Cream Cheese

Wine Pairings

Preparation, uses, and tips

Cream cheese is widely used in spreads, dips, and in baking, especially in cheesecake and as a filling for fruit tarts. Cream cheese spreads or dips may be seasoned with herbs, spices, onions, olives, pimiento, relish, pineapple, or walnuts, or may be combined with such seasonings as caraway seeds, garlic, and sour cream. These various flavours are especially enjoyable with vegetables, fruits, and breads. Interesting ways to use cream cheese include horseradish-seasoned cream cheese in stuffed tomatoes, and cream-cheese sauce for shell-shaped pasta. Cream cheese is sometimes mixed with other cheeses—for example, the intensely flavoured blue Italian cheese Gorgonzola—to create savoury spreads and hors d’oeuvres.

Buying and storing tips

Fresh cream cheese can be kept in the refrigerator from 2 to 14 days. Keep it well wrapped or in a sealed container so that it doesn’t dry out or pick up flavours from other food.

Varieties

Many brands of cream cheese contain thickeners or gums; gum-free cream cheese is available at some specialty shops. Cream cheese is also available as a spread, flavoured with herbs or peppers. The fat content of this cheese varies widely, from the high-fat German fresh double cream cheese to low-fat Quark, which has only about 5% fat. Reduced-fat cream cheeses are typically whipped and expanded with air. Some low-fat versions contain whey powder, which tends to alter the texture.

Neufchâtel

Neufchâtel is a name used in the United States for a softer form of cream cheese that contains 20 to 33% fat, although the cheese bears no relationship to French Neufchâtel, produced only in Normandy. The best-known European varieties of cream-cheese type cheeses include Italian mascarpone, often used as the basis for sweet desserts, Austrian Quark, the French crème fraîche, and a broad range of herbed or flavoured spreads, including goats’ milk cheeses like chèvre.

Nutrition Highlights

Cream cheese, 1 Tbsp (about 15g)
Calories: 51
Protein: 1.1g
Carbohydrate: 0.39g
Total Fat: 5.0g
Fiber: 0.0g

Learn more about Healthnotes, the company.

Learn more about the authors of Healthnotes.

The information presented in the Food Guide is for informational purposes only and was created by a team of US–registered dietitians and food experts. Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or chemist for any health problem and before using any supplements, making dietary changes, or before making any changes in prescribed medications. Information expires August 2007.