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Creame Cheese

post #1 of 12
11/14/04 at 4:48pm
Thread Starter 
How does one soften cream cheese? Do you heat it up? I made cheesecake and the cream cheese ended up being lumpy. Also is one of those $200 Kitchenaid mixers needed to make good cheesecake? Right now I have an old 1970's Sunbeam mixer that I use for all my mixing needs :)
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post #2 of 12
11/14/04 at 10:09pm
I just let the cream cheese sit to get to room temp. Depending on the type of cheese cake you intend on making, I mix the room temp cheese with the sugar, salt, vanilla, ect. until smooth. Where ya go from there is all up to you. I'll leave the Sunbeam mixer question for someone more familiar with the brand.
Good luck.
:)
What did I get myself into???
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post #3 of 12
11/15/04 at 10:59am
if i am in a hurry i run the SEALED bag of cream cheese thru the dishwasher
once then let it cool. old trick from a chef friend. if at home soak the SEALED bag in hot water for 5 minutes
Line Cooks are the Heros
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post #4 of 12
11/15/04 at 2:44pm
Your Sunbeam mixer should do just fine. I would add portions of the cheese rather than putting the larger chunks in at once, though. Folllow your recipe exactly and then savor the results!

Mezzaluna
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post #5 of 12
11/15/04 at 4:03pm
or nuke it on a low % ....like 30% for a minute or so.
cooking with all your senses.....
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post #6 of 12
11/15/04 at 8:01pm
Thread Starter 

Mixer

Actually this cheesecake is my own recipie.. I just got the basic cheesecake and then started from there. I hear people talking about those Kitchenaid mixers but those are like 200$ I really do not think they will make that much of a differance.
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post #7 of 12
11/15/04 at 10:16pm
To make cheesecakes, I microwave the cream cheese. I do it for about 1 minute to start with, then more small time increments if needed to soften but not melt. As for mixing when my kitchenaid finally died, I started mixing them by hand and now actually prefer that way. Less likely to overwork and have cheesecakes that sink after cooking. Also less to clean up. In general simpler and easier.
Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.
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post #8 of 12
11/28/04 at 8:35pm

Haccp

Hey oh

That title is one that you may be familiar with by a different route than I. Every proffessional chef has heard of it and know what it means. Its literal translation is Hazzard Assesment and Critical Control Points. Simply, it means 'watch what you do with your food'.

Bringing food to 'room temp' is one processe that can result in some seriouse food contaminations. Even cheese can go nasty on you if you are not careful. If you use the nuker, do so if you are using the cheese immediatly. That applies to any of the variouse methodes of heating it up. I would use the nuker myself, as it is fast and easy, and I can then work with the cheese immediatly.

Just don't pull it from the fridge and leave it on the counter for two hours while doing ten other things befor using it.

And just because equipment is old don't mean it can't get the job done.
Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of KeeperOfTheGood. His lifetime mission: to explore strange new worlds of flavour, to seek out new life and and ways of cooking it- to boldly grill where no man has grilled before.
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post #9 of 12
12/14/04 at 9:01am
if you are trying to get the creamchees to be soft you should not have it in the frezzer but leave it in the fridge. and later take it out and it should go through the mixer just fine and be creamy when you are done. :bounce:
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post #10 of 12
12/14/04 at 3:05pm
You should not freeze cream cheese.You can soften creamcheese out, within the 4 hr window. Heating would put you at greater risk. I made cheesecake for the last 31 yrs. and have always creamed and softened without heating.

Never! Live To Work!:::::::Work To Live!::Life Is To Short!!
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post #11 of 12
12/14/04 at 3:30pm
[QUOTE=KeeperOfTheGood]Hey oh

That title is one that you may be familiar with by a different route than I. Every proffessional chef has heard of it and know what it means. Its literal translation is Hazzard Assesment and Critical Control Points. Simply, it means 'watch what you do with your food'.

[end quote]

haccp can be taken to extremes. "If it doesn't come out of the reefer-or freezer-directly to 140 you're gonna die" type of thing. Like you said, watch what you do with your food. Letting cream cheese come to room temp ain't gonna kill anyone. Leaving that sushi, sashimi platter on the buffet for a few hours in direct sunliight may not be the best idea however ;).

Yeah, i.m haccp certified. Don't mean to be rude, but i've seen this taken way overboard.

hth, danny
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post #12 of 12
12/14/04 at 7:19pm
Hey oh

LOL, I realise that. I guess I was a tad heavy, sorry about that. Really though, many people just don't stop and think when cooking, and that is all I was trying to do. HACCP certification was a part of our school program here too. I guess I was once the kind of person that thawed ground meat on the widow sill and turkey in the sink (I know, I cringe when I think of that). Cheese and dryed sausage are generally mistakenly considered inert. We (the city in which I live) had a really bad outbreak of salmonella a few years ago from cured dried salami.

Here though the time limit isn't 4 hours. It's 2 hours. Go figure.
Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of KeeperOfTheGood. His lifetime mission: to explore strange new worlds of flavour, to seek out new life and and ways of cooking it- to boldly grill where no man has grilled before.
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