead 120 grams of Philadelphia cheese with 100 g of powdered sugar and 60 g of soft butter. We take out the buns and let them cool slightly. On a product curl with a spoon pour cream.
Stuffed apples
Cream cheese "Philadelphia" is mixed with powdered sugar, add vanilla extract and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir the cream. We take apples and with a sharp knife we select the core with seeds, trying not to violate the integrity of the shell. We stuff the fruit cheese filling. Put in a preheated oven. Bake until tender (apples should become soft).
Philadelphia Sushi
Another dish that only needs this cream cheese to make. First, according to all the rules, we prepare rice for sushi. We need it 240 grams. Freshly peeled cucumber (30 g) is cut into strips. On the mat we lay a sheet of nori, and on it - rice. Turn over the design. In the middle of the nori leaf, place a strip of cucumber and 60 grams of Philadelphia cheese. Roll the roll, which is then cut into portions. Place a slice of salmon on top of each roll. Serve the Philadelphia sushi with ginger and wasabi.