Cheap, Homemade Cream Cheese

Lately we've been making our own cream cheese from the shelf stable whole milk we have in the pantry (in case of emergency). This helps us rotate our supply to make sure we always have non-expired cartons. We buy ours at Dollar Tree for $1.25 a quart.

Cost wise (roughly) its $2.50 for 20 ounces of cream cheese. ​

Now if you are looking for a cream cheese that you would use for cheesecake - I don't know if this would work - I haven't tried using it for that. We use ours for bagels, crackers, dips, spreads, etc.

INGREDIENTS
2 containers of Shelf Stable Whole Milk (1 quart each)
1 Tbsp Buttermilk Powder
Salt to taste
Clean pint jar with lid

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour milk in a medium size soup pot.
2. Bring to a low boil on medium to low heat - stirring frequently. You don't want it to burn.
3. Once it gets to a low boil, reduce heat to simmer and add 3 tablespoons of distilled vinegar (not ACV) - 1 tbsp at a time, stirring for about a minute in between.
4. Take off heat and let it sit for about 15 minutes. You will notice the milk will start to separate from the whey.
5. Drain into a very fine mesh cheese cloth or muslin lined colander and let sit for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Once drained, place in food processor and blend with a little salt (per taste) and a tbsp of buttermilk powder. It will look very runny at this point, don't worry it will set up.
7. Pour it into a clean pint jar and stick it in the fridge over night. Next day it's set up and ready to use.

P.S. In the picture I used a looser mesh cheesecloth, and I really don't recommend it. It was kind of a pain to get the cheese out, and I ended up losing a little bit. I should have used a finer mesh cheesecloth or better yet unbleached muslin.